This is why "NOT" to buy sight unseen..

I just bought a nice looking hot rod from a gentleman across the country and had it shipped. I knew there where some minor issues, but this was to more or less a turn-key car. So this weekend I put it up in the air to inspect and correct a couple small things. And this is what I found. My camera went dead and it was hard to get into places untill I tear the car down. I headed straight for the house and broke out a fresh bottle of Crown..These pics are from the lower support arms at the frame. It is a Hiedts. It puzzels me why someone would spend the money for the aftermarket suspension and then do this. Looks like I got some work on my back to do!! But we all make mistakes.

 

Good thing you looked when you did!

 

looks like the Guy didnt know How to Weld
like you said Look before you Buy
even if you got to hire somebody to go
look at it

just my 3.5 cents

 

A good weld is supposed to sit ON TOP of the metal, and not really penetrate...

On the bright side, you can probably knock all that stuff of with a 5 lb hammer and start over....

I find it difficult to understand how someone can put something as important as suspension on a car when it is so obviously beyond their skill set. Suspension is one of those things I consider "vital".

Work like this is why our hobby is falling under increasing regulatory pressure.

No wonder the car was "for sale"....

 

Man that's a shame. Good thing you had the common sense to check out his work before driving it.

 

That guy sucked at welding.

 

dam that looks like the 39/40 ford i had in my shop awhile back to put some headers on for a customer! when i got it up in the air i about shit! this thing was a mess. i cant even begin to tell you what somebody did to this car! i put it back down and told the poor guy to tow it out of here. he had just bought it. please dont tell me its red and from indiana!

 

The Crown will soften the blow!

You'll fix it.

 

Bummer, but all fixable
good thing you looked into it

 

UH, after you blow the budget on hig dollar suspension you can't afford to have someone put it in so you do it yourself?

Or maybe that fella with the really neat office and the snazzy shop that you hired, is really only a builder because he is too drunk to hold down a real job?

Its a shame that you have to redo it but at least you can say that you built it when you are done. Keep the pics incase someone says you are a liar about the you built it part.

 

I never have trusted anyone else's work, seen too many ones like you pictured above. That is really some bad stuff there, good thing you didn't just try driving it.

Don

 

wow, that is bad! that would make a wheel + control arm fall off in a heart beat.. yikes! but its all good, you'll get er fixed...

 

39 all ford - if your talking about a "fillet" weld you are correct, the weld would show as a 45 degree "fillet" filling in the area between two 90 degree pieces of metal.

A weld is suppose to fuse the two pieces of metal together and in the end a good weld look like a row of dimes (or larger welds) quarters all laying on a 45 dgeree angle.

If one was to create a bevel weld, then once the welding has been completed the weld would fill the "raveen" created by the two bevels.

What these pictures show is someone who clearly has no welding talent and for the sake of everyone around them should not be driving that car at all.

These are what you call "Caterpillar" welds and would be failed by anyone compitent enough who looks at them.

 

We call that a "glob job".

 

Wow, I am just learning to weld, and my first welds were better than that!

 

New term to me, but a great one, lucky they weren't smoothed over with Bondo, covering their lack of penatration. Does anyone stick weld any more?

 

What is it?

 

That's the exact reason we have to have a certified welder either weld or inspect and past welds on a frame we take to the state patrol for inspection in this state now.

At least you can probably clean up the scab welding, reweld it and go on about your business.

 

Just because you can buy a welder don't mean you are one
You should see the shit that rolls in my shop some guys buy then they cry when i tellem what it needs to be driven without killing someone.

 

I thought they stopped welding with coat hangers in the 20's.

 

This is, sadly, not limited to "dudes with welders". We have a car in our shop now, who's welds make me throw up a little when I look at them. We're starting the whole chassis over, and it was done, for big money, by another "shop"!

I would post pictures, but I don't want to create drama.

 

I see this kind of stuff all the time. A guy who has never welded before buys a crappy Harbor Freight 110v welder, and suddenly he's a chassis builder. I'd be really interested in knowing how square the chassis after seeing those pictures.

It's a good thing that you decided to give it a look-over. I know that it's after the fact, but NEVER buy a car sight unseen. There are some decent looking cars out there with horrific workmanship underneath that shiny paint.

 

Back when I worked at Electric Boat Corporation, a division of General Dynamics (nuclear submarine builders) the term "Caterpillar weld" was told to me by the welding instructor after looking at a class mates practice welds. It looks like a caterpillar walking across your steel.

In order to pass the class requirement for our Structural Design Apprenticeship Program we had to "do as the yard does" and pass as the same requirements the yard was required to, by the inspection department.

Our instructor even up to the day he retired could weld a 3/4 inch double bevel/fillet weld in a hull frame joint, while laying on his back while using two (2) mirrors to see where he was welding and got a 100 percent pass on everyone per the NDT test department.

Try laying on your back looking up to one mirror, bounce of another mirror to see the weld your creating in a place you can barely fit your hands in, never mind the weld leads.

 

I think that I would rather see something like this, and know it is bad, instead of something that looks good but has no penetration like some MIG welds I've seen. Then there are the welds that have been cleaned up with most of the weld ground away and almost no penetration.

 

You were just a few miles away from ending up on the evening news.

 

a 8 yr old girl could weld better than that!

 

There is a lesson to be learned here .... and it is not a welding lesson .... its a " buyer inspection" situation ... ie what does the buyer expect when he buys something sight unseen and no documention (reciepts) of the work done? Lets hope the engine overhaul wasnt also done by the same folks that hung the front suspension.

Brings home the old saying..." let the buyer beware!".

You already recgnise that you "have a few things to fix" ... just consider this is anoither on the list and hope there are not many more.

To TI the whole thing is certainly necessary at this point ... something that shoulda been done before purchase.

Good luck , and feel assured this kind of workmanship is all too common , but at least repairable.

 

Wow!! And the scary part is it looks like there have been a few miles put on it after it was done. Kind of surprising there aren't a few cracks . . .

 

Man, that sucks.....Im correcting a similar issue on my Model A.... but I bought it knowing Id have to correct it.

 

Somebody trying to weld with 120v garanteed.