Working on a friends 51 Chevy floor and stuff and found these "weld bugs" in the rocker..... easily identified by thier golden antenna as soon as this one saw the flash he took off down the rocker.
I have only seen thier antenna. here are some who gave thier lives defending the car against the welding process.
...after I cut the hole bigger I saw that sneaky weld bug basstaaad again.. he ran away again..you can see his golden antenna lower right of center... they are fast!
sadly, several hundred weld bugs gave thier lives for nothing, because all this crap will have to come out and be redone.
I think this is my favorite shot. if you were to look at this car at street level you would see the outside rocker looking good. I cut the rot out of the inner rocker but must not have taken a pic of the original hole. this inner rocker was pretty rotten and just left alone.
the local PBS station wants to do a documetary on these creatures. I don't understand why so many of them were attracted to this poor old car. they are all over the place, and from several sources over the life of this car as a custom. a person could do a whole tech week on how not to build a 51 chevy with this car, and all I have is the body..
this is from a long lost customizer. I'm not sure what was here that looked worse than this, but it must have been something else to see!
Unfortunately, they are NOT an endangered species. They appear all over the country. Please have no regrets when you find and exterminate them!
I've heard they are like Chiggers. If you spread a thick layer of mud or polish over top of them they go away. Sent from my office while I should be working.
the rocker patch on the other side was done much better, but he still didn't bother to patch the inner rocker. this car just came from another shop, and most of what was done there will need to be redone. the car did not have holes in the rockers when I saw it before people started working on it, but I'm sure they were full of bondo before the weld bugs attacked. the car was all primer and looked pretty good but was done with 500 lbs of bondo.
\ Thanks ratfink, very interesting indeed, I hope they don't spread like "fire ants" I think cold weather is unattractive to their species........
...and the best part, with the body on my lift and the light under the car the outer rocker has a bunch of pinholes where you can see the light coming through. not sure if this is from the local shop who just worked on it or previous "repairs". with all the DVD's and books and the HAMB around these days, there is no excuse for work like this.
From what I understand those little critters come from a planet that has an atmosphere that consists mostly of argon. You should be able to exterminate them by using a mixture of oxygen and acetylene.
What you found is their nest. They use rusted metal to build a cocoon. Get rid of it before they hatch and spread.
I hear the rat ,rat roders dissect these creatures and use them as visual delicatessen on their well proportioned and safe motorcars!