I have some more bodywork repairs to do to get the old volvo through its MOT.

Last weekend I repaired the nearside sill at the back wheel arch. This was all plated and fully welded, along with the bottom of the inner wing where it meets the arch. Which is how it should be done (so I believe)

The last repair (by a garage) was a total bodge...

Where the inner wing meets the outer wing has all rotted away as well (up inside the arch) This was all filler, but its all fallen out in the last year since it was done.

I am going to make up some plates to weld in. My question is do they need to be fully welded or just spot welded and sealed?

Any advice appreciated....

It may depend on if the area is structural, but when I repaired some sills, I seam welded the patch, but spot welded where the original sill was spotwelded...result=fail, the patch had to be fully seam welded...
May have been the testers interpretation, but now any structural welds get seam welded on all edges (chap did say if I replaced the whole sill THEN spotwelds would have been OK, and that he had clarification notes about it all recently, which was a year ago....)

The easiest way of repairing the arches is to get 2 arch repair sections from SEL or similar. Cut away the outer but not further than the repair section will cover. Cut one of the sections to make a new inner and weld in, then fit the outer and plug weld to the inner.

Makes a good clean job.

The rules on spot welding and fully seaming are that a panel may be fitted using the same method used by the manufacturer (spots) but a repair section must be seamed. This only applies to structural areas.

I've always seamed patchs in inner wings etc. It doesn't take much longer and saves having to do it all over again if the tester disapproves!

hi all repairs have to be seam welded

patch's have to be fully seam welded

if you replace the panel with new then it can be fastened as designed by manufacturer ie spot welded(not tacked) every couple of inch's or as equivelent panels are fastened/secured

Brill thanks

Will get a couple of repair sections then and see what I can do during the week

Tomorrow will be repairing the rear valance!

Any idea on a price I should be aiming to pay for repair sections/lips for the nearside rear wing on a 1987 Volvo 240 estate?

Thanks

No price, but a supplier here