Decided to go for a full rebuild on my Tiger. A few bits have been annoying me since i built it years ago. I fitted new pedalbox and mx5 running gear and all the holes where the old exhaust etc was have never been fixed.

Would it be a good or bad idea to weld up all the rivet holes before fitting new panels.

If you have the time and inclination, then I would weld them up! Means you can blast the chassis without having to fish all the 'shot' out, and means you don't have to faff around trying to match the new holes to the old!

I've had (ahem) a few kit-cars now and some have been riddled with excess holes in the chassis rails where someone's re-bodied it and missed the original holes!

Seems like a lot of work to do that but Scootz ^^ does have a point if you are intending to have it blasted..
Structurally it shouldn't make any difference.
I'd either measure the distance between existing holes (hopefully all consistent) and then drill new ones mid-way between.
Or once you've removed the old panels take a rubbing of the chassis holes on some thin card of the existing ones and line up the holes on the new panels by over-laying the rubbing on the new panel.
QED.
Cheers, Pewe

[Edited on 18/11/11 by pewe]

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Originally posted by pewe
Or once you've removed the old panels take a rubbing of the chassis holes on some thin card of the existing ones and line up the holes on the new panels by over-laying the rubbing on the new panel.
QED.

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I put the panels on and know that they are all 6" apart. I will need to weld some of them up where i have put clips to hold pipes that have been moved.

I would just get it blasted, and drill big holes at the ends to remove the shot, and weld them up again. This would leave all the panel holes where they were.

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Originally posted by dave
I put the panels on and know that they are all 6" apart...

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Its a possibility s'pose