front Inner fender was not welded to support

[Flchallenger]

Have a 71 challenger that was striped down and painted. In the process they replaced the inner and outer front fenders. The one on the passenger side was not welded to the support. Had to pull the car from this shop partially assembled. Had motor and drive train in. Car creaked when you went up incline at a angle. Handled poorly. Long story short was discovered at another shop after they got it put together. There solution was to drill thru the inner fender and spot weld it in three places along the shock tower brace area. My question is this sufficient? Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[budascuda]

How many welds?
That is the question , preferably no more and no less stud welds than the original number of spot welds for that particular area.
Should not over-do it so the crumpling ability of the inner fender is almost the same as the original Intent. (In case of an accident, God forbid!)

 

[Flchallenger]

They said three spot welds. It sounded reasonable to me but when I assume it usually doesn't turn out well. It doesn't ceeek any more. I was just concerned it that is enough and it had strength in case of a wreck. Hell this thing doesn't have one air bag. I haven't seen anyone adding any in the resto mods.

 

[Flchallenger]

Is there a source for how it would have been spot welded originally? I have a dodge manual. I will look.

 

[budascuda]

It won't be in the regular manual.
There were "X" marks stamped on the sheetmetal, as far as the engineeres were concerned, they would have liked spot welds to be on or very near those X marks. Theoreticslly, if they did a perfect job, you should of be able to see those X marks, they would be distorted by the weld.

How about the other side? can you count the welds from the other side?

And slso, air bag is a fantastic idea, even though I have never sofar, seen an E body wreck that the driver didn't walk sway.
somebody should look into that!

 

[Flchallenger]

I will take a look at the back side. They painted over where they welded from the top and I haven't seen anywhere that looks like it was welded. I will look from the back. I can have tendency to hit a 100 and I don't think having the passenger side flopping around at that speed would be beneficial to the fun level.

 

[budascuda]

I will take a look at the back side. They painted over where they welded from the top and I haven't seen anywhere that looks like it was welded. I will look from the back. I can have tendency to hit a 100 and I don't think having the passenger side flopping around at that speed would be beneficial to the fun level.

Ok, don't worry about trying to get in there and count welds, I know it's difficult with everything in there.
a while back I bought a inner fender that was removed by drilling out the spotwelds, that will be the ticket.
I will have to find it first, but you will have a
Picture and I think that would solve the questions of "how many welds" and "where".
gimme a day or two!

 

[budascuda]

 

[budascuda]

Apparantly, there was supposed to be 6 spot welds to the inner fender and the bracket arm which goes to the cowl.
They are all over the place, but that is the count on these pieces.
I hope that helps you.
(I think the spread-out pattern is preferred )

 

[70chall440]

Definitely requires more than 3

 

[Flchallenger]

I was thinking 3 seems to little. Now what to do. Drive it and see what happens?

 

[budascuda]

If you have to ask that question, then you know the answer already.
I would lookup the definition of "catastrophic failure"
They almost always occur when something small goes wrong.
Let me tell you about my experience with a 1966 fleetwood, the driver side lower control arm broke on an uphill turn and all I can remember was saying God please save the drivers in the in coming direction.
Those words were more or less confirmed by the occupants in my car, except, they said I was crying and screaming at the same time, Lol
Look, I know having fewer spot welds is not the same as losing a control arm but do you want something like that take away the pleasure of driving your car?
P!us, I think insurance companies usually try to weasel out of any claims that they can take apart.

 

[Flchallenger]

Very good point.

 

[Flchallenger]

I am doing some other work on the car and the tires off. I looked at the shock towers thinking about the welds from this original post. There doesn't look like very many on it. The back side toward the rear doesn't look like any. But on the inside it looks solid like it was welded and smoothed. Or does the shock tower sit behind the inner fender? I looked in my books and don't see this anywhere in the body book. Just wandering. I haven't got the support bracket welded yet. Had a body shop saying they would do it but after waiting 6 months with a couple more weeks I have decided I need to fine someone else.

 

[Adam]

This is an original. The strut only has a few spot welds where it connects to the firewall bracket (not shown); probably adds nothing to crash worthiness. The shock tower sits outboard of the inner fender and you can see the spot welds on the passenger shock tower. If you are worried about structural strength I think it would be a simple fix to drill a bunch of 5/16-3/8 holes through the inner fender and plug weld it to the shock tower. Ditto for the strut brace.

 

[budascuda]

As far as I remember, in both locations, 3 layers are sandwiched together with spot welds, you can do the same with stud welds as Adam has mentioned.

 

[340challconvert]

Here is a close up of the number of original welds when I was cleaning and painting my inner fenders;

 

[Challenger RTA]

Here is a set off a 73 challenger for comparison. more than 3 spots welds. 3 on the bottom of shock tower. I recall a weld in front and rear of shock tower to top of frame. Most plans failure come from not Following trough. key words pickup on. another shop . whether they told you or put it writing, what they did or didn't do.someone foget? that's a problem!