Too many choices....Rebuild project UPDATE 17-08-05

[peter møller]

Ivan141 Wrote:Making good progress.. I love the old colour on that car.
Seems like you're going to do some spotwelding, very nice!

I was going to seam weld the joints.....but i´m not sure anymore, maybe spot weld would be better!?

[Ivan141]

I cant remember what kind of welding they usually do on that part of the chassis. I only know they use some sort of spotwelding around the doors and windows.

[NoHachi]

Be carefull with seamwelding. you could introduce to much heat into the chassis and warp it. Spotwelding produces much less heat and, when done well, is just as good. Keep alternating between different sides of the chassis and slowly increase the density of the spots.
In some places though you can get away with seamwelds. usually were there is a large mass of steel that can absorb the heat, like boxsections etc, or away from easily warpable steel sections (thin plates etc). Most experienced welders have a pretty good feel for this.

[Ian.G]

Peter,

sorry I didn't answer your MSN message - I was at home and left the work PC connected.

When I watched the guys build up the TRD hachi they did not do full seam welds on the car. They just did additional spots - and I think in the following placess.

* All the way down the a and b pillar seams
* All the way along the bottom of the door sills
* round the tops of the suspension turrets
* down the sides of the suspension turrets

I would also spot down the c-pillars where the back 1/4s meet up the hatch
I would probably also spot the boot lining where the tyre well is.

Like NoHachi says - hachi metal is very very thin - if you try a full seam weld there is a good chance you will just blow straight through the skin - this is the problem we had when seaming the body on my brothers 205 rally car LOL.

I can't remember exactly which video it is - it may be ae86 club or an option volumn. They take a red hatch levin and turn it into a white/black panda running a full TRD engine (dry sumped the lot) - makes 227ps

[Ivan141]

I have the DVD of that Iida Akira trd hatch buildup here at home....
I'll take a look at what parts they weld. It's called Tuned AE86 by workbox.
For the strut towers I think spot welding is a bit conservative. I think seamwelding alternating sections of 2 cm might be better.
While your at it you could also weld in extra sections of steel between the strut towers and firewall on the top, and triangular reinforcements where the chassis beams meet the firewall.

[robokill]

Do the inner wheel trims of the back and reinforce them so you can run coilovers all around :-)

by the way peter thats very cheap for an AE86 with everything completet just to put it together

[peter møller]

Ok, guys...talked to a previous Hachi rally driver today, and he recommended doing 2-3cm seam welds, with a gap between them of apprx the same length. Had a pro. welder do it for me, and i´d say it turned out pretty well. He´s not quite finished yet, but you get the idea from the photo´s.
But thank for all the inputs so far
Keep in mind, that this wont be anyway near a TRD project and is to be used as a daily driver during summer, so i may miss or skip a few of the regular welding spots, but i guess i wont feel the difference anyway.

[Mux213]

Wonderfull job man!

[Ivan141]

Man it hurts to hear the red/black one is going to become a parts car.
Did you also weld around the top of the strut tower?
You might as well weld all the simple stuff while you can instead of putting in reinforcements later. For instance putting in some triangular reinforcements shouldnt be to difficult and expensive and will earn you some extra bragging rights .
Also all the seams around the doors, windows and hatch are also pretty easy to do while the car is apart. Just drill holes through the top layer of metal so the underlying layer of the seam is exposed and weld those holes shut.

[Jan Pedersen]

Nice job, Peter! But I must say that I don't like the fact that your "old" hachi is becoming a parts car