how the factory welded ?

[tak419]

Discussing special brackets such as floor mounted shifters, bucket seat plates, torque boxes and not sure what else, how did the assembly plants weld these on, did they use stick or mig welders ?

 

[slimt]

I do believe most were spot welds.. or we call today pinch welds.

 

[gdrill]

I have found traces of mig wire dangling from many a car. I wasn't aware mig was around back then.

 

[slimt]

Im sure they had wire fed welders back in the day that we never had access too.. production then was key.. we were stuck with stick welders and oxy /act

 

[khryslerkid]

Wire Feed welding was invented in the mid 1920's. It was perfected by the 1940's with argon gas shielding.

Just working on my '62, I've seen mig welding, mostly sheet metal and stick welding, mostly seen on frame work.

 

[WesleyK]

I've found mig wire on my car stuck to the weld and broke off from the factory.

 

[tak419]

On my 71 the front torque boxes have what looks to be spatter from striking a rod but the back boxes look different. I've never had luck stick welding sheet metal lol.

 

[747mopar]

I'm restoring an 83 Ram for my dad and they definitely used a MIG on it and a really, really lousy welder... terrible is an understatement. If I recall most of the areas you spoke of looked to be MIG on my Charger... terrible as well.

 

[garrett1308]

Console brackets were mig welded on. Seen a few other places on them that were mig welded

 

[khryslerkid]

One of the roof rails on my '62

 

[69L48Z27]

The 67 has remnants of factory MIG welds.

 

[Speedbird]

"how the factory welded ?"

From my observations, not very well.

 

[mmissile]

I worked in a Chrysler plant, back in the 70's. Most large panels were either automated spot-welded.....or other stuff[like what I did] was done with counter-balanced/hanging spot-welding guns. Mine had a high and low heat-range buttons, for when I went from horizontal to vertical welds. I welded hinge-plates into van doors. Small area welds and added brackets, were airco/mig-welded.

 

[PRND21]

I’ve got a friend that retired as a welder from a Chrysler plant in Indiana. He said all they had there were stick welders, and that is all he ever welded with, even today. And truthfully he can’t weld worth a damn.

 

[gkent]

K-frames were definitely done with a stick - the flux is still there to prove it. Anything that was migged was done VERY poorly HOWEVER, if you've ever tried to weld 18ga sheet metal, unless you use fine wire and low settings, you won't do any better regardless of how good of a welder you are. From the looks of it, the factory used fairly thick wire and the heat to go with it. Considering that guys were probably just handed a mig gun and told to point and pull the trigger, we should consider ourselves lucky that a) most of those welds held and b) there isn't a hole blown through at each weld point.

 

[slimt]

One of the roof rails on my '62
View attachment 546190

That was a monday weld..

 

[747mopar]

All I can say is I really hope people aren't trying to replicate that!!

 

[mopar 3 B]

DC low voltage and small rod will weld sheet metal.

 

[beanhead]

That was a monday weld..

Here's a tuesday weld!

Really though, the spot welds on the front half of my car are decent. The ones on the back half look like they were done drunk...

 

[mmissile]

They probably were. People talk about Monday and Friday, cars. They should be talking about before and after lunch, cars.