Way off base...
The quarter was installed using a vertical seam at the B pillar. This "result" is exactly why I suggested to leave a flange on the front edge of the quarter earlier, as spot welds are nearly a distortion free install. But alas, without flanges is how the quarters arrived.
Any vertical seam is going to shrink and pull inwards given an outward crowned panel and the absence of planishing that weld to remove the effects of shrinking.. If this were in the center of the panel we would expect it to pull into a valley (many of you have seen this) as the cross section shaped like an "arc" is shrinking; it loses length from shrinking, it also pulls into a flatter arc. Hence the valley effect. Many people will see this abundance of movement as a stretch; I can assure you it is the wrong conclusion. As Jim placed this seam close to the front flange, this helps control the shrinking effects, but they are still there. On the opposite side, we have a wide open panel that outside the heat effects is attempting to remain the same flat-ish slight crown as it was pre-weld. At the weld, the panel is shrinking. The band between these two areas is being conflicted as what to do, one side shrinking the other not.. It is here, most often dead center of the crown, that you get a pucker as these two differing forces fight it out. The pucker you see is approx 2-3" to the left of the weld. Which means it was a side effect of the weld.
The correct method of repair is to fix the cause (shrinking of the weld), not the effect (pucker). Meaning, the weld shrunk and caused this, you will NEVER totally fix a shrink with more shrink. The lingering effects/stresses of the pucker will not go away until the weld is no longer pulling at the adjacent area. An attempted repair using a slice and weld is going to introduce more heat, shrinking, and pulling at the adjacent panels for a crap shoot of a repair. The present vertical weld needs to be planished (hammer and dolly) to fix the cause. As soon as he starts planishing efforts you will be able to see the pucker start to pull inward as the pulling/shrinking stresses are relieved.
Well how do you like that. I was right about being wrong, lol. Great explanation by the way.
Let me ask this....... is it easier to planish a weld that is warm, or cold? Does it matter when you planish the weld?
Thats interesting, I guess we all have our way of doing things, how do you weld door edges to build them up.What Robert said for sure.
Here's something similar where I fixed the edge of a fender recently. I could not stretch it, so drastic shrinking had to be introduced. These pics are not for the feint of heart. Look at your own risk.
Same thing happens welding door edges for gaps. Only to me though because every other person online does it without their panels being totally screwed up.
Thats interesting, I guess we all have our way of doing things, how do you weld door edges to build them up.
I have a suggestion for you, but this thread is probably not the place, so I'll send it by PM.
What Robert said for sure.
Here's something similar where I fixed the edge of a fender recently. I could not stretch it, so drastic shrinking had to be introduced. These pics are not for the feint of heart. Look at your own risk.
Same thing happens welding door edges for gaps. Only to me though because every other person online does it without their panels being totally screwed up.
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My thoughts are let it cool naturally so the shrinking has done what it's gonna do and planish as needed.
More importantly, it depends largely on process used. For MIG, which is going to give harder welds, I would planish while weld dots are by their lonesome, as they are more isolated and more readily planished. The tack, planish, grind, repeat that I've spoken of elsewhere here on the site. For any process, the most shrinking/distortion is introduced with starts and stops. MIG is what it is, you almost need to do singular tacks with the weld set hot in order to get full penetration welds. With TIG or O/A torch, the longer, more uninterrupted the weld is, the better. So with these I would wait until the welding is done and file/planish afterward..
As stated above, the MIG produces a harder weld and I've found it easier to planish the singular weld dots, then grind flush. The grinding step both gets the panel thickness at the weld line back to original metal thickness (for consistency in what you've set your welder for, a weld can be up to 4-5 times the thickness of the parent metal which I'd contend affects weld penetration) and also to get the last set of weld dots out of the way for planishing the next set. Once you have a full weld bead with no planishing having taken place, you have weld dots that have been heated and cooled multiple times, and the bulk of the weld that makes things more of a challenge than one weld dot at a time.
If you don't see much for results in what you've planished, I would say to strike a bit harder on the next passes. Yes, plural. This is not a one and done. I would check your effectiveness by closely monitoring the pucker to see when it starts to become smaller. So yes, read between the lines. A profile template works wonders to see exactly what is going on. If you haven't made one, how do you know what your progress is?
"At this point, I don't see any harm in sharing, as it's likely going to reach that point".
How did you shrink that panel, with a torch and damp rag?
At this point, I don't see any harm in sharing, as it's likely going to reach that point.