Suggestions needed - metal working issue

[MJM]

Revisting drivers side cowel at door and front fender.

Here is a picture taken last year of the cowel. What I thought was a dent on the side of the cowel by the upper part of the door, turned out to be factory leading, or lack of in this case, once I removed the paint today.

Once the fender and door was removed and paint stripped from the tab that bolts the upper part of the fender together, I notice this tab was three pieces of metal laying on top of each other.

My question is, should this be like this or should I weld them together? One of my thoughts says to weld it shut because once the fender is installed, those three pieces of metal are squeezes tightly together. My other thought is perhaps the factory wanted whatever air that could get in there to dry out any moisture?

What do you guys think, weld or leave it.

Cowel that meets door. This is where the dent on the side of the cowel is

Paint stripped revealing leading.

Question pictures below.

Cowel tab as is with metal separation when unbolted from fender.

Cowel tab clamped together like it would be when the fender is bolted to it.

As an added note, I do not see any signs of rust between the layers of metal.

 

[Big Dave]

I would be inclined to plug weld these together after prep and epoxy between the layers. It would give a more rigid mounting tab. But it may be designed to be this way for adjustment?

 

[MJM]

Hi Dave,

You got me thinking about your adjustment comment so, I wanted to see just how much adjustment there was between un-welded and welded.

Un-welded = 3/16"

Welded = 1/8"

Here are picture of the cowel drain holes located on the left side of pictures

Here is a picture of the cowel showing how it slopes.

Another

Bottom of the cowel tab area. I thought about drilling a drain hole there but, seeing as I don't see any rust between the layers of metal, it's telling me there is adequate slope to the factory drain holes.

 

[dhutton01]

You might be overthinking this a skooch . You can be sure the engineers who designed it never gave it that much thought. Given this car will never see snow and likely limited rain, if any, I would just leave it as is and maybe brush in some epoxy.

Don

 

[Big Dave]

I was thinking more of the ease of flexing up and down for adjustments. Not thickness of crushing. I’d clamp it and weld it solid.

 

[Big Dave]

Yeah, Don has a good point.

 

[MJM]

You might be overthinking this a skooch . You can be sure the engineers who designed it never gave it that much thought. Given this car will never see snow and likely limited rain, if any, I would just leave it as is and maybe brush in some epoxy.

Don

How dare you question my garage engineering skills!!!...lol. You have a very valid point. It has last 50 + years as is.

I'd sure like to know why it was engineered as it is? Anyone know any mopar engineers still alive to shed light on this, lol.

 

[shine]

i was grown before i figured out goddamnengineer was not one word . cars were raving pos in the 60's. nothing fit or worked right . paint sucked , suspension was just a suggestion . dont try to fix stupid, just duct tape it to a tree and move on .

 

[dhutton01]

How dare you question my garage engineering skills!!!...lol. You have a very valid point. It has last 50 + years as is.

I'd sure like to know why it was engineered as it is? Anyone know any mopar engineers still alive to shed light on this, lol.

Because it was cheap and easy and engineered to last as long as they expected the car to last. Which was a lot less than it has…

Don

 

[66FBACK]

I used to work for ThyssenKrupp Budd Company where they stamped and assembled body parts. There were parts that had three layers like that and they only had welds at certain points. I can't remember exactly the amount but they were engineered where a percentage of the welds could be bad with the exception of the delta welds. The delta welds were in critical spots and had to be 100% good.

The hole that is in the part was more than likely for a locating pin when the part was assembled. I know I'm not a body man but I'd leave it as is because I don't think there's anything to be gained by welding it and if it ever did have to be taken apart it would be harder to do.

 

[MJM]

i was grown before i figured out goddamnengineer was not one word . cars were raving pos in the 60's. nothing fit or worked right . paint sucked , suspension was just a suggestion . dont try to fix stupid, just duct tape it to a tree and move on .

I laughed so hard at your reply, my eyes watered up. ......... "suspension was just a suggestion" LMAO !!!, so true.

Well done!

 

[MJM]

Thank you all for your input. I will take your advice and brush some epoxy between the layers and call it good.

You guys ROCK !

 

[MJM]

I used to work for ThyssenKrupp Budd Company where they stamped and assembled body parts. There were parts that had three layers like that and they only had welds at certain points. I can't remember exactly the amount but they were engineered where a percentage of the welds could be bad with the exception of the delta welds. The delta welds were in critical spots and had to be 100% good.

The hole that is in the part was more than likely for a locating pin when the part was assembled. I know I'm not a body man but I'd leave it as is because I don't think there's anything to be gained by welding it and if it ever did have to be taken apart it would be harder to do.

Thank you for taking the time to post that. Good insite of why it was done like that from the factory.

 

[MJM]

Just finished prepping the three layer pizza. Hit the metal with a file, 180 grit sand paper, and wiped down with SPI 700.
Will brush SPI epoxy on it tomorrow.

 

[Dean Jenkins]

cars were raving pos in the 60's. nothing fit or worked right . paint sucked , suspension was just a suggestion .

But they had style! Still look better than today's generic "Jelly Beans"