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What process for truck body cab welding?

Spud

Diamond
Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Location
Brookfield, Wisconsin
Not roll-cage welding, for which I think Tig is the preferred method.
Not sheetmetal panel welding either, which I think is ox-acetlyene.

Welding the sections of a pickup truck cab. What kind of welding is used ? My Silverado dmax got into a wreck, on the passenger side, the truck's cab's frame is dented a little on the bottom, where the door meets the cab. Auto body shop says, they can cut-off the entire passenger side of the cab frame and weld in a new piece.

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Mig welding?
Tig welding?
Flux Cored shielded gas?
Flux Core Gas ?

What weld process does G.M. use to join the side of the cab to the mid-section?
 
New panels are mostly spot welded at factory, the repair guys will likely use a spot welder and/or gas shield mig (you can plug weld with mig). Some panels you might find glued and bolted.
How are they planing the repair? New panels or a cut from another truck? Insurance job or you paying?
 
New panels are mostly spot welded at factory, the repair guys will likely use a spot welder and/or gas shield mig (you can plug weld with mig). Some panels you might find glued and bolted.
How are they planing the repair? New panels or a cut from another truck? Insurance job or you paying?

I am paying. Insurance should be paying for it, but my agent made a mistake and forgot to include my new (new to me) truck in the insurance forms, so the Insurance agency is refusing to pay. I got the truck late Nov, and 4 days later got into the wreck.

So at the factory, do they spot-weld the entire length of the cab panel, or just put lots of spot welds? If all they do is spot welding , how does it keep the water out of the areas without welds?

I would personally prefer tig, because it is more malleable but I highly doubt the auto body shop will tig all 4 sides of the cab frame.

Is MIG ok? Isn't MIG a bit brittle and prone to cracking? This truck will see a lot of hauling and towing duty, along with light off-roading, so is MIG still ok?
 
You're overthinking it. Mig will be fine...or actually whatever the pros have been trained to do, actually.

Start mentioning tig and talking about malleability to these guys might get you fired as a customer :) :)
 
A lot of the more expensive cars, like BMW, are using higher carbon steels these days, which means proprietary MIG techniques. But, in general, MIG is the accepted industry standard for modern body and frame repair, for 20 or 30 years now.
Certainly, a repaired car will never be as good as a new one, but MIG welding it is going to work better than Tig or gas for this.
 
I am paying. Insurance should be paying for it, but my agent made a mistake and forgot to include my new (new to me) truck in the insurance forms, so the Insurance agency is refusing to pay. I got the truck late Nov, and 4 days later got into the wreck.

So at the factory, do they spot-weld the entire length of the cab panel, or just put lots of spot welds? If all they do is spot welding , how does it keep the water out of the areas without welds?

I would personally prefer tig, because it is more malleable but I highly doubt the auto body shop will tig all 4 sides of the cab frame.

Is MIG ok? Isn't MIG a bit brittle and prone to cracking? This truck will see a lot of hauling and towing duty, along with light off-roading, so is MIG still ok?

Factory panels are spot welded and seam sealed. A quality repair will generally include the welds getting drilled out, panels removed, sealant cleaned off, new panels fitted and welded, then seam sealed, then prep/prime/paint. A well equipped shop will have a spot welder (I think this is technically called resistance welding?), but some will plug weld with MIG I'm sure. The only reason I'd avoid a shop using MIG is it would (to me) indicate they might not be up on the industry best practices (behind the times). With a proper repair job done you won't be able to tell that the work was done other than one part of the vehicle being shinier than the rest LOL.
 
I am paying. Insurance should be paying for it, but my agent made a mistake and forgot to include my new (new to me) truck in the insurance forms, so the Insurance agency is refusing to pay. I got the truck late Nov, and 4 days later got into the wreck.

So at the factory, do they spot-weld the entire length of the cab panel, or just put lots of spot welds? If all they do is spot welding , how does it keep the water out of the areas without welds?

I would personally prefer tig, because it is more malleable but I highly doubt the auto body shop will tig all 4 sides of the cab frame.

Is MIG ok? Isn't MIG a bit brittle and prone to cracking? This truck will see a lot of hauling and towing duty, along with light off-roading, so is MIG still ok?

Lots of spot welds with varied spacing depending on where they are. Bodies are usually dipped I believe, internal voids are sprayed with cavity wax, external underbody are coated with seam and body sealers. On the repair side spot welds are drilled out, panels cleaned up (may or may not get a coat of weld through primer) and normally plugged with mig. Spot welding is fine but more finicky, you have to be very clean with good parent metal, sometimes you plain dont have access for your set, you can get in pretty much anywhere with mig (its the goto tool in autobody repair).

By far more important than anything is the guy doing the job. In my time Ive put some work right that was done through insurance by a then 'VOSA approved shop'. The most memorable one, maybe 25 years back now was an escort MK 3 cabriolet. The owner was complaining about a creaking noise that was getting worse after hed had the car back a couple of months, it had had a reasonable dig in the front. He bought it into for us to take a look. Up in the air on a two poster it took about ten seconds to spot the NSF chassis leg was hanging off. He went ballistic!.. We got the job to put it right, I plugged with mig.

I can echo jamscals remarks about not telling the boys how to do their job, it only rubs people up the wrong way. Something else you might consider is selling the truck as is and buying another. I dont know how it works in the US but here in the UK if a cars repaired through insurance, its noted afaik. If the cars written off and goes on to be repaired it goes on the hit list, this will show on a data check. As yours hasnt gone through insurance per say it might not show up anywhere, this makes it more valuable to the bargain hunters on ebay if you know what I mean.
 
I am paying. Insurance should be paying for it, but my agent made a mistake and forgot to include my new (new to me) truck in the insurance forms, so the Insurance agency is refusing to pay. I got the truck late Nov, and 4 days later got into the wreck.

So at the factory, do they spot-weld the entire length of the cab panel, or just put lots of spot welds? If all they do is spot welding , how does it keep the water out of the areas without welds?

I would personally prefer tig, because it is more malleable but I highly doubt the auto body shop will tig all 4 sides of the cab frame.

Is MIG ok? Isn't MIG a bit brittle and prone to cracking? This truck will see a lot of hauling and towing duty, along with light off-roading, so is MIG still ok?

Interesting! On are vehicle policies we have 30 days to notify the insurance company of a new vehicle. Tell then it covered under a current policy.
 
Interesting! On are vehicle policies we have 30 days to notify the insurance company of a new vehicle. Tell then it covered under a current policy.

Yes, however, if the OP had an old vehicle, and didn't have full collision coverage,
they just cover the new truck with the old policy, and it's shortcomings.
 
What year truck? Is the rear axle housing bent?

2013 Silverado dmax 4x4 . Far as I can tell and from AutoBody shop's assessment , the fame, engine, drive line and electricala are all ok. Only sheet-metal damage. Before the Insurance company refused to pay for damages, they did send over an insurance claims adjuster; he looked at the truck and said it can be fixed.
 
Lots of spot welds with varied spacing depending on where they are. Bodies are usually dipped I believe, internal voids are sprayed with cavity wax, external underbody are coated with seam and body sealers. On the repair side spot welds are drilled out, panels cleaned up (may or may not get a coat of weld through primer) and normally plugged with mig. Spot welding is fine but more finicky, you have to be very clean with good parent metal, sometimes you plain dont have access for your set, you can get in pretty much anywhere with mig (its the goto tool in autobody repair).

By far more important than anything is the guy doing the job. In my time Ive put some work right that was done through insurance by a then 'VOSA approved shop'. The most memorable one, maybe 25 years back now was an escort MK 3 cabriolet. The owner was complaining about a creaking noise that was getting worse after hed had the car back a couple of months, it had had a reasonable dig in the front. He bought it into for us to take a look. Up in the air on a two poster it took about ten seconds to spot the NSF chassis leg was hanging off. He went ballistic!.. We got the job to put it right, I plugged with mig.

I can echo jamscals remarks about not telling the boys how to do their job, it only rubs people up the wrong way. Something else you might consider is selling the truck as is and buying another. I dont know how it works in the US but here in the UK if a cars repaired through insurance, its noted afaik. If the cars written off and goes on to be repaired it goes on the hit list, this will show on a data check. As yours hasnt gone through insurance per say it might not show up anywhere, this makes it more valuable to the bargain hunters on ebay if you know what I mean.

So if I understand you right, the body's frame is Only spot welded? No continuous welding of the entire length of the seam?

I assume, hot-rodders / custom car builders use Mig when they chop the roof and reattach it?
 








 
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