Skoda Rally Blog

My previous cars haven’t had much done to them originally in terms of shell preparation – indeed, basically nothing. This has had a couple of downsides, mostly in terms of long-term shell life – although seam welding does make a shell stronger and therefore stiffer (which is desirable for any car to handle properly), I don’t think I’m really in a position to tell the difference. Certainly, though, the Felicia was a lot less rattly than the Favorit was, partly because of the shell’s original strength and partly because the cage was fitted with tie-ins to the B-pillars, making it a bit stronger.

But this Felicia is going to be a bit different – firstly, the weld-in cage will brace to the front and rear suspension, which will make a BIG difference to the car’s strength, and for safety too. But it’s still worth seam-welding the shell, as it will make it stronger again, and also make it last a lot longer. And given my current financial situation, I can’t see selling the car in a hurry. Or ever.

So, today I started on the seam welding. If you’re not familiar with the construction of modern cars, most are made with spot welds – usually every 2-3 inches there is a single spot (about 4mm in diameter) which has been welded. Seam welding augments this with a stitch of weld – basically about 50% of the seam’s edge gets welded. But before you can do that, you need to remove the seam sealer, which is a total cow of a job. It’s taken a lot longer removing the seam sealer (using an angle grinder with twistknot wire brush) than the welding has taken, but as you can see from the pictures, a fair old bit has been done. Firstly, in the engine bay, the strut towers and chassis rails plus engine/gearbox mount plates – before.

And after….

The floor needs plenty too – it’s remarkably thin and flexible, and strengthening this will also make the seat mounting more rigid.

Basically, everything between the front and rear suspension will be done. This is the inner bit of the car, and the roof, etc., and then tomorrow the underside should be done too – this is mostly just the suspension mounts, etc., – the rest of the seams are accessible from above, thankfully!