Rear quarter panels spot welding

hi everyone
I'm after some advice on possibly replacing defender 90 rear quarter panels, I'm undecided on trying to tidy the bottom edge of them as in cut the bottom edge by a few mm where they are eroding or replace with new panels, thing is I don't really want to rivet them on would much sooner them be spot welded
Question is can spot welder machine be hired and secondly could a complete novice do the few spot welds needed on each panel.
Regards all

I rivetted mine on having applied a layer of upex sealant.

Hi bluehaze have you any pics of the quarter panels on after refitting.

As Bluehaze has done, I'd replaced my rear wing and quarter panel a while back, just riveted and used sikaflex sealant between the panels. Looks fine,

snap of mine...

Tmac said:

Hi bluehaze have you any pics of the quarter panels on after refitting.

Click to expand...

I'll take some this weekend.

Thanks for the replies so far guys, searching the Internet its become apparent spot welding is not going to a be Possible, I suppose for owners who find their quarter panels need replacing sealants seem the way to go and ok no spot weld indents but is that so bad, do people really notice these small details when looking over a Defender, does it really matter, only thing that might niggle me if I go this route is the strengh of the finished panels.

Hi, have just put new rear quarter panels, corner posts and a new floor in the tub on my project and I did as above rivets and sealant. The main problem you have with spot welding is that you have some steel parts and some aluminium parts and you can't weld these together.

im having the same issue, but after speaking to the body shop who are spraying my defender parts
they assure me they can bond the new panel on and it will be very secure

Yes definitely ruled out spot welding looks like rivets and sealent guys, any difficulty removing the old panels fellas

As above. I used Sikaflex and rivets on mine.


I've enlarged this, but it's gone a bit pixelated.

Very happy with the result.

Was writing while you posted.
No problems drilling the welds out. One tip would be to try to keep the drill holes in a straight line, depending how keen you are to have the pop rivets in a neat line. You'll be able to prize off the remaining weld around the holes easily.

Al203 looks a nice tidy job you have done there, do you think it possible to just bond the panels instead of riveting

I know greyhair is contemplating this and I have spoken to him about it. I don't feel I can recommend it and if I had to do it again I would certainly use rivets.
I posed the question on LZ re best adhesives to use and after many helpful replies I opted for Sikaflex. After fitting the panels I discovered I had not got the door gap between them parallel. I had to drill out the rivets and pull them apart, the adhesive came away quite easily. I had made sure the surfaces were clean.
I don't think LR do replacement rear quarter panels any more. I had to buy after market ones. Keep the old ones and then check the dimensions against the new. I had to cut some sections out of one of my new one's, but it was hard to spot because I wasn't looking!

This is a link to my rebuild thread at the point of fitting the panels. Linky

Cheers, some great advice and much appreciated

No bother, good luck with them. Another thought is, while they're off you might as well put galv corner cappings on. They're not too expensive. If you're half handy it's not as tricky a job as it looks.

Yes got the galv corner and tub cappings, looking forward to fitting them and then prepping body for painting, I've fitted galvi corner and tub cappings on my other 90 so no probs there touch wood. Hats off to you on your rebuild very interesting thread of yours bit late so just looked through it quickly, will look through it more closely later.
Cheers

Good advice regarding cappings, I wish I'd replaced mine with new as it looks like they will need replacing in the not too distant future.

Galvanised bulkhead fitted, doors off just cappings and quarter panels to go then prep for painting.