Failed MOT. Learn to weld or pay somebody?!?

Bobsticle said:

I found getting a nuclear stick welder worth every bit of its 20 quid. I just hold the stick as far away from the work as possible and let the rod spray steel all over the chassis until a good thick crust covers everything. Oh and wear a hat and make sure you squint.
Best bit is getting the kids involved................ they love welding the car with dad.

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Sage advice. Especially the bit about squinting, you can't be to careful.

wattfield said:

I guess it depends on how long it'll take you to learn, and whether you can leave the Landy off the road for that long!

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Luckily for me (but really unlucky for him), my father-in-law got taken out by a German on the ski slope and broke his collar bone. So I can use his car for the next 6/8 weeks

studogg2 said:

buy a hobby type mig welder with gas i think clarke do one under £100 have a bit of a practice once you get the voltage and wire feed set right its a doddle,like yourself i couldnt justify getting someone else to do it.just a bit of playing about will let you see how easy it is.

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Be careful about buying a welder without enough power. I had a Clarke 100e for many years and to do chassis work needed careful weldprep and good technique. I bought that welder before I got into Land Rovers and was repairing normal cars. When the 100e died I got a 150amp mig and It makes life much easier.

You seem to be fairly handy with lots of other things so welding should present no problems with a bit of practice. It's worth getting a welder that seems a bit more powerful than you need, otherwise it will struggle to keep up on big jobs. And one with fan cooling too, otherwise you'll spend more time waiting for it to cool down than you will welding, which won't be good.

Still not got under and had a look, but MOT cert says;

• Vehicle structure excessively corroded with 30cm of tow bar mounting
• Vehicle structure has excessive corrosion which adversely affects braking it steering nearside rear
• Vehicle structure has excessive corrosion which adversely affects braking or steering offside rear
• Vehicle structure is damaged, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings (offside front out rigger)

Plus loads of other fiddly bits easy enough to do myself, lights, bushes, steering box leak etc.

Boooooo

Now with pics...

How much time have you got. It took me ages to learn to weld and even now I wouldn't risk my life on it. If you pay to get it done professionally at least can shout at someone when it all goes horribly wrong.

I kind of agree that learning to weld is a good idea, just not convinced that chassis repairs are the best starting point. If you do all the grinding/cleaning around the holes then it shouldn't be too expensive to get the actual welding done professionally.
Just my tuppenceworth....

I"m getting somebody else to do the welding on this occasion (but I am going to help him for some hands-on).

However, I am going to enrol on a night course in April to learn myself

sorry to say this, but..... if thats the rot you can see, I would be having a damn good look round the rest of the chassis before you do anything else. its usually worse where you can't see it, so.....

Only my opinion, but, based only on what I have seen in the pictures, if there is any way you can replace that chassis, then, again, IMHO, this would be a better use of the money.

Once it's on the ramp, we'll go over the rest of the chassis.

It's not great I know. However, I do not have £1350 for a new chassis or more importantly, the £3k+ to get it all swapped over. If only...

Ah, a lot of that looks like it needs upside down welding. So gravity will be fighting you with many of the seams you'll need to do. It's hard work getting a bead of weld to stay put upside down when it would much rather drop off and go down the neck of your jacket. It's possible, but that much harder to do a neat, strong job. That's why a lot of people take all the bodywork etc. off and turn their chassis over for things like that.

Disco1BFG said:

sorry to say this, but..... if thats the rot you can see, I would be having a damn good look round the rest of the chassis before you do anything else. its usually worse where you can't see it, so.....

Only my opinion, but, based only on what I have seen in the pictures, if there is any way you can replace that chassis, then, again, IMHO, this would be a better use of the money.

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I agree with this, makes sense to check it all out before paying good money for repairs only to find that its all been for nothing.