Is welding on '37 Buick chassis OK?

[Mutt's37Buick]

A neighbor of mine who builds hot rods said that certain years of Chevys have a chassis that is all riveted construction. He says that the frame is designed to flex and added welds will crack.
The welds that the car builder will be adding to my chassis will be to add mounts for suspension, engine, and transmission upgrades.
1) Does anyone if it is OK to weld such mounts on the frame of my 1937 Buick Roadmaster?
Thanks
Mutt

 

[donsrods]

Absolutely. Rivets were used back then to facilitate manufacturing and to maybe flex a little on the lousy dirt roads of the day, but a properly welded frame is fine and even better IMO. You will get all kinds of "expert" opinions from neighbors and people like that, and they mean well, but for the most part do not really understand hot rod fabrication as it exists today. Opinions are like belly buttons, and you know the rest.........

Weld away.


Don

 

[Blue Eyed Devil]

Your neighbor obviously doesn't know much about building hot rods.

It will be fine...

 

[Crossfire]

hotrod builder

Good thing that you are not letting the hodrod builder work on your ride.

 

[zzrodder]

Don has it right, weld away !! On Chevy 'hat style' frames it's a different story, they were made of very thin metal, brackets are best bolted on to them. One case I know where welding to frames is a no-no is on semi truck frames, but that is a whole different animal.

 

[Bonehead]

Those old frames are not like the new ones. Just mild steel, and they take a weld really well. Newer frames, should only be welded longways and never across the frame, or it will crack there. There is something, there for old frames as well. Anytime you weld on a frame, check it from time to time, to make sure, nothing has cracked.

 

[jmlcolorado]

Maybe I should rethink my chop since the whole cab was just spot welded together. I wouldn't want to loose my top cause I welded the whole roof on solid

 

[Old Iron]

On long runs, you can use the skip weld method too (if cosmetics are not an issue)
Weld so many inches then skip so many inches. This stops a weld from cracking from one end to another.
On the semi car hauler trailers, this is how we do it because, they flex so much and on these we don't weld across the frame.

In your case no problems. You might consider using 3 jack stands on each side of the frame to keep warpage to a minimum.

 

[Mutt's37Buick]

Thought he was off base, but thought it was worth asking.
Thanks for all your replies.
Mutt

 

[wendle]

One other thing to be aware of, try not to exceed 1.5x the thickness of the parent material with anything you add to it.
For example, if your frame is folded from 1/8", try to keep anything you add to it 3/16" or less.
This keeps all the penetration roughly uniform and stops you creating huge heat affected zones (from say trying to burn in a 1/2" plate engine mount) and weakening the original steel.

 

[Mutt's37Buick]

Thanks for all your advice and help.
This website is awsome for a beginner like me.
Mutt

 

[jmlcolorado]

Thanks for all your advice and help.
This website is awsome for a beginner like me.
Mutt

This website is great for even the seasoned vet to learn a new trick or two [cl

One other thing to be aware of, try not to exceed 1.5x the thickness of the parent material with anything you add to it.
For example, if your frame is folded from 1/8", try to keep anything you add to it 3/16" or less.
This keeps all the penetration roughly uniform and stops you creating huge heat affected zones (from say trying to burn in a 1/2" plate engine mount) and weakening the original steel.

Great info! I hadn't thought of that! Thanks for the advice!