Replicating Factory Spot Weld Appearance

[plumL78]

We have one here in my shop but it not one of the cheep ones. Its a pro spot brand and they are around 12k to buy. Thats how we build camaros here at the shop. It is an awsome tool. I have many pics but I don't know how to put them on this sight. If you want to see them I can email them to some body that can load them

[Salvatore]

[ QUOTE ]
We have one here in my shop but it not one of the cheep ones. Its a pro spot brand and they are around 12k to buy. Thats how we build camaros here at the shop. It is an awsome tool. I have many pics but I don't know how to put them on this sight. If you want to see them I can email them to some body that can load them

[/ QUOTE ]Kerry, You do some real nice work!!

[Bob]

Here is an example of my attempt at faking spot welds.

[68bird400HO]

Mike, I would be interested in seeing the results using your vice grip approach.

Bob, what method did you use to get those results?

A couple of ideas I had were to either use a round punch and hammer or to use a flat end drill bit and just lightly scratch in the circle before prime/paint. I wonder if anyone has tried either of those tricks.

Also, just an observation, but it seems like (at least for the 2nd gen birds) the Van Nuys cars had a smoother, more finished off wheel well lip than the Norwood cars. Anyone else into these cars notice this?

[Bob]

I used the pencil eraser in wet primer to start with but wasn't really satisfied so I used a hole punch and punched out some sandpaper discs that I used with a Dremel tool. The factory welds were pretty sloppy looking on my car so my fake welds will be okay. I tried a drill bit but couldn't keep it from wandering all over the place. Good luck.

[m22mike]

The vice grip tool I made works well, and you can control the depth of the divet as well.
The punch thing would be alot of trouble IMO, unless you used heat and had a helper back up with a dolly.
I will post some pics later today of a Nova I did it on.
The lips gad been cut slightly for tire clearance and some of the original spots were gone.
Also the vice grip tool upsets the metal on the inside and it fells alot like the originals.
I have noticed on differant cars that sometimes the welds are shallow and somewhat smooth, others are vwry deep and even tend to distort the metal. These were not robot welds as far as I know. So they will verry from car to car.

Later Mike

[68bird400HO]

Thanks Mike. On your vice grip it looks like you layered up 5 pieces of something to make the dimple side of your die. What did you use for that?

[Chris_69_SS]

[ QUOTE ]
I used the pencil eraser in wet primer to start with but wasn't really satisfied so I used a hole punch and punched out some sandpaper discs that I used with a Dremel tool. The factory welds were pretty sloppy looking on my car so my fake welds will be okay. I tried a drill bit but couldn't keep it from wandering all over the place. Good luck.

[/ QUOTE ]

this is what my body guy did and it looks fantasatic. When I get a chance I'll post a pis or two.