Body welding

[Donagh]

Hi all,

The back door on my J120 has separated at the bottom corner by the hinges. It's causing my door to hang wrong so it won't close easily. There are signs of previous attempts to fix the issue and its all gunged up with apoxy. My question for you, landcruiser enthusiasts, is would the body be suitable for welding with a mild steel rod?

If I cleaned off all the epoxy, paint and rust is the steel on the back door compatible with a mild steel weld.

I've welded mild steel to stainless steel before and it did not want to bond but I got it in the end. The thing is if I was having that difficulty with the car body I'd be in real trouble.

 

[Rob Cowell]

Don't know the answer to your welding question (although I'm 99% sure the body is just mild steel everywhere) but this is a really common failure. I noticed that you can now buy (and I'm sure easily make) a strengthening bar designed to stop this happening again after you have repaired it.

North South 4x4 Spares - NS4x4 - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

 

[Donagh]

Thanks for that awesome replay Rob! I was already suspecting it was mild steel but still wanted to ask. That bar for strengthening the back door is brilliant. Maybe I'll make my own as it seems to be just a simple bar.

The area to fix already looks terrible so not much to loose by attempting a weld there. When it's done it will look nasty af, prey for me.

 

[Rob Cowell]

Worth mentioning too the bodge is just to shim the bottom hinge so the door lines up again. Did mine years ago and the door still shuts.

Back door drop. Cracked door skin. - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

 

[Donagh]

I've just finished the work and what an emotional roller coaster it was. So the back door started cracking years ago and the pervious owner made a mess of the body work trying to fix that and actually welded it into a bad position. To fix it I took the door off, cut his welds out, bolted on a leaver to bend it back to the right angle and put on a few tacks of my own to close it up. I'm happy with it the door is back on now and closes bang on center. It was tricky to weld though the door kept going on fire, I'm not sure if it was the epoxy from the previous fix or the paint but I was getting worried that it would burn down in my shed. To fix the paint I just sanded and lashed on some hammerite. Thanks again Rob it's really great having support when trying things like this.