Repairing Minor Body Damage - Washer Welding Repair
1. Washer Welding Repair
This repair method is used to repair recessed areas where the back side of the damaged cannot be easily accessed such as a door panel, pillar, side sill, or rear wheel arch.
Because the heat generated while welding washers will damage the paint or anti-rust coating inside the panel, it is necessary to treat the area with anti-corrosion materials after the repair.
A related repair method uses welded on studs instead of washers, but the processes are similar.
Repair Steps
1.
Confirm damaged area:
Before starting the repair work, make sure to confirm the deformation of the damaged area.
Use visual and feel inspection methods for minor body damage.
Some obvious damage only requires a visual inspection. Other damage is more difficult to spot and requires projected light to identify damage by reflection. For these types of damage, it is important to check the damaged areas from multiple angles.
Gently touch the damaged areas with your hands to judge the damage by feel. Wear cloth gloves or put a thin cloth between the surface and hand when touching to improve the sensitivity. Move your hands in many directions for an accurate inspection.
2.
Remove paint from panel surface.
Grind off the paint layers from the damaged area using a disc sander.
3.
Repair work:
Because the stamping line maintains body panel rigidity, major stress occurs when stamping lines are deformed. Correct repair of this stamping line can relieve this strain.
Repair the stamping line first and then reform the flat surface damage.
If the stress cannot be relieved with stamping line repair alone because the damage is too serious, panel rigidity loss is partially due to elongation caused by plastic deformation on the plain surface.
If elongation of the flat surface is identified, shrink (draw) the panel to relieve the stress.
-1.
When repairing a stamping line, weld washers along the stamping line then pull out the damage by inserting a shaft through the washers. This will make stamping line repair easier. If the shaft cannot go through the washers, re-weld the washers so that a shaft can be inserted.

-2.
Hook a chain around the center of the shaft and pull out the damage using a slide hammer and hold tension.
Do not apply excessive pulling force.
-3.
Correct the depressed area on the stamping by tapping on wide chisel along the body creases.
Do not apply excessive hammer force.
-4.
Correct around the welded washers to smooth out the surface by hitting lightly with a hammer. Be careful not to apply excessive hammer force.