Absolutely shocking

[Rkweld]

When I did my apprenticeship arc and gas welding were part of the training

I second that, when I did my apprenticeship (hgv/construction plant maintenance, coarse was adapted, depending on which you worked in) I was taught arc, mig, gas and tig, gas and tig more just basic training but mig and arc in all positions and welds properly tested.

There are a lot of fitters that have never had formal training though.

Also guys who could not grasp welding who would ask others to do their test welds for them

 

[tom 748]

seen worse

 

[m_c]

I've too seen worse, and given how many times it looks like it's been welded, it doesn't look that bad.

The issue is the operator won't want to take it off the road to get it repaired properly by someone with the right kit.
I'd doubt many commercial workshops will even have the kit to weld stainless, so it'll be a case of giving it a quick run over with a MIG every time it's found to be cracked when being inspected.

 

[Ubique]

This is bad, but the welding isn't the worst bit of it.....
We had a boy racer bring his 'My first Merc.' in, you know the sort, a little A class with an AMG badge, said he'd just bought it second-hand (still in Mfr's. warranty) and there was a horrible banging noise from the transmission - which there was.... There is a dual-mass flywheel fitted instead of the more usual flexplate, we've had quite a few 'let go' especially if they've been remapped. So after a short roadtest to confirm the concern, I stuck it on the ramp, first thing I noticed was a missing bolt....

Time to dig a bit deeper, off came the undertray....

Nice grinder cut in the transmission coolant pump support bracket and some non-standard welds(!) on the exhaust...

It's clear by now that someone has had some work done involving removing the Catalytic Converter...

To remove the Cat, they'd have to drop the front subframe - clearly no time to remove the undertray's....

So we'll just snap 'em off eh?

Did anyone undo the exhaust support?

That'll be a 'no' then...

Of course, the driver said it was all like that when he bought it (from a dealer) - except his (anti)social media has links to him caning it round a track and thanking the tuning co. for doing the decat, remap and dyno testing....
Obviously we offered to fix it for him, with a RoC of £9k for the things we could see along with the DMF, also pointing out that as long as there was a remap on it, the vehicle would be on a restricted warranty.... Strangely, the social media stuff soon disappeared, but not before we'd done screen grabs

 

[northwest]

Of course, the driver said it was all like that when he bought it (from a dealer) - except his (anti)social media has links to him caning it round a track and thanking the tuning co. for doing the decat, remap and dyno testing....
Obviously we offered to fix it for him, with a RoC of £9k for the things we could see along with the DMF, also pointing out that as long as there was a remap on it, the vehicle would be on a restricted warranty.... Stanegly, the social media stuff soon disappeared, but not before we'd done screen grabs

Doesn't matter how hard you try, you cannot fix "stupid".

 

[Ubique]

Doesn't matter how hard you try, you cannot fix "stupid".

Wouldn't want to mate, they're the easiest to catch out.... He tried sending 'Brother Faisal' down to have a word, didn't help that all the time he was on the phone to him, I was getting the gist of the convo, having spent long enough in Afghan to pick up some useful bits of Pashtun....

 

[droopsnoot]

The car I'm restoring at the moment has it's share of poor welding and badly-made "repair plates". The usual stuff - metal is too thin, the odd weld here and here, massive overlaps, no paint between mating faces. I've no idea when it was done, so I can't say whether it's reasonable that all the repairs I'm removing are already quite rusty. Sometimes the guy has done really good welds that take ages to remove, usually on the panels that are the worst shape so still have to come off. This is the back end of the inner sill, quite close to the bottom seat belt mount, where it's got three welds, one was only on one panel so contributed nothing, the other two just came away with a bit of wiggling of the panel. And this forms part of a box section to anchor the seat belt in place. And it's welded to a piece that needs to be repaired anyway.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of surface rust there that makes it all look worse than it is. But the welds were covered by a nice neat run of seam sealer, so that's OK.