Welding torque boxes...tips?
 

Guys, i know welding plates (fabricating) to the boxes is a great way to strenghten them, how about running a bead all down the seems, and fixing a slight tear i already have?

saturday im taking my car to a very experienced welder, but he's never welded torque boxes before, I do, and have been launching at 5k with e.t. streets for a while, i just want to make sure nothing goes wrong, i do know after my head, and intake swap, my axles may sheer, but i'll take my chances since those can be replaced cheaper than boxes.....what do you guys think? weld the seems all the way around? this work will be free, so anything will be good....
thnx again.

I just had an experienced welder (aka my dad) weld the torque boxes and add subframe connectors into my car. I had him weld around the seams to keep them from ripping off the frame, which hopefully will help when i add slicks. Adding a torque box kit would probably strengthen them quite a bit more, but welding the seams should help quite a bit.

On mine we welded every seam, upper and lower control arm mounting points. Pull the back seat and you will see all the tack welds that are broken. We welded inside and outside tha car for me. Also, if the boxes are pulled away from the car, beat or push (jack) them as close as possiable to where they belong before welding. It is not a bad job, but takes time and effort. We spent 2 days on mine.

Get him to build you a set of these, One of my friends is going to do it for a case of beer.
http://pomoforacing.com/tech/TBR.pdf

Thanx fellas, I dont want to have to pull the seat or anything, i will give this guy some beer lol,for the work, so it's not totally free heh, well i was thinking more of welding at the bottom of the boxes where it is prefrerated (spelling), i guess i'll look into it all, i dont want to have to remove anything more than my tires, will i have to remove my lca's? i just put them in, and dont want to mess with them.
as always, gracias.

welding torque boxes
 

I would not just weld the seams. The torque boxes are about as thick as a frickin soda can! :D I would recommend buying the torque box reinforcement brackets that some of the speed shops (on or off-line) sell. Or you can do what I did and just cut, bend & fabricate your own brackets. It's really not that hard as long as you have a band saw(or a hack saw if you're feeling buffed):p , a vice & a hammer. I reinforced mine with 4 brackets on each side. You DEFINITELY need to remove your back seat though...unless you want to catch your car on fire. Believe me, the metal is so thin where you have to weld that there will be sparks & glowing orange metal underneath your back seat. So do yourself a favor and remove it and have a water soaked towel right near you while welding incase of a little spark up. The insulation &/or carpet can easily catch fire. You should be inside the car with the wet towel & the back seat out (just the bottom part) while the guy is welding underneath to assure that everything is ok. I even had to do some welding from inside the car like 88workcar mentioned. And no you don't have to remove your lower control arms. Good luck.

Ok thanks simi, good info, i for sure dont want my baby catching fire.
But where would i put these brackets if i had them? outside of the box? weld too the floor? i can take my back seat out i guess, not hard right? this guy is know to be able to weld some thin stuff, i trust the floor wont glow too much and catch fire, will he need to get in the car and weld? or can i just weld some brackets from bottom? i guess i need to look at it with the seat out.......anymore info welcome....

welding
 

As for the back seat...I don't think it should be difficult to remove. My car has a salvage title so some things were a little funky with the interior, because when the car was originally stolen, they ripped out the interior & stole the wheels. At least it wasn't in an accident though! Back to the subject...the bottom of the my backseat just lifts out on my car! There's nothing connecting it. The seat belts are bolted down though, so passengers are safe. So all I had to was pull it out. But I can't imagine it being all that difficult. I've had most of my interior out at one time or another...and it's not that difficult at all. The guy may have to do some welding inside your car...but if he's good at welding on thin metal...then maybe he won't burn any little holes right through into the backseat. It happened a couple of times on me, but wasn't a big deal. I just did a little more welding from inside to assure eveything was welded up good. As for where to put the brackets...you are just going to have to look underneath your car real good and you can pretty much figure out where the brackets should go. Basically all around the torque boxes themselves. On the bottom of the boxes, the sides...anywhere where you think it will help reinforce the boxes. Sorry I don't have any pictures for you. I did mine about 6 years ago actually. I used an old issue of MM&FF where they made their own brackets. They only used 3 per side. I took it a step further and figured where to put a 4th one that helped beef things up even more. :D Maybe you could do a search on their website for the article?? Not sure if they have old issues from that many years ago readable from the website though. Good luck.

thanx again simi, well im not too worried about the seat, it needs to come out anyway for weight reduction, this guy is a extremely good welder, but not so much on autos, im gonna pull the seat and look at what i got, if i think i need some material, plates ect, i will get it, i may just get him to weld seams, and leave it at that, but i know some members here have managed to tear them anyway with just welded seams?
i dont plan on ever being quicker than 12.0, so i'll just do what i can tomorrow.
i read an old post about welding the front of the rear tire area box, i may just do that.
thnx simi, and the rest, you been helpful.