That was my main objective - the strut areas and the front clip -- since i cant really get it on a jig or strip it completely down (just dont have the resources) i would like to reinforce the weak areas...



I'm a little way out from doing this, but i'll have to take some pics, and do a little writeup I guess. I've got an MX5 buddy that does this all the time, so I'll use him as an aid...

 

If you are not able to seam weld certain areas, you may use rivets, as they will also do the job.



you can use them evnely spaced acrross a one of the panels and it will give a similar effect as the seam weldng. Especially if you only want to do thi to the front strut tower area.

 

I did it on the RX-7 and the RX-8 for Falken. The car is very rigid now. You can lift one corner and 3 wheels come off the ground just after suspension sags about an inch or so. Both are drift cars. One thing to note, when they crash it's a lot harder to repair the damage since essentially the car is one piece now. On both cars, we stripped down the paint and most of the seam sealer out, then i used a map torch to burn off the rest of the sealer, and a wire brush to get it off after burning. Takes forever. I think about a week prepping the RX-8 alone. The RX-7 wasn't completely seam welded though since we didn't have the time, so we just did the front strut areas and the engine bay along with the rear hatch section down to just behind the front seats.



Rivets also work well.

 

Thanks guys - I'm liking the rivet idea - but will probably still do the welding..



Like speedmachine on the FC, i just plan to do the front strut areas and the rear hatch, etc... My engine bay has already been repainted and I'm not willing to mess up the paint.



I'll see what I can do.. I think that even doing the front end and rear hatch areas would be better than nothing at all. Probably look into the foam filler too...

 

another thing to think about is how much heat you're putting into any area at one time. You could be making the frame a lot more brittle if you do continuous seams. It may be better (with less chance of tweaking the frame) to stitch-weld it. If you really want it seamed afterwards, you can wait for the area to cool down and go in to get the rest of it afterwards.