Vehicle Welding – Beyond The Van

Beyond The Van

Those dreaded words from your MOT Tester… “Needs Welding.”

If the truth be known, a vehicle rarely ever “just needs welding” – it usually needs a fair bit of rust removal followed by some good fabrication of fresh metal parts which then need nicely welding into place. It’s no two minute job – ever, and it’s usually a very dirty, messy task which takes some skill to get right! It can be done in one of two ways: Properly or…. Well, let’s not go there!

Welding a van — Rotten jacking points on a Renault Trafic. The rot was all cut out and replacement parts were fabricated then welded. Finally, painted and filled with Waxoyl.

I have repaired plenty of vans that needed “welding” – I mean, I work with a lot of LDVs, so that says it all! I’ve taken them from essentially scrap, right through to passing an MOT with absolutely no advisories whatsoever. What’s more is I actually do enjoy doing the work! I must be a glutten for punishment, though having the right equipment including two 4 tonne vehicle lifts, as well as a scissor lift certainly makes a difference. Not to mention indusrial sheet metal folders and plasma cutting facilities! Gone are the days of lying on my back under a rusty van getting splattered with molten metal/rust!!

Welding New Panels to Van — MWB Sprinter. Damaged panels cut out, new panels starting to be welded in.

LDV Welding — A “little welding” that needed doing on an LDV Convoy.

MOT Welding — Grinding, cutting and more grinding!

I am more than happy to take on vehicle welding projects, however my rule is that if I don’t think it can be done perfectly, I won’t do it. Two reasons for this: Firstly, I only do a good job! Secondly, I would feel awful if in 12 months time the vehicle came back with rust coming through again. Sometimes vehicles can be too far gone to do a perfect job, therefore I evaluate each job individually.

I currently don’t offer a mobile welding service. However, I have ideas in the pipeline for the future!

Costs

As a guide, welding repairs to a vehicle is charged at around £60 for the first hour, followed by £30 per hour. Materials are additional. These rates can be less depending on the complexity of what’s involved.

I don’t necessarily need a great deal of notice to do this sort of work as I appreciate an MOT failure isn’t always predicted, and a re-test only gives us a couple of weeks.

If I can help you, I will. I am generally extremely booked up with this kind of work!