914 Maddog Inner Long Chassis Stiffening Kit - Weld

So to start welding.. It was important to really keep the heat to a minimum so I really took my time doing this. I cooled each weld with compressed air and avoided welding in the same area for too long. I'd weld on one side for 3 or 4 plug welds then move to another area.. For the bead welds I'd do an inch then cool it with the compressed air. It goes without saying that it's a very good idea to brace the door opening to help prevent it from distorting during the welding.

Here's a shot of the Firewall corner. You can see where the screws have been removed; these can easily be filled with weld. I'd only take the screws out when there were plenty of close welds to hold the plate tightly in place.

Here's the Driver's Long. You can see the indent for the handbrake. The metal needs to be hammered in this area to fit snugly.

Here's the welding of the firewall section pretty much finished. There's a ton of welds here because of the extra holes I drilled. You can probably make out the separate inch long beads along the edges.

Here are the beads along the top edge close up.

I wouldn't remove the screws until it's pretty much surrounded by the welds, but then that's just me being ultra-careful!

Work in progress! You can see the door braces..

I cut off the bottom edge of the sections so I could weld them to the Long itself. You can see the short separated beads. I guess you don't really need to do this but I figured it might add a bit of stiffness and I'm also thinking I may not put carpets in the cabin so finishing the edges cleanly like this just made sense visually. ** ref comment below.

More details....

 ...and more...

..and job done!

** See far right of picture above and picture below. I decided to take the opportunity to better weld the actual Long to the outside of the wheel arch. The factory welding is sketchy at best and I thought a bit of extra welding would be a good idea to strengthen the join... If you do this, be aware there's a nice load of weather proofing 'tar' on the other side of the metal which will happily go up in flames if you're not careful!!