Just asking

D

Darin

Junior Member
I am in the process of replacing my bed pockets on my 39 pickup , have removed bed sides and 3 ( so far) pockets . I am curious about panel adhesive vs spot welding.
To be clear , I have done a lot of tig and mig welding over the years but have never done spot welding . I recently bought a Harbor Freight cheapo spot welder and done a few spot welds on some scrap pieces and most did end up sticking together fairly well .
As far as Panel adhesive , not really crazy about using it but am curious if anyone here ever tried it . Thanks
 
I used panel adhesive on my '38 pickup to mount cab corners, lower door skins and some other small items. Been slamming the doors for 20 years and everything still looks like new. If you want to weld how about plug welding instead of spot?
 
Thanks for the reply's fellas, Will practice some more with this spot welder . As far as plug welding , I have done quite a few in my time and certainly considered doing it on this project . Being ever so careful , one could do a good job and sorta mimic the orig spot weld dimple , or could completely fill the hole and file smooth but then again could have a bad moment and burn thru the edge of a hole and make a mess. My tig welding skills are pretty good but my eye site is crappy these days it seems.
 
If your spot welder is capable of welding the pockets to the bedside then why even consider gluing them on. Look up spot weld test. You can perform this test to determine if your welded is qualified. If not, I would install them via plug welds with either your MIG or TIG and sand the welds smooth before I’d use panel adhesive. Leave that stuff for collision shops and new vehicles.
 
If you practice plug welding, a person can get good enough at it to make it look just like a spot weld but it takes a lot of practice.
 
I also bought a spot welder from harbor freight (220v) and found that all the areas of contact need to be freshly sanded between pieces and electrodes. Clamp pressure adjustment and switch on time need to be practiced. Electrode tips also need occasional clean up too.
 
Thanks for the responses. I did a dozen or so spot welds on some new 16 gauge . Held
switch for 5 secs and each one held but I could twist apart with little effort. The difference in the orig spot welds and mine were quite obvious . Orig welds were some what dimpled and the actual contact area welded together was about 5/16 or so where as mine were perhaps 3/16 and much shallower . I am thinking my little 120 volt harbor freight welder is a bit undersized to weld 16 gauge to 16 gauge although the welder claims it is good for 1/8 inch ( I think) . I can tig pretty well but did a few plug welds with a 1/16 drilled hole thru the top piece and a few drilled with 1/8 that looked decent , having said all this I went ahead and bought adhesive and a gun will give that a go .
 
SEM makes a 2 part structural panel adhesive which works great with no welding distortion. SEM website lists it.
 
Structural adhesives that can take the heat the sun generates plus all the weather conditions the truck might be exposed to are getting pretty expensive. If a person uses the stake pockets for side racks or other load bearing devices then there will be a fair amount of tension and compression on the pockets at times. Epoxy has a life limit but it can be extended by keeping the vehicle out of the elements when stored and using the stake pockets lightly or not at all. The faying surfaces need to be very clean and free of any corrosion before gluing the pockets on.
 
Most single spot welds will easily twist apart, even when done correctly. Look up the correct procedure for testing spot weld strength. It’s more of a pull test that takes less than a minute. This will determine if the welder you have is adequate. Personally, I would rethink using the adhesive, especially since you say you can weld. I firmly believe that plug welding and sanding the welds would still be a better choice than gluing your pickup together. Call me old fashioned…
 
Update, I got the parts from Macks ( bed pockets , front panel, rear crossmember and tailgate) . The front panel was twisted until laid on ground and pressure applied to both sides to flatten out . I had sort of an oil can effect , laying on ground the left top corner would be raised up from floor about 3 inches.
If you pushed down on left corner the right side would pop up about 3 inches . Also the panel was concaves from top to bottom . I worked it all out when bolted to bed sides , had to rig up a board clamped to bed side and push pretty hard in middle on ech side to get strait. You can see how it was in photos. The rear crossmember was in a v shape rather than being parallel as seen in photo. When squeezed together with clamp , the bottom radius was way too narrow and would not match up with the bed pockets .
I ended up laying a scrap piece of exhaust along with a paint stir stick wedged down in the bottom where the radius is the get it to be as thick or wide as the bed pockets and clamped it , squeezing the top a bit more than parallel to get the over all width to match the bed pockets . I removed the clamps and re clamped several times till it was a perfect match with the pocket. As far as the pockets, when they pressed them, apparently they had some excess metal which as you see in the photo, caused a lip which would not allow the bed pocket to fit correctly where it meets the rear cross member. in the phote of the 2 bed pockets , you can see the lip on the left pocket. the right pocket was corrected bu laying it on my old anvil and gently tapping it into shape with my small body hammer. Over all it is as good as can be.
 

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