My Echo rally car - pics just for Garm!

[cali yaris]

Rob, Thanks for the awesome post. It's nice to see the progression of the car, and how you've purposed it exactly the way you want to. Anyone who does that, whether for show, race, drag, or urban comfort, deserves the proper respect.

Can't wait to see it in action. I love the cage. I'll be doing one fairly soon, and I have noted your design.

One question, what is the purpose of seam sealing/welding?

[rob323]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

Anyone who does that, whether for show, race, drag, or urban comfort, deserves the proper respect.

Agreed. Different strokes for different folks. I like Echo's, You like Yaris's, I don't hold your bad taste against you .

I love the cage. I'll be doing one fairly soon, and I have noted your design.

Before you get it done, let me know. There are certain things I would change if I had to do it over again, just little things like foot plate design etc.

One question, what is the purpose of seam sealing/welding?

In theory, the spot welded connections between seams allow the panels to flex. It is quite common on older rally cars for them to crack around the spot welds near suspension components etc.
Seam welding allegedly reduces this and adds stiffness to the body. But, with modern cars where alot of seams are also bonded together as well as spot welded, I doubt that there is little improvement gained by doing so.
In hind sight, I would strongly recommend AGAINST doing it on a Yaris (or any other reasonable modern car).
1. The seam sealant used in the Echo (and I can't see it being much different in a Yaris) was a major pain in the butt as it would expel gases while we were trying to weld and blow the weld metal out. We tried digging it out and burning it out but nothing really made much of a difference. There are some very ugly welds in the car
2. The other thing is that when you seam weld a car, you theoretically change the way it will crumple in a crash and any change from the manufacturers design and the crash test data based on that design may be frowned upon by the authorities.
The 3rd reason why I would not do it is due to rust. It took along time to wire brush all the welds back to get rid of any flux and to prime and seal them so they don't rust in 5 years time. Any welds in hollow members (chassis rails etc) are almost impossible to rust proof on the inside.