[FiveFeezy]

Hi everyone. I'm thinking of ordering a kit to box my lower control arms on my 1970 Monte Carlo. The new pieces will have to be welded on and I am worried about warping the control arms. Do any welding gurus know how long or how many beads of weld to lay down to minimize warping? Are there any tricks that I should know about? Thanks.

[krehmkej]

To minimize warping, I have a welding table with a set of 1/2" inch thick steel plates to which I clamp the work. Then, the trick is to begin the weld by tacking the boxing in place in many locations. Then, working around the job in different places extend the welds. How much of the seam to weld is subjective. Personally, I would weld at least 50 percent of the seam.

[FiveFeezy]

A lot of people have told me the seme thing about making a jig to hold the piece while I weld it. But I tried this several times on other projects and when I pull the part out of the jig it warps right up like it was never braced at all.

[krehmkej]

I feel your pain. My experience is that the technique of moving around, welding a bit here then a bit there seems to minimize the problem of warpage. I would suspect that the u-channel type control arm wouldn't warp too badly. Might be a good idea to get a spare to try out technique on, though. Good luck.