Engmans inner long stiffening kit, Or, Joe Buckle learns to weld Options

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Spent the day over at Joe Buckles house yesterday. What I thought would only take me till around noon or so wound up taking 6 hours. Still, the end result is amazing. If you have any doubts as to whether your car is solid, you should get one of these kits and install it. There will be no doubt in your mind afterwards. I would suggest that you follow the directions that come with it. Jack the car up and put it on Jack stands at the 4 jack posts under the car to make it level. remove and clean the paint from the areas where you will be welding in the kit. If you are using a wirefeed welder, you want to make sure it is bare metal otherwise it will make it much more difficult when trying to get a contact for your arc. Check fit the kit and trim as needed till it fits perfect and all holes are on the existing metal. That is pretty important so check all the holes. Once the kits fits everywhere leave it in place and start welding each hole. Start with the ones on the outside edges and do one or two on each end and then one or two on each end on the bottom and then fill in all the inner ones. Then go and weld around the outside of each part. When you weld each hole, start in the center of the hole and as it fills, work a nice round circle and fill the entire hole. You want good penetration so this is important. It will be obvious where you will need to take a hammer and pound in the metal so it conforms to the body of the car. The kit is very well thought out and does fit nice. Place a soaking wet towel over the center tunnel when welding across the back. Put all pieces in the car before welding any of them into place. We started with the back piece first and then the sides. I did a lot of the welds but Joe did an equal or better part of them so he could learn how to weld. I think he picked it up quite well. An excellent student. Once it is done and you take the car down off the jacks, you should see right away that your efforts are well rewarded. Before we started, his gap on the passenger side was tight at the top of the door and his window on the drivers side hit the weatherstrip at the top. When we were done, it was perfect and we made no adjustments. No flex in the body. Here are some pictures I took of some of the process. Any questions?