July 29 2005

A close-up of the weld seam. You can see how the stitch welding and then grinding has all but made this weld seam dissapear. Once it gets a top coat of body lead, this seam will be really hard to find.

The use of body lead has all but disappeared from today's repair shops. We use a coat of lead on seams like these to seal the seam and insure that there is no moisture introduction from the back side of the seam through any pinholes that remain. Yes, we will use some plastic body filler over the lead - but all these steps are to make sure this seam does not "migrate" up into the paint in a year or two.