Bad weld job? (Sliders)

Had some 4x sliders welded on and the welder had a really bad time. Spent 7 hours on it and looked defeated. Of course I paid him (and then a lot extra as a tip because they stayed way late). But the finished result doesn’t look good to me.

issues I have:

1)only the sides are welded
2)the plate doesn’t sit flush against the frame for one of the plates
3)one of the plates is a little lower than the frame

at this point; he has offered to take it off and fix it in a few days, but wouldn’t that mess up the frame more?
Should I just leave it, or will these fail me on the trail?

the other side looks fine, but the sides of the plates are welded, not the whole thing around. I think the other side is better because he learned from his mistakes

 

7 Hours was this a hobby welder or a seasoned welder that has never really done much welding on vehicles?

I have seen welders that weld in a booth all day long suck when it comes to out of position.

This can be some of the most difficult welding old rusty and out of position.

Since he has offered to fix his mistake and you paid for the job !! Ask him why he had such a hard time a good person will admit his mistakes and if the job is beyond his skills. Sure looks to be the case here!!

See if he comes clean. Sadly the one good weld might have been pure chance and luck.

I still come back to the 7 hours and such poor work. What did they do for 7 hours ?

The next 2 lines might not apply in your case.

(It happens we all can have bad days.)

(Not being able to see unable to get comfortable long day and just being exhausted knowing we should just quit but keep going to please the customer.)

One good impact on the left side that one just might break off.

Speaking of your frame is that a bad spot on the right side in the left side picture.

It comes back to your call !!

If i was close I would help you out for Pizza, If you want to share what you paid drop me a message.

The 7 hours keeps waving a flag to get my attention.

Getting paid for poor work just encourages them to keep charging for substandard work

 

Yeah I’m in SoCal and paid $400. I mean the dude tried his best…Would the frame messed up if he removed it and tried again?

 

Regarding the welding not going all around there is some legitimacy here. The forces on the slider are mostly in the direction of the vertical welds. This distributes the load across the length of the weld. A weld along the top will pretty much do nothing for strength and just cause a stress point where a crack can start after being flexed into from some hits. If you look at other weldments from factory they are engineered this way as well (front frame sections, engine mounts etc). I would still be inclined to put some weld on the bottom/back side as this is all under tension. It does not have to be full but would ask the welder to wrap the corners to prevent a crack from propagating from the bottom. Leaving a 1" or so unwelded portion on the bottom will give moisture a place to go as well (good idea to squirt some oil in from the top).

 

If only that one mount plate is below the frame, then the poor guy was fighting fitment issues for a whole day. Lots of prefabbed stuff like this isn’t built right and doesn’t fit right….without cutting it half apart it’s tough to get it to fit right…takes lots of adjusting and then we arrive at a compromise.

that being said…there’s no excuse for that first shit weld if this was a pro. Looks like some dude in his driveway that happens to own a welder, but needs more practice.

 

yikes, i wouldn't want him near your frame.

 

First pic is he ran the bead downhill without cleaning the frame and puddle outran his movement, second pic is run uphill which concentrates the heat better, that one looks fine, but I can't tell you if it's what you want for strength. I would not seal weld it though it'll rust behind the plate. Like the one guy said leave a "vent" along the bottom if you decide to do that.

If I was doing it, you could slick that on weld down then run a uphill bead like he did on the second pic, I wouldn't cut it off if it's possible, there's of chance of taking to much metal off the frame.

 

Take it to a shop that’s setup for offroad rig welding. He may get it in another 2 - 3 vehicles but I wouldn’t want one of the practice rigs being mine.

 

You have so many legit, known fabricators that work from home even down in So Cal.

Wonder how you missed all those members?

 

I don’t see 7 hours there.

 

If you want, you can keep everything on the way it is and get a proper bead run up top of the plate to the frame.

You can also get another at the bottom of the plate.

This way you'll have the plates welded all the way around.

I do have to ask though, which wasn't mentioned.

Was this a weld it yourself kit or was it prefabbed? Prefabbed can cause more issues unless they came from a reputable vendor/supplier.

If it was a WIY kit, are they aware of how some of these kickouts are angled? Maybe he was having fitment issues based on a lack of experience with sliders?

 

I can only say poor fit up is not an excuse!!

It is a common problem you learn how to deal with. just like Arc Blow.

I wonder is the offer to have it done right means out sourcing the job to someone who has the skill to do the job.

I wonder was this the first set of sliders ??

Remember the saying A good welder can make a very bad fitter look good. Then a very Good fitter makes a very poor welder look good.

All the work I have seen from Adam over the years has been outstanding.

Quite a few members that do this type of work, should be in your area.

Maybe ask in your regional forum if anyone is aware of this persons work for the good or bad.

Just how did you decide on this person??

Jobs like this if your building trucks Learning to weld is a very good skill to have.

Best of Luck !!

 

At this point it depends how he wishes to proceed.

Yeah I tagged 3 fabricators that are in the So Cal area for another member in the welding thread days ago.

They make their own sliders, bending DOM and everything.

In this particular case, the OP didn't mention if the shop made the sliders, or welded a kit together, or was supplied a set of sliders all ready to go.

 

I think OP stated they were from 4x Innovations .

All the work from Adam I have seen is outstanding!

I lean just lack of experience in out of position !!

Poor prep work .

 

Ah missed that specific part.

Yeah they make great stuff, so this was a weld it yourself kit.

 

Unknown !!

Why would someone that can not weld buy a weld it yourself kit?

Till the kit was welded and installed it would cost more in the end then finished sliders.

 

Pretty sure they are.

I bought some from 4X before.

 

he offered to fix it for free…what should I do? Should he just add more welds to get it on there good or should I go somewhere else? Really don’t have the budget to spend another $400 fixing this…

 

Yup they are from 4x…the frame looked solid until it got welded on. I think 4x makes good products

 

I like this idea. So I would ask him to add a plate to the bottom of the frame and connect it all together with a weld?