This isn't quite urgent enough for the Help Me! section, and IMHO falls between body & interior, so I'm posting it here.

The welds that held my hatch support to the body failed. They gave way clean, the metal still looked OK, so I had a local body shop weld the support base/mount back in place. It lasted about a week before it sheared off again, this time leaving some damage behind. I almost think that I need to (carefully) drill some holes and just use screws/bolts and nuts (plus self-tapping sheet metal screws for the tight spots) to hold it in place, but that means putting holes in the drip/water channel of the hatch opening :-(

I was wondering up a new mount could be fabricated that would hook over the metal lip of the hatch, and either kept in place with panel bonding adhesive or spot-welded to the lip, yet be thin enough to sit under the hatch seal and not cause water/fume leakage... but I am not a metal wiz :-\

So if this has happened to you, what was your solution besides making a prop to hold your hatch open?

I think I would find  a better welder to weld if for me. The welds look dirty and four tack welds should be plenty strong enough to hold the hatch.

+1

58 minutes ago, Patcon said:

I think I would find  a better welder to weld if for me. The welds look dirty and four tack welds should be plenty strong enough to hold the hatch.

 

I would grind the metal smooth on both parts. Next find the center of the four hold on metal latch,center pinch holes,drill thru the four holes that were previously welded with 1/8 in drill first then with a 1/4 or 5/16 hole in latch piece only. Next match latch piece to previous welded location with clamp . Use mig welding machine with .024 or .030 wire with triple mix inert gas and plug weld. Practice on a piece of scrap metal at a hot setting to insure o good hot sound weld. If you don't weld then go to a different welder who will guarantee his or her work .total time to weld only should only take about 15 minutes. Ray


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Yup! What he said ^^^^

Had the same problem a couple of months ago.. I repaired it with panel bonding adhesive and self tapping screws where the spot welds were. So far so good.

Here's the link to my post: 

 

On ‎10‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 5:05 PM, ray_madera said:

I would grind the metal smooth on both parts. Next find the center of the four hold on metal latch,center pinch holes,drill thru the four holes that were previously welded with 1/8 in drill first then with a 1/4 or 5/16 hole in latch piece only. Next match latch piece to previous welded location with clamp . Use mig welding machine with .024 or .030 wire with triple mix inert gas and plug weld. Practice on a piece of scrap metal at a hot setting to insure o good hot sound weld. If you don't weld then go to a different welder who will guarantee his or her work .total time to weld only should only take about 15 minutes. Ray


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Yeah, I have zero welding experience, and no access to equipment. But thanks for the detailed answer. Between yours and the other "find another shop" answers, it tells me that the welding I had done wasn't so good and that's probably why it failed. Maybe he was trying to prevent damage to my paint work?

On ‎10‎/‎30‎/‎2016 at 0:23 AM, dmoralesbello said:

Had the same problem a couple of months ago.. I repaired it with panel bonding adhesive and self tapping screws where the spot welds were. So far so good.

Here's the link to my post: 

 

Do you have any pictures of this repair? I've used panel bonding adhesive before, so if having another shop weld it again doesn't do the trick (or if I can't get in to one), I assume that you only used the self-tapping screws where for the two spots that wouldn't make holes in my paint, correct? ;-)

I suspect he kept his heat down to protect your paint. The low heat means low penetration and weak welds

If you click on that thread link dmorales posted there are pictures in the thread

6 hours ago, BadDog said:

Do you have any pictures of this repair? I've used panel bonding adhesive before, so if having another shop weld it again doesn't do the trick (or if I can't get in to one), I assume that you only used the self-tapping screws where for the two spots that wouldn't make holes in my paint, correct? ;-)

Had the same problem a couple of months ago.. I repaired it with panel bonding adhesive and self tapping screws where the spot welds were. So far so good.

Here's the link to my post: 

There are pics in my post. I used a self tapping screw in each of the 2 spot welds. That way the final result actually mimics the spot welds.

Here's what I ended up fabricating out of some sheet steel from Tractor Supply:

Works OK, but I may try to come up with a better design in the future. I also Plasti-Dipped it before installing it along with some epoxy:

Seems like a sturdy repair but I agree that you could "polish" it up a tad.