Re: trimming rain gutters

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

In AD7-1K Andrew Watry writes "Regarding shaving the rain gutters of an 
Alfetta, discussed earlier this week, I would think that the welded-flange 
nature of the rain gutter would impart strength to the body.  In fact, isn't 
that how the body pieces are held together?  If you cut that flange off, are 
the remaining body pieces still welded together?"

Reasonable concern, but most of the depth-of-section of the two pieces would 
remain, and the examples I have seen illustrated of gutter-shaving involved a 
continuous seam weld of the two pieces. In the factory-built cars there are 
spot-welds, with variable spaces between the spots; a Sport Sedan I just 
measured had a spot-weld every 1.25 to 1.5 inches, with enough random 
variation that I infer it was built the old-fashioned way, not by robots, and 
in my experience the strength of manual spot welds can be quite variable. The 
continuous seam weld of the shaved gutter would probably be considerably 
stronger, if done by someone who knew what he was doing.

One would not grind off the entire gutter before starting the weld; If I were 
doing it I would cut back a quarter-inch slot to the desired final contour 
between spot welds and tack the two components together often enough to 
maintain the initial strength at all stages, then cut back between the new 
tack-welds and seam weld short sections one at a time until the full length 
was seam-welded. If doing it myself I would run my learning-curve on as many 
parts-car bodies as it took to be sure of myself, and then not get cocky on 
the one that counts. Local heat and expansion are the cause of ripples; the 
one time I watched something like this done the bodyman worked an inch at a 
time, with asbestos paste to localize heat, his S.O. cooling the metal with 
damp towels, and leaving cool-down time between each inch. 

If in doubt, check with the better local kustom kar body shops. The rod & 
custom crowd have a lot of good tricks in their repertoire. Just don't annoy 
them with your funny furin car and a superior attitude; some of them can bite.

John H.

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