pinch weld?

inklegg · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 7:55 am

I am going to attempt to hammer my pinch weld tonight. Before trying it I wanted to throw a few questions out here that I didn't find any answers to.

Are there any negative effects this can cause (will it weaken the Jeep)?

Why did the factory design it this way?

What is the best way to hammer it so it does not crack or break?

Is there anything I should know before starting (anything you have "discovered" during the process that might be useful ahead of time)?

Thanks in advance for any input.

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 8:28 am

Easiest way I have found is heat the plastic some that covers it and it will cut like butter. Cut a V shape in it to expose the pinch weld. BFH to pound it over, paint it and then heat the plastic back up and form down over the area, all good to go.
Doesn't hurt a thing to pound it over, and several vehicles have that same thing from reading other forums not just KJs :wink:

TAHOE · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 9:34 am

When I lifted my Chevy Astro van, I had to address the pinch weld on the front inner fender too. I ended up cutting mine out, then just screwing in some metal sheet under the plastic covering and painting. The Libbys look better though if the plastic is cut/melted back over.

daltonamorph · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 6:19 pm

DO NOT use a cutting torch to heat the plastic. Lol no matter how far you hold it back, it doesn't heat it, it sort of vaporizes the plastic. :shock:

DirtyKK · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 6:57 pm

Why does everyone suggest cutting the plastic? Why not just remove the liner, its only plastic clips and rivets....

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 6:58 pm

daltonamorph wrote:

DO NOT use a cutting torch to heat the plastic. Lol no matter how far you hold it back, it doesn't heat it, it sort of vaporizes the plastic. :shock:

cutting torch :shock:

I would hope that most would have the common sense to not use one to heat plastic......but then I have seen and heard of things way beyond that I guess :ROTFL:

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 6:59 pm

DirtyKK wrote:

Why does everyone suggest cutting the plastic? Why not just remove the liner, its only plastic clips and rivets....

Why remove it,

only takes a few minutes to do both sides without taking out the liner. Plus the liner serves a purpose and needs to be in there I think. Who wants all the mud and crap back up in all of those notches, nooks and crannies

libertank · **Joined:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 5:20 pm **Posts:** 131

i cut a 2" section of that plastic out, hammered the pinchwelds. used puddy to fill it in and after that sanded it down than painted it the liner looks like the pinchwelds were never there.

DirtyKK · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 7:50 pm

tommudd wrote:

DirtyKK wrote:

Why does everyone suggest cutting the plastic? Why not just remove the liner, its only plastic clips and rivets....

Why remove it,

only takes a few minutes to do both sides without taking out the liner. Plus the liner serves a purpose and needs to be in there I think. Who wants all the mud and crap back up in all of those notches, nooks and crannies

I meant reinstall them when you're done.

daltonamorph · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 7:54 pm

tommudd wrote:

daltonamorph wrote:

DO NOT use a cutting torch to heat the plastic. Lol no matter how far you hold it back, it doesn't heat it, it sort of vaporizes the plastic. :shock:

cutting torch :shock:

I would hope that most would have the common sense to not use one to heat plastic......but then I have seen and heard of things way beyond that I guess :ROTFL:

A friend had one on hand- we held it back by the bumper so the flame barley touched the plastic, made 2 quick passes- and the plastic sort of melted/ crumpled. Sort of like what a plastic cup does it up throw it in the fire

So we fiber-glassed and rattle canned it hahah

inklegg · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 8:08 pm

well, i did one side....then it started raining. pushed the front in with some heat to reshape the plastic. then cut the pinch weld plastic and smashed the pinch weld down. painted the weld, then heated the plastic and pushed it back down and resealed itself together. it was fairly easy. the only thing is there was some square shaped thing with what looked like that expanding foam crap in it at the top of the triangle part of the pinch weld. i did not hammer any of that part flat, should i hammer that? it looks like my wheels are rubbing right at the top of the pinch weld where that was. it didnt look like i could fold it over so i left it alone. tomorrow im going to try to heat up the plastic and see if i can warp it inward to clear the rubbing (its barely rubbing). has anyone hammered that part down? if so, how (just smash it)? i know if i was lifted it wouldnt rub, but right now im unlifted with 245/70/16 general grabber at2 on 16x8 cragar soft 8's. im soooo close to not rubbing and it looks b!tchin

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:43 pm

I stopped at the "expanding foam crap" section too, since i was rubbing on the low end of the pinch and not that high up, I'll let someone who actually pounded that section answer that specific part of the question but I've seen several kj's who pounded as much of the pinch and as high as possible

as for why not remove the liner then reinstall, well.. that works absolutely fine! Most just leave it in, cut the section, pound and plastic weld the section through various means for one particular reason. The liner is shaped and has a protrusion at the pinch, in the rough shape of the pinch, which if pinch is pounded and liner reinstalled. Your tires still rub and you run more so a risk of ripping the entire liner out since there is no longer anything behind the plastic protrusion to prevent exaggerated movement of the liner and ripping the heads off the plastic rivets and running over and burying your liner, not to name any names but he also ran over his flare and burried it in the process lol

So yeah, you could remove the liner, reinstall it, then reshape the section over where the pinch was, or, just cut that section, pound it, and reshape without fiddling with any rivets etc

inklegg · **Posted:** Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:06 pm

anyone out there have any input on hammering the top portion of the pinch weld (the part that doesnt look like it will "fold" over)?

DirtyKK · **Posted:** Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:12 pm

Hammer it, if it doesn't move then forget about :lol:

KJWildman · **Posted:** Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:03 am

Just cut it all out !

And move the whole wheelwell back 2"!!

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:44 am

KJWildman wrote:

Just cut it all out !

And move the whole wheelwell back 2"!!

Not a safe method as the front pinch welds are 2 of the 4 strongest points of the KJ,even welding a patch over it will severly weaken the uniframe design.

inklegg · **Posted:** Thu Aug 26, 2010 12:04 pm

Not going to cut it..... I'm scared enough pounding it over! I don't see how it is one of the strongest points though. It hammered over like warm butter. How can something so flimsy be so important to the strength of the Jeep?

Still waiting on any info from someone who has pounded or attempted to pound the top portion of the pinch weld. I have a bad reputation of trying to fix or make things better and end up destroying them. I don't want to learn the hard way on my daily driver.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 26, 2010 12:13 pm

inklegg wrote:

Not going to cut it..... I'm scared enough pounding it over! I don't see how it is one of the strongest points though. It hammered over like warm butter. How can something so flimsy be so important to the strength of the Jeep?

Still waiting on any info from someone who has pounded or attempted to pound the top portion of the pinch weld. I have a bad reputation of trying to fix or make things better and end up destroying them. I don't want to learn the hard way on my daily driver.

Believe it or not your windshield is also a major structural part of your Jeep,why it needs to be replaced ASAP if cracked as if your in a rollover your roof can colapse very easily with the windshield cracked before the rollover(it will crack in a rollover but does it's job 1st).

TAHOE · **Posted:** Thu Aug 26, 2010 4:05 pm

tjkj2002 wrote:

Not a safe method as the front pinch welds are 2 of the 4 strongest points of the KJ,even welding a patch over it will severly weaken the uniframe design.

....and when has that ever been a factor in the Wildman's book? :BANANA:

Better not follow his V8 swap, you might not like it either :ROTFL:

pinch weld?

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