Slowcrash_101

So my old seat rails were 7+ years old and the slide mechanism broke. So I bought a new rail for my Bride seat.

These were ~$150 shipped. I saw forum posts about the rails having spotty welds(pun intended). However upon unboxing I was pleasantly surprised to see they've addressed this issue. The rail now has a full weld joining the legs to the rail itself. I'll post pictures when I get a chance as I just spent the last hour getting these in and I'm typing this from my parking lot.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the fit and finish, and having a working slide is nice too. Also nice is all the holes line up with the bolt holes on the chassis and I didn't have to do too much fitting.

Slowcrash_101

Slowcrash_101

B serious

That's how the welds have always been, bruv.

Slowcrash_101

Don't see what the big deal is then. This isn't just a spot weld.

B serious

The issue is that they're just little blobs with very little penetration. The blobs just sit on top of the metal...and there is very little weld in a place that is quite leveraged.

Imagine the bending stress on the weld in the 1st picture. Its not a good spot for that tiny blob of weld.

It is in cantelivered bending when installed. Here is terrible free body diagram. The blue dashes and arrow signify where there should be weld in order to prevent this.

There is also a spacer plate that is relying on that weld. Its not welded to the slider...and only to the foot at the tiny blob.




The factory rails are spot welded (IIRC). Spot welds are extremely strong when they're used correctly.

flanders

I agree these welds looks exactly like mine did and I did not trust them at all.
I drilled straight through them and added a few bolts for reinforcement, I don't have a welder otherwise I would have done what B said

clio

I was looking at the welds above and thought I was missing something. They look very small with poor penetration. I'd be grinding the paint back and TIG welding it properly.

Slowcrash_101

Still don't see the problem, maybe it's the quality of the pics I took, but the welds look fine to me in the 3 places they put their blobs. I used washers to level the rails so they all have equal pressure against the chassis.. Either way I'm a buck forty soaking wet, so I doubt they'll be an issue.

B serious

Cousin, I would reinforce the welds.

I cracked mine at 150-160LB.

Remember, the seat belt is attached to the rail. In a crash, the rail holds you in.

The seat belt anchor is also BADLY welded. Though, there's not much mechanical advantage there, so it probably should be OK. But the feet of the rail are prone to cracking welds.

Do whatever u want tho.