I am knee deep in fixing my Chargers woes and My welder wants to chemically bond the wheelhouses to the quarters. Is this normal? I guess it will allow him to save the paint and is a common practice but if it's better to weld, screw the paint. Thoughts? Opinions? Just seems odd to me.

I know a body shop that "bonds" replacement panels on instead of welding.....he claims it's stronger than welding, and there's no chance for warpage.

Doors are glued on to give you an idea of how strong the bonding agents are..

been a couple of threads on this over the years. apparently when glueing on panels, the joint is stronger than the rest of the metal itself. tests have been done where 2 panels are glued together, then pulled apart until failure, and the failure is always somewhere OTHER than the glued/bonded joint.

Another advantage to bonding in that area is it fills the gaps completely leaving no gap to trap moisture allowing rust to begin...
I wouldn't use it to bond a visable seam as it has been known to swell & show, but for the bottom of the panel it has a definate advantage..

I can see the strength advantages but what I am not sure of is how it does over time. Can water seep in and rust between the glue and the metal? What is the required prep?

Actually it is easier for water to get around and in between welds

When I replaced a quarter on my Duster I bonded around the wheel house and at the bottom of the trunk extension. Lord Fusor and 3M both make products for this. It effectively bonds and seals the seam at the same time. It's applied to clean, bare metel and clamped together until it sets.

The factory used a sealer when they spot welded the panels together. Welding would destroy the integrity of new sealer if you reassembled the same way.

Yeah he mentioned the 3M stuff, I guess it's legit, it was just new to me. Thanks for the replies

I bond the wheel houses all the time. It keeps the arch clean and new looking. No grinding and body work. When done if you run your fingers around the wheel it feels like factory. No bandaids needed. We've been using the 3M Panel Bond for allmost 10 years. Never seen a failure with the product even when car was in an accident. I do weld the rest of panel. As mentioned the glue is stronger. Car's are spot welded in part as a way to absorb energy when crashed. Call it a crumple zone. If the part is to rigged the damage will travel even farther in a crash. But for your car i recomend bonding the outer wheel houses to quarter panels

Have seen it fail. 3m Rep when 8115 1st came out said yeah weld a panel on then run this over the ground weld grind it smooth and plastic over that. Complete water tight/proof!. WRONG 70 chevelle 396 car we did it on showed the weld seam 3 months after it went out the door. Black car too! 3M warrantied it though. I have seen it done on the wheel well. Been there done that. The thing I feel in South Dakota is that the temp changes so much that it make the glue brittle and breaks. We did a 87 chevy truck that we did patchs on the box sides. Seen it and the panels are loose. Things sits outside all year long. When we put it on we sandblasted the inner wheel house,ground the new patch where the glue would be bound,smoothed glue over both panels to cover the bare metal then came back with the glue bead. Mounted the panels w/ clamps over night. Just the way they say to do it. Didn't save that one. I do think that the ones w/the beads in the glue that helps so it wont squish out completely. I kind of feel that could have been the problem on the truck. Customer isn't worried about it though he said hey I got 7+ years extra out of the truck. Just sucks to see it happen. In case you haven't quessed it I really don't like it.

Good luck