VW Campervan Repair Guide – Welding Pinholes

If you have small pinholes in your rocker panels there are several options to repair, either cut out the whole rocker and replace the panel or if the holes are small why not weld them shut again and avoid the bondo body filler route.

Here is the problem;

So with a small air powered cut off wheel or Zizz wheel we can cut a suitable shape around the pinhole – cut back to solid metal so when we weld it shut again the weld does not burn through thin metal. A square shape may work if you have metal cutting pliers to make the matching piece.

Clean off the old paint around the new larger hole and then this is the trick part – cut the new patch piece with a small pop rivet hole in it. Then using the pop rivet to hold the metal in place, but do not use the rivet – its just a handle;

Holding the pop rivet put some small spot welds gradually around the perimeter – alternating sides so as not to build up too much heat, this is half way through;

Gradually fill in the gaps until there is a solid seam of weld, then clean up with a needle nose air sander to get a really good solid repair, then move onto the next pinhole. This approach of small localised repair could be quicker then replacing the long rocker for example and a lot cheaper, allow about an hour per pinhole;