To butt weld or joddle?

[Oldmogman]

Could any bodywork experts recommend the best method of jointing for a sheet metal repair: butt weld or joddled?

I’m having the door bottoms of my Morris professionally repaired using ESM repair panels, but I’m keen to find out which method is best (I’ve not yet asked the companies which approach they use).

[RobThomas]

Butt welds are harder to get right but are less likely to trap water later on. If you buy new door lower skins then you'll find them joddled at the top. Mine needed so much work to get the shape right that I started again from a bare sheet of steel, the curves being quite a long way out and the bottom bends were far too loose. I found that all the rust was towards the back do I didn't have to mess with the front 1/3 of the skin.

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[RobThomas]

Getting the radius of that bottom 90 degree bend is quite important, visually. The panels I bought were too slack, hence the battering that I gave to a sheet to get a suitable repair piece made up.

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[IaininTenbury]

I'd agree. I've just seen a new door bottom repair panel supplied by the customer and to be honest I wouldn't use it. The lower two folds are way too slack and don't look the right shape at all. I presume its worn press tooling that's the cause of that. The last two doors I did, I made up my own, similar to Robs, although I need to do the full length, but easy enough to make a front section and then a back section and join on the curved fold. As to the original question, a joddled edge on the top of the door skin repair section makes it a lot easier to line up and to pull the two panels together, as in Robs pic.
Butt welds are neater but in that area, the rear of the repair can't be seen and can be heavily sealed and waxoiled etc after painting.