Even though friction stir welding (FSW) has been shown to produce high performing butt-joints, stress concentration at the weld edges in overlap FSW significantly reduces the performance of these joints. By combining FSW and adhesive bonding into a friction stir (FS) weld-bonding, joint mechanical performance is greatly improved. Quasi-static and fatigue strength of the proposed FS weld-bonding joints was assessed and benchmarked against overlap FSW and adhesive bonding. The characterization of the structural adhesive is also presented, including differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), as well as mechanical characterization with curing temperature. A small process parameter study was made to select proper FSW parameters for AA6082-T6 overlap FSW and FS weld-bonded joints. The adhesive degradation temperature (357ºC) was found to be higher than reported temperatures in the adhesive during welding of FS weld-bonding joints. Higher curing temperatures were found to lead to increased strength while decreasing ductility of the adhesive. The addition of adhesive bonding to the overlap FSW to produce FS weld-bonding resulted in a significant increase in quasi-static and fatigue strength, achieving 79.9% of the fatigue strength of adhesive bonded joints at 106 cycles, while FSW had 41.6%.