The only rust on this car I'm worried about is on the inner frame rail where the idler arm mounts - This is the best pic i got but you can see the rust - - Are new frame rails available or will i be searching the the salvage page??? - are these hardened metal or soft - can i replace just a small section or must the hole rail be replaced??? - both body guys i showed this too said it's not going to fall out tomorrow but it is a stress point on the steering - plus part of the crumple zone - i'm only interested in the proper fix - thank you to ray green for a good pic of the frame rail

 

Dude, don't stress too much.

It isn't going to return to the earth tomorrow like your body guy's are telling you.


If it was ME (and I was really concerned about it) I would grind down and paint the rusted spots then put a really thick peice of angle iron on it and do a bead around it.


But the pics aren't really clear enough for me to see the extent of the rust. Also, you find most rust by poking and grinding. Not much can be observed BEFORE you do something irreversable.

 

Qingdao - Fair enough - if a fish plate will do i'll attack if this winter when the engine comes out for a refresh - problem solved

 

Yeah, that doesn't look too bad Scott. The angle iron idea sounds decent enough, but I'd grind the frame down to bare metal, then weld, then properly prime and paint to ensure there can't be anymore corrosion buildup.

I also have a list of things I'm planning on doing this winter

 

dude. my car has 1000x that amount of rust

 

+1

I got to thinking about this at work just now, and if you've got corrosion on the side of the channel its possible the bottom of the channel is worse... Or it could just be a little bit around the hole that got its paint scracthed off.

 

Many of our cars have/had that rust. It's not the end of the world, just make sure you cut out all the bad parts, and treat the inside of the frame rail properly. There is a bracket (for lack of a better term) that holds all the crush sleeves for the idler arm bolts in place, this tends to get a lot of rust built up on it. When I had the sheet metal cut away I sandblasted that bracket piece and sealed it all up. Welded in some new steel and it's been good for years. Just make sure you seal it all up, both inside and out with some good paint.

 

The more I learn the better I feel - Knowledge is power - not too familiar with uni-body stuff - we'll grind it - poke it - and weld it

 

I'll see if I can find pics of my repair, it was worse than what your car has and it's held up very well. Body shops shy away from work like that for fear of being sued if it breaks etc but that doesn't mean it's unfixable

 

Agreed, always worried about the money. Definitely doable