I'm in the process of prepping a gsl-se rear end that I bought a few months ago, so that I can swap it into my car. I finally have all the parts needed to install it onto my car, and I've got a problem and need help.

Here is the story, when I bought the rear end, it was already off of the car. Everything looked alright, except for very rusted rotors and calipers, and surface rust on the housing. I took all the old rusted parts off, and bought all new parts to put onto the housing. Today I started sanding the housing so that I could start painting it, and installing all the new parts. Now here is the problem, I don't know how I didn't notice this before, but on the underside of the right upper control arm mount, there are 2 holes. Can I fix this by welding a new plate over it? Or is it already too weak and I shouldn't trust it? I should probably start looking for a new housing.

Here are a couple pics, sorry they're kind of blurry.

 

damn, that's a lot of rust. I remember rust like that from when I lived in Boston. Now living in Houston I'd throw that diff away. I guess you'd have to weld on some new metal.....doubt the rest of housing will last long though.

 

I would cut my losses and find another housing. With rust like that, once you start cleaning it up you'll find out that the damage is several times the size that you thought it was. I hope you didn't pay much for it, but at least you'll be able to reuse all of the internals.

Good luck...





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No I didn't pay much for it. For the front strut tubes with the brakes and the rear end, I paid about the price of what the pumpkin alone is worth. I knew it was toast, but I just wanted to make sure.

 

you can still use it. i live in ohio and i see rear ends like that all the time. what you ned to do is sandblast the entire housing. you can start by wire wheeling it to knock the loose flakes off and then use a media that will take the rust down...maybe a glass bead

 

here's a clean TX rear

 

Did you notice the damage to the mounting brackets? I'd think that at the very least, he'd have to weld in some new metal. I don't think that the surface rust was the only issue here.