Well today when i was cruising around town, I went over a pot hole that was filled with water and I didn't know it was there. I heard something hitting, at first i thought it was my muffler that just hit a bit and grinded. But then when i stop at the light and launch in first every seemed fine, then shifted fairly hard to second, i felt the rear passenger side seemed to kinda lag by bit. When i got home i jacked up the car to seem what happened, no scratched on the muffler or anything but i take out hte wheel, and the piece thats holding the upper suspension link to the body is like 1/2 cracked (where that piece of metal it welded to the body, it was fairly rusted. How bad is it to drive the car like that? How hard/easy is it to fix that? I was thinking about gettin like a piece of metal about 12 guage, and bolt one side to another? will that work ... or does it need to be all welded on?

 

If you can see that rust, on an Ontario car, chances are there's more rust under the body coating radiating out a bit. So adding metal and bolting would just cause a larger chunk to eventually come out.

I'd poke through the undercoating in a few places to see how firm the surrounding metal is. If it gives at ALL, consider having that section of floor chopped out and replaced, and the suspension bracket remounted.

 

i'd weld it all up. welding will give the body back some strength. make sure you sand everything very well. and yes, if there's rust that bad in the one spot, check for more and do it all while you're in there.

 

I had an 82 which had completely broken both upper mounts through the body, I still drove it for a few months but its disconcerting to watch the upper links appear and disappear through the holes in the floor.....Not recommended

 

see its not fully broken, its only the side that in the fender well thats broke, like the bolt is still holding on from the other side of that.

 

yeah, but Ontario cars are notorious for having rust spread beneath the undercoating - you guys salt the hell out of your roads every winter and have all that humidity coming off the lakes...

 

weld it. save yourself the trouble.

 

what guage steel would you guys recommend?

 

18-22 ga., whichever you feel more comfortalbe welding.

 

really? I was thinking something more like a 12-14 guage

 

If that works for you, it will work for the car.