odd bin rust repair question?
11-21-06, 05:14 PM
#1
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odd bin rust repair question?
i recently cut out the rust on the rear wheel wells on my 84 and welded in new sheet metal. Before i did this i drilled out the spot welds on the suspension brackets towards the bottom and the outer sheet metal on the upper part of the wheel well to seperate them. i guess my question is ...is it realy neccesary to spot weld these back and are they realy doing anything structure wise?
11-21-06, 05:37 PM
#3
Savanna Rx-7
i drilled mine out and made new plates with 1/8" flat stock. all I did was drill holes in the same locations as the stock one had the spot welds, and then did whats called rossete welding. its where you weld around the circle of the hole while filling the hole at the same time. results are a perfect replacement. this piece stiffens the mount for the suspension, and without it you will eventually cause stres fractures in the surrounding steel. its not a quesiton of if it will or not, but when it will. It depends upon how you drive. I race my car on the track on a regular basis, so for me it was not an option.
kenn
kenn
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11-22-06, 01:28 PM
#8
IMO the upper control arm brace is a bigger cause of the rust, on both of mine the metal had completely rotted away inbetween it and the wheel well, that outer layer up higher had rust behind it but not as much, either way its a terrible design. I'm planning on going with a tri link setup, so I guess I'm not that concerned about that brace, as I said I've put lots of miles on it and so far its still in one piece...
11-22-06, 03:49 PM
#9
True, bin rust is generally in 2 areas, the patch I mentioned, which can take out the entire wheel well over time, and the spot welded control arm brace. To treat the rust on the brace, the spot welds should be drilled out and the rust behind it treated, then the brace reinstalled or replaced.
Once installed, liberal rust protection, a sealer, seam sealer and underbody coating will increase the longevity of the repair.
Once installed, liberal rust protection, a sealer, seam sealer and underbody coating will increase the longevity of the repair.
11-23-06, 11:39 AM
#10
Yea, once both of the aformentioned pieces have been drilled out I sandblasted the whole area, left the upper second layer piece off and braced the upper control arm mounts from the inside using some thick pipe. Don't have a pic at the moment, but i'll post it later to show everyone. After sandblasting a good coat of por15, followed by some regular primer and finally undercoating sealed it all up.
11-23-06, 10:44 PM
#11
ok heres a pic of how I braced it up from the inside. I didn't wanna put multiple layers outside if I could help it because that (among other reasons like shitty undercoating) is the reason it rusts to begin with. I seam welded the upper control arm mount to the floor pan and wheel well, then braced it with this tubing. A tri link is on the list of things for this car, so it shouldn't be too much of a concern anyway. Obviously there is much cleaning and painting to be done on the interior of this car, at the moment I'm sandblasting and finishing up some rust repair on the outside.
11-24-06, 06:42 AM
#12
Savanna Rx-7
Originally Posted by 82transam
ok heres a pic of how I braced it up from the inside. I didn't wanna put multiple layers outside if I could help it because that (among other reasons like shitty undercoating) is the reason it rusts to begin with. I seam welded the upper control arm mount to the floor pan and wheel well, then braced it with this tubing. A tri link is on the list of things for this car, so it shouldn't be too much of a concern anyway. Obviously there is much cleaning and painting to be done on the interior of this car, at the moment I'm sandblasting and finishing up some rust repair on the outside.
thats not a half bad Idea there! I wonder how much flex it eliminates? I just finished fixing mine and am in the final stages of primer and final paint for the entire body, but damn I should thought of that
kenn
11-24-06, 10:06 AM
#13
Not sure how much flex it will eliminate but I would guess quite a bit, I forget exactly what the dimensions of the pipe itself was but the walls of it were at least 1/4" thick, I went with the thickest stuff i could find at the time. A little trimming will be nessesary to the plastic bins to fit them back in, but not much. I'll be glad when the body work is done on this thing, getting tired of picking sand out of my ears for days after doing the blasting 
11-24-06, 08:49 PM
#14
LOL, sand gets everywhere it's not supposed to go. I wear ear plugs when I sand blast for both the noise and keeping it out of my ears.
Interesting idea on the brace. I wonder how much of an improvement it would make if you added a triangular brace from the backside of both pipes and tied them together at the driveshaft tunnel.
Interesting idea on the brace. I wonder how much of an improvement it would make if you added a triangular brace from the backside of both pipes and tied them together at the driveshaft tunnel.
11-24-06, 08:56 PM
#15
Yea that stuff gets everywhere. Interesting you should mention attaching it to the driveshaft tunnel because I had been toying with that idea myself back when I put those pipes there initially. Still toying with the idea, especially now that I've decided to run a tri link setup (and panhard bar, but that has little to do with this discussion) We'll see, gotta do some measuring to see if I can pull it off and still have room for the optima red top thats gonna be living back there....
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