pls see attached pics...



The lip of the chassis still exists behind the distegrated shock tower. It looks like water seeped through the seems between the shock tower and the frame, and only the lower shock tower rusted out.



I'm sad...

 

cut it out and weld a plate.......my friend just did a similar job except that whole about 2 feet long and one foot wide. damn s13's!



i hope you are decent with metal and welding

 

[quote name='vosko' date='Mar 26 2005, 04:47 PM']cut it out and weld a plate.......my friend just did a similar job except that whole about 2 feet long and one foot wide. damn s13's!



i hope you are decent with metal and welding


[/quote]



i took a class and can weld tig... not very good with mig. Should the plate be spot welded? or full seam?



I'm sad, now i'm in no mood to go wrench away at the car again. the words "****" keeps in repeating itself in my head non stop right now.

 

seam welded....... it should be alot easier since FC sheetmetal is pretty thick. i'm assuming brake fluid got there and rotted that spot out......if water was in there the whole thing would be shot. make sure to bang on it with a hammer.......

 

[quote name='vosko' date='Mar 26 2005, 05:02 PM']seam welded....... it should be alot easier since FC sheetmetal is pretty thick. i'm assuming brake fluid got there and rotted that spot out......if water was in there the whole thing would be shot. make sure to bang on it with a hammer.......


[/quote]



When I took out the shock i saw this small rust spot, then i decided hrm... let's hit with a hammer and that is what I got. I just scraped away all the underbody guard, and that is the only spot that is rusted... Nevertheless i'm sadened (SP?). Hopefulyl my friend will lend me his new lincon invertec tig welder.

 

Clean the grime off the underside of the car and check that there aren't anymore spots like that one, above the fuel tank is another spot where that can happen too.



The pictured spot should be easy to weld up from one side, but the other will involve a bit more wrench time, the metal is double thick where the strut tower meets the inner fender well, after the repair I would use some really good rust inhibitive primer and then lay several coats of truck bed liner from bomb cans on the inner fender wells.



edit: do they use road salt in your part of the country? It seems like brake fluid would take eons the etch through the metal right there.

 

do they ever use salt

 

it was only 4 years of winter driving that did that. the original owner from 89 till 98 never drove the car in the winter, the 2nd owner picked up the car for a bargin and drove it for 4 years in the winter and sold it to me in 2002. The car was oil sprayed every winter too. I haven't driven the car in the winter since I purchased it in 2002

 

damn time expired to edit my last post. I wanted to ask how I should weld the hole up.



Should I place one panel in the engine bay and seam weld it there? Should I then place another panel on the exterior? (so two panels sandwiched together?)



Or one panel on the exterior?



I'm thinking one panel in the interior (engine bay). Have it oversized so it overlaps part of the frame rail and shock tower, then seem weld it there, and them seem weld on the exterior. Coat both sides in POR15 and spray paint everything white to match the car again. And rubber undercoating ofcourse.

 

no rubber undercoating, that stuff is worse, it holds in the moisture and traps it there



do the 2 pieces