I need to repair some rust on my driver's side frame rail. I remember seeing someone that welded some some supports around a rusty section. Anybody know where I can find this or have experience? I have looked under google images and can't find it.
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Can you post photos of the rust damage? -
Brace yourself. This is bad. I realize this car will never be a show queen. It has battle scars. This pic is of the driver's floor. The passenger floor need a very small 2 inch by 2 inch welded patch. Not so on the driver's side. I have fiber glassed this thing numerous times over the past 10 years. I was keeping up with it, but then got real busy in life and did not keep up for about 4 years and that was more than enough time for this to get real ugly. Well, it was ugly before, but now we are beyond a patch. The plan is to weld a brace bottom into the frame and then cover it all with sheet metal floor. I have started looking for a better shell. But, people want mad cash for junk. The next car has to be a salt free, completely solid car.Comment
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Yes that is bad, but it can be fixed. But first you need to see how bad the rust really is and how far the damage extends by abrasive blasting. You’ll need to build yourself a little “tent” inside the car so you won’t have abrasive media everywhere. Get rid of everything that’s less than 60-70% of the un-rusted rail thickness. With the generous access you have you may find that there is rectangular or square steel tubing that will lay right into the frame rail channel that you can weld to reinforce it. If not a “custom” channel can be fabricated. Lots of plug welds. Then finish it from underneath with a “wrap around” piece that extends well onto some healthy steel. Are you going to use one of the new stamped floor panel?Comment
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One of the things you need to evaluate is whether this structural rust damage is affecting the rest of the body panel alignment. My car Had significant rust damage to the floor and firewall. With the car sitting on all four wheels, I had to pull up on the door handle for the door to close. When I jacked the car up by the front rocker jack point, raising the front wheel off the ground, the car door closed easily. The rust damage in my firewall and floor was altering the door alignment. I made my repair with the car jacked up in this position. Once the repairs were done and the car back on the ground, the car door closed perfectly.Comment
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Years ago I would have told you to find a new shell.
I actually parted out and scrapped an '86 325e in 2016 mainly due to frame rail rot. The rail actually collapsed when I put a jack on it.
Now that prices have skyrocketed I would suggest fixing the floor, if that is the majority of the damage.
You should pull the car apart and see where there is other rot. If there are other badly degraded areas the car may be too far gone to save (unless you want to invest big time/money into sheetmetal work like the muscle car guys typically do).
My 325e example had this under the fuse box, and many other spots that sealed it's fate.
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