Rust on Frame

[andyza]

Hi all,

I am a new member here. - Have a few questions, because my car has frame rust. Especially on the left front are holes visible. Here are a few photos.

Are there any suggestions besides 'trash it'? I don't want , because it is a 'Limited Edition'.

Is it possible to weld in this frame area? I am not 100% sure, where the location of my image is exactly on the frame and how critical it is to weld in this area?

Thank you all
Andy, NJ

[Tiggie]

That is fairly significant rust.

I would check the rest of the frame out with a screwdriver and some force to see if there are other soft spots. If there are, it might be time for a new frame.

You can weld it, as long as you get something solid to weld to before it gets to the top of the frame.

What year is the car?

[gadget73]

What he said. This is a common rust area, fixable if thats the only soft spot but I have seen pics of frames rearward of this A pillar rust and its just swiss cheese.

My car has a patch plate on the driver's side in this area. Passenger side is more common. The AC drips there and runs into the frame and then the water lays there. Something I can tell you from my own experience, my car was welded on jack stands and it ended up tweaking the frame slightly so the door didn't quite sit right. Had to get backed into by a Dodge van to fix that. If you weld it, try and have it done on a lift that picks the car up by the tires so the frame is in it's normal position.

[87gtVIC]

Could also place the stand under the rear axle and front control arms to get a similar results.

[andyza]

How the Car-Wizzard says: 'There is more!'

Tiggie Yes, I have done the screw driver test already:
There is also (one) spot on the rear left. Difficult to snap a picture. I tried anyways. Hope you can figure out the geometry.

Btw: Welding the rear may be impossible. The damage is on the inner frame part. One may gain a bit of access by removing the gas tank, but one half of the damage is near the lower trunk wall area.

The front damage seems to be more severe anyways. When driving, light squeaks come from the driver's front area.
If I jack up the car in front, the driver door doesn't close properly. It again does, when I put the wheels back on the ground.
(Other doors never have any issues, jacked up or not.)

So the front damage is more urgent... my opinion.

gadget73 do you have any photo of your patch plate solution? So I can see how it is compared to my damage?
I assume I would need a curved plate, not actually a flat patch??

[gadget73]

No, but mine were smaller holes. It was repaired a number of years ago now. The patch started as a flat plate of a suitable size, one end was welded and it was formed into place as needed with a hammer.