Hey guys, I need your guidance and suggestions as to whether my car is worth fixing, or if can even be done. Basically, I started to jack my car up to pull off the wheels and look at the brakes, when I heard a frightening cracking sound. The jack was “sinking” into the “frame rail”!! I took it to a local shop to have them look at it, and the mechanic said he couldn’t even put it up on the hoist using the normal jacking points (insert rude joke here!) Anyway, we got it off the ground and went under the car…and that’s when we found a fist sized hole on both sides of the car on the “frame rails”. We also discovered that there is an extremely soft spot bascially under the drivers seat (you could put your arm through it if you pushed hard enough). My question is A) can the frame rot be fixed? and B) approximately how much would it cost to fix the frame?
i have had 3 s13s my latest had this problem, although only on one side. i fixed it by cutting out the rott and welding a sleeve onto the rail. most people will tell you not to do this because it will never feel the same and its problobly true, that is if you are going to mod it or do spririted driving.
as far as just daily driving though it has held up great and i dont notice a difference in how it drives compared to my other s13’s
And be carful who you allow to fix damage such as a frame rail because depending on how far gone “rotten it is” chances are the floor pan itself is rotten and well since its a Uni-Body, the Frame Rails are spot-welded to the Floor Pan…
So if the Floor Pan is gone, you need to remake that prior to fixing the section of frame so that you have good “none rotten material” to weld too
Lastely… depending on what you do to a Frame it will then require a “Stractural Safety” to ensure whoever did the work did it properly and the vehicle/frame etc can still withstand a decent amount of load. This is NOT the same as a normal Safety… So if you had someone do a real mickey house job on the Rail and you took it to a Mechanic for a Safety and he could tell the Rail was cut out, replaced and not done proper, odds of him Certifing the Car is slim to none because he cannot prove its safe
So MAKE SURE!!! wheover fixes your car does it so friggin good that you cannot tell it was fixed afterwards… that way when its up on a hoist, odds of anyone every even knowing it was repaired is slim to none (and a job like that isnt cheap)
i have a stripped 180sx front clip take it if you want for 100 bucks you get mint frame rails, rocker panels, strut towers, everything, rad support… good luck…
Hey Jedi_Car_Fan… yeah the “floor pan” is rotted pretty bad as well, in fact, you could probably pull a Fred Flinstone, and brake just using your feet if you pushed hard enough, the floor under the drivers seat is very soft, the “metal” (if there is any left that is) moves real easy when you press on it. I guess that to repair this properly is going to be a time consuming and expensive undertaking.
You may want to take Bensons advice unless you know anyone who could do those repairs or help you out with them so you can save some cash… My guess @ it would be its going to cost you $600 + once the floor is fixed and then the frame is fixed and your all said and done.
So depending on what kind of shape the rest of the car is in… you may want to search for a new chassis
ok, being a professional welder and having done this before, DO NOT BOX/SLEEVE IT!!! thats all i can say, and don’t go to a shop cuz all most all of the time, shops dont hire welders they just hire people who aren’t afraid to use the welding machines. simply because most shops dont get enough/steady welding jobs. and unless you want your shit rotting again. dont go to a shop and dont get it boxed plain and simple. if you dont understand why, go read some books on basic welding and metallurgy.
I cant even remember/name all the times I’ve seen threads on here and people just box something in or weld to the rust more so (which tech isnt fixed anything) you might as well just get out some fiberglass and cover up the holes, lol.
I also know quite a few people who claim they can weld and it seems all the people going around saying (I can weld, I can weld I can weld) really cannot weld worth a shit, lol.
Myself, I’ve worked as a Fabricator/Welder now for 6 Years… Mig welder is like a friggin glue gun (pull the trigger and drag it) Tig welding S/S is a bit tricky but I have learned how to do “thou I dont do it often” Aluminum is a total different story and I havent even bothered with it as my Father is a Sheet Metal worker by trade and is certified to weld for Hydro on their Polls/Generators so If I need Aluminum done, I’ll just let him do it
//\ i agree but i’m not like those kids i’ve been welding for almost six years. and tig is very tricking its more of an art if anything, but i dunno if you were trying to say you were gonna weld aluminium with mig? it can be done to an extent, they have alu wire but requires a special gas, they also have alu flux cored wire to, but flux core is gay
I’d never waste my time setting up a Mig Welder to do Aluminum… by the time you get a proper gun, the Aluminum Wire + the Argon mix your better off just Tig Welded it all because you’d get a much better Weld etc etc
And yes Flux Core is gay and should no longer be sold, lol.
I’d never waste my time setting up a Mig Welder to do Aluminum… by the time you get a proper gun, the Aluminum Wire + the Argon mix your better off just Tig Welded it all because you’d get a much better Weld etc etc
And yes Flux Core is gay and should no longer be sold, lol.[/quote]
no i wouldn’t waste my time setting up a mig for aluminium either, it would look very nice compared to how a tig bead looks, and isnt’ tig welding using a tig half the fun of welding aluminium anyways? i thought so at least, mig is boring, tig is so much fun, flux core is still gay!
i think i pm’d you anyways