Okay guys. I'm sorry to start another thread about this, but I couldn't find anything that answered my questions.

I've got the ubiquitous rusted radiator support on my 1996 Maxima. The car has always been in Minnesota, and I'd say it's about 70-80% rusted out. Before doing any serous research, I bought the following kit on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nissan-Maxima-Rusted-Radiator-Crossmember-Repair-Kit-/290533102479?hash=item43a51f538f&vxp=mtr
After realizing that this kit is not going to be strong enough by itself, I decided to take a different route. I can't afford to replace the whole member, and I'm still stuck with the Ebay kit. My question is this: could I buy a piece of steel to weld on the bottom of the kit? I found a 3" x 24" piece of steal that's a 1/4" thick for $25:

http://www.metalsdepot.com/products/...&aident=#p1506

Would this be structurally strong enough for the job?

 

http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...rt-thread.html

 

Personally i wouldn't trust it and with both of those youre only a couple bucks away from the lower support from courtesy anyway. I would return it if i were you.

 

OEM or bust!!

 

the issue is you'll need to weld/bolt the pieces to good solid metal. if your support is too rusted out that there's not much good metal left then it's not going to help. also even if you bolt this on you still have that rust that's actively eating away at the current support and possibly eating at your new ebay piece.

 

OEM. the EBAY radiator supports are just too flimsy. I did the job twice. Not worth it. Just get OEM, paint, clear coat, then undercoat it.

 

common sense all up in your grill, ( or radiator support )

 

People have welded angle iron with good results. I don't know how to judge the grade (such as 6061), but from the looks, the angle iron is far thicker than that eBay product, and I think it costs under $20, not nearly $100. It's all labor with the angle iron from what I understand....

 

I have an OEM one forsale! I bought it From the nissan dealer and Never used it