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Going to try reinforcing this crossmember . . . again
This isn't the first time I'vereinforced this crossmember, but it will be a good bit more extensive. I figurewith under $50 in steel and my own time (I'm retired) I can buy myself a fewmore years before having to touch it again. Here's what it looked like with the plastic panels off and the fore/aft bracing unbolted. Good thing I could get a wrench on the nut side, because what was left of the metal wasn't going to holdup to what a fairly serious Milwaukee cordless impact can dish out. The bolts came out clean and only took a wire brush and rerunning them into the nuts with a little WD-40 to be ready for reinstallation.
You can see the leaves in the first picture, and that the fore/aft member on my car isn't quite the same as on krismax's car.
There's a 1x1 angle brace I'd added a few years ago that still seems to be holding up just fine . . . the latch support was welded to it at that time. This was providing most of the crossmember function of keeping the longitudinal frame rail structures in place relative to each other.
Rough-cut with holes drilled for thetwo big nuts, shown here located and welded ↓↓↓. It's on my outside"welding table", that tends to collect other stuff as well. Brakefluid is for the Mustang's track day use, the gear oil went intogranddaughter's 626 (had to replace an axle seal), rest is odds & ends.
Norm
Last edited by Norm Peterson; 10-15-2016 at 08:10 AM.
Somehow the original thread went MIA so I'm reconstituting it with your reply in its entirety (taken from the notice of reply that I got). Everything should be there.
Originally Posted by krismax
If you are keeping the car short term that seems fine but the rust will continue on the inside.
In new york they will not pass that for inspection. any unibody repair must be replaced piece.
You must not have those rules.
No, inspection here is now confined to emissions checking only, but even before when there was the safety-oriented portion of the inspection there was nothing I ever ran across like that, and I've done structural repairs on my cars before.
As a piece that appears to be only bolted on I think there's more than enough room to simply reinforce it as an added-on brace, even in your neck of the woods. Something like stamped, welded, and/or structurally bonded main platform structure would probably fall into a different category.
I expect it to hold up for a few years at least. The 1x1 is still in great shape and it's been there at least three or four years.
Norm
Last edited by Norm Peterson; 10-15-2016 at 08:28 AM.
It one of those "develop it as I go" projects, trying to think before doing. Given the load on the two bolts, and that they're closer to the back than the front, it became apparent that I'd have to stiffen the back side in some fashion. Otherwise, the 3" wide strip would be mostly loaded in bending (not a rigid or strong direction for a flat strip).
I should be able to get most of it at least tackwelded onto the car today, once I blow all the loose rust/sand/whatever out. The welding itself should proceed fairly quickly - where I'm welding to is still in pretty good shape. But getting things done in the right sequence is what's taking time . . . and solving things like the matter of trying to minimize water intrusion because I doubt I'll be able to eliminate that completely.
A leaf blower on high speed took care of whatever rust and what-not was in the ends of the crossmember.
Bottom plate located and ready to be tacked in place. The two bolts are tightened; this guarantees alignment when raised into place using the jack. The C-clamp tightens up the (damn near unavoidable) gaps. No, I didn't forget about the plastic panels, they'll be cut/slotted as necessary. Which reminds me, I'm going to have to buy some of those plastic push fasteners since most of the ones that were there broke on removal. And there's a busted piece of screw-thread fastener stuck in its nut that I'll have to do something about (visible in the second picture over near the tire).
Front plate added. There's a little more gap along the top edge than expected. Haven't decided yet how I'm going to handle it, but I've got a couple of ideas.
I won't have to leave the fore/aft member that the engine support attaches to up on a jack tonight. It's solid enough already.
Norm
Last edited by Norm Peterson; 10-18-2016 at 04:09 PM.
Thanks for the pictures. I'm attempting this job this weekend. Any chance you could grab a wide angled picture from a few steps back. Trying to show my buddy what it would look like.
Best I can do at least for now. No lift, and I'm already at the limit of what my welding cable can reach.
If I ever have to revisit this again, I won't have as much to work with as I do this time, and will probably use a full length of square tube instead. Might be worth considering, even though there'd still be some fit-up work involved around the two large bolts.
Norm
Last edited by Norm Peterson; 10-19-2016 at 06:57 AM.
Yesterday evening I rolled it down off the ramps for a quick drive around the block, and there is definitely a more solid feel to the front end. But it's back up on the ramps for piecing in as much filler plating as I can get on. And secure the ambient temperature sensor somehow (the hole for its single bolt ended up under the reinforcement). I'll probably just tackweld the bracket to the reinforcement.
This crossmember looks like it was designed to rust out - the back vertical side (engine side) extends above the top, trapping water and moisture-retaining crud under the A/C condenser where you can't easily see it. No guarantee that normal or even hard braking will keep it all dislodged.
Norm
Last edited by Norm Peterson; 10-21-2016 at 04:17 AM.
Reason: fix bad spelng
I should be able to get a review with more basis out once I finish it up - there's at least some painting and sealing left to do.
"Finishing up" is going to depend on the rain holding off and my lower back holding up. Those two control arms on the top of the pile in that last picture are from me being under my granddaughter's 626 fixing a transaxle leak, and fixing that uncovered torn balljoint boots and one bad outer tierod end, so I've been spending a lot of time bent over and getting down on the creeper and back up again. Not as limber as I used to be . . .
No, I didn't forget that there were a few machine-thread fasteners. M6 x 1.0, and I chose to use stainless. Used an electric whiz-wheel to cut the plastic (you'll never see it unless you're about to get run over).
And I added a short brace to support the passenger side plastic panel, which was a bit too floppy after being cut. Shown behind a 3/4 x 3/4 angle tying the flat plate stiffeners together. Scuffed and hit the center member with some paint while I was under there. Used a heat gun to dry the paint (50°'s F today). Sorry about the orientation, not sure I can fix the album picture.
Norm
Last edited by Norm Peterson; 10-25-2016 at 10:14 AM.
10-15-2016, 08:06 AM
