b2010

Any tips on repairing these cracks? One crack on each side.
What caused this? I drilled the tiny holes for the heck of it.
Car hasn't been driven since finding this, but it was off road for repairs for a decade and now i have a cousin, a pro welder, coming this weekend to help me out.

I'm not sure what it is called, the front of the box, the stamped steel across the front of radiator is cracked on both sides. If I have it welded, it appears to be more than one piece cracked there, like its a stamped steel T shaped bracket across the front where the radiator sits. I wonder if when welded, it should have some support pieces of metal welded underneath, but where will it crack next?

Anyone repair this type of damage before?

Any tips on the order of removal of stuff to get at this for repairs?
I'm guessing:
remove the nose (is that really required to
remove that metal plate in front radiator and or does that come out as easy at it looks without removing the nose?),

remove fans, radiator, whatever else is in the way, etc

Then my pro welder cousin should be able to get at it?


I didn't notice the crack it until doing the head gasket at 137k. It was in an accident before I got the car around 2001. The tires wore evenly, but i had front end work done right before the new tires.

The visible broken criss cross bracket mount in front of radiator which I guess stabilizes the air flow stuff underneath I'm pretty sure I damaged spinning out onto a curb in the snow.


Any extra braces you would weld while I have the services of a pro welder this weekend?


Thanks

battman

iTrader: (2)

Just fix all the cracks and broken spots the put a wonder bar on it. The wonder bar will tie the front to frame rails together and keep it from cracking again.

b2010

Cool. thanks. Just getting started. Stage 1 photos attached.

We will put a one piece L shaped plate over each side
after finishing the welding of the crack on the right side.

and then get a wonderbar...

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Wonder bar won't fix that.

I'd consider retiring that chassis. By the time the whole thing has been racked and twisted enough, long enough, and hard enough, to do that to that place, there's no telling how many other places are equally fornicated. That won't be the only one, by a long shot.

Valiant effort but I think you're wasting your time.

b2010

Thanks for the response. I don't think I can make up my mind to scrap it, at least not yet.

What are other common body flexing damage areas to check?

I've looked for cracks and damage elsewhere and didn't find any.

There's no flex cracks in front on the doors.

Nothing around the steering box looks cracked.

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

Idk I kinda agree with sofa. Those are all stress cracks, bad ones and in a place they shouldn't be. I also find it hard to believe there are not more elsewhere.

How many miles are on this chassis?

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Take out the rear seats and take off the plastic covers next to them below the sail panels and pull back the carpet.

Also check the roof above the rear corner of the windows. Might have to peel back the weatherstripping a bit: be VERY GENTLE with that.

b2010

137k on it now. I got it around year 2000 with ~88k.

Around 95k, I had a shop do ball joints, tie rod ends, and whatever else he said it needed. It cost $1500, I recall.
I put on new tires after that and that tire place aligned it however they do.

I drove it until about 2005 from CT to Boston several times a week,
so for a few years I put on nearly 2k miles a month. All tires wore evenly. Always sythentic oil.

It sat outside for 10 years on a sandy/cement lot with a blown head gasket and intermittent fuel problem.
The under side isn't all rusted out as I expected. The undercoating was flaking off. I scraped it and painted it.

Turns out, it was a flaky wire near the fusible link, orange circuit that does both fans and fuel pump.
Perhaps I didn't need to replace the fuel pump yet, but that's done.

The overheating was when fans crapped out while on loan to my sister.
I had both fans rewired with their own ground power and fuses directly to the battery.

I ran it a couple more years to a local job ~50 miles a week using bars stop leak.
I stopped driving it when it wouldn't start when hot.
Let it cool a couple hours, fired right up.

Considering I can't get any money for it,
and my deceased dad gave me the car as a surprise
when my old 83 buick park ave got nailed by a u-haul truck while parked in Boston,
I'm probably going to do whatever it takes however long it takes.

I was expecting to pull out the seats and rug because it is nasty, but first, I'll look around those areas closely.
Maybe I won't be getting the driver seat redone or getting a new rug...

I guess it is time to finish clearing out some space in the garage and start taking it apart to find out if it is a pile of parts.

b2010

Thanks for the info.

I do want to see where else it was flexing, as it must have been to have those huge cracks.

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

I had a thought.
Check behind the bumper. Is the steel impact bar on the car or did somebody remove it? It ties the front frame horns together and without it the front end will flex a lot and I can see it causing this problem.
Worth a look

b2010

That doesn't look like much of an impact bar.
It appears to be loosely bolted too.

As I don't know what I'm looking at, here's some photos I hope show something useful: shouldn't there be no space where it bolts together?

The passenger side looks like it is bent where it attaches to the bumper.
Also, it looks like it has a crack and possible some welding repairs hidden under some paint. I'll have to take the light off to get in there, might as well take off the nose too so I can see what else might be wrong.


sorry for blurry photo, camera wouldn't focus up close and macro mode required more light

I wonder: Could the front get smashed in, and they just pulled or banged out the main brace, so it was weaker where it was bent and 50k miles later, it just wiggled the cracks? It surely wasn't quite straight on the pass side. Is all this grey primer normal or is it likely that the nose of the car got replaced after the last accident?

Thanks for looking.

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

Its in there, never mind that thought