well, over christmas break i have taken apart my front end. my project this break is to fix everything and such.

to my dismay when i was brushing at some rust spots, i found that at the top of my drivers side strut tower has rusted through completely in a rather large spot, the passenger side has done the same but to a lesser extent. I was even able to scrape/smash out a bunch of the rust.

the towers seem to comprise of the wheel well, and then a sandwich of 2-3 pieces of steel then the top piece which the thingamabober which holds the struts in allignment bolts to.

oh yeah living in the rust belt RULES!!!!!!

has anybody had to fix this type of problem yet? other than going to a junkyard and getting the correct assembly, is there any way of fixing this.

i am also thinking of adding in a layer or two of ~~16 guage sheet metal for added strength, but i don't know if it would mess up my suspension geometry.

thanks

andrew

 

Some pics of the strut tower would help to see exactly where your rust problem is occurring.

 

i hate the rust belt too my friend...

i'm no expert, but i'd say match the thickness of the tower's steel and patch it, i wouldn't go extra thick cuz it's weight on the front end...

 

Most of the cars I've seen in MI with rusted out strut towers were in junkyards. The problem is when the car gets rusted int hat area it becomes unsafe for the road. You could fix it, but the effort in cutting, welding, and finishing it correctly may not be worth it to you. Another thing you have to consider is that the repair has to be precise so you can make sure and get the front suspension aligned when its all done.

If you do fix it make sure that you install a STB when you're done. It would make it more sturdy.

 

most of the rust was from the pitting of the top plate. and about 80% of the surface was pitted. and i probably lost about 20% of the steel to rust. it is so bad that the rust scale actually looked like 3 layers of steel. pretty sick and discusting.

right now the plan is to design a few brackets that will allow me to use a modified version of the 4th gen front end. where i will use the a-arms, but the strut tower wont support the coil overs. i would like to make a bracket to do this job. kinda like those mustang II suspensions i see in the magazines. i already welded one on to a frame, so i am somewhat good with the mig.

also right now i am working on trying to get access to my school's shops and computers for this project. and so far, there is a bit of interest, so i will see how far this will go.

 

you could spend all the time patching and it very well could work, if it was me I'd buy new inner fenders or find a good set of used ones without the rust, checkout the paddock co. yearone and some of the third gen resourses on this websit. If you find a good set off a junkyard car the price would be reasonable and if you have to pick em then some of your time involved.