I just took my ’91 Formula in to have a noise in the front end looked at as well as an alignment. They called and said that the area on the fender where the strut mounts is so rotted (rusted) out they can’t do anything. Can I put some sort of sheet metal cap on there or are there any other options. I should have know when I bought the car used a year ago and that area along with some others was repainted that something was wrong!! Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Find a donor car and have the rusted areas cut out and replaced.

 

Yep; that's a stressful area, better to have it welded up correctly then risk something happen...


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

 

Just FYI -- a shop pulled the same thing with me, but it turned out to be bogus. There are mounting plates and everything where the struts actually mount, so while there was some rust around the plates, the plates were big enough and solid enough to support the strut. So, while the shop charged me a bogus fee and DIDN'T do my alignment, I gave it a pretty good rough alignment at home and haven't had any problems.

I'm almost at the point now that I absolutely will not let anyone besides myself touch my car. Not that it isn't pretty much a beater, but it's terrible to try and find someone you can trust. Usually, I can do a 100% better job with 100% less money, and in less time than the screwing around I get into making sure everyone else is doing THEIR job.

I'm done venting now - but it would be nice to have someone reliable to pawn some of the things I'd rather not spend my time on off to other people.

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1985 Trans Am - rough and ready -- 3" cat and primary exhaust, lowered 2", custom rust body work mild fender denting. Daily driver.
1976 Corvette Stingray - not so rough, but always ready. 427 BBC .030 over (433 ci) 12.5:1 compression about 600-700 HP/World Class T5 tranny, and no, I can't gun it for fear of breaking my tranny - upgrading to a muncie/gear vendors O/D as soon as I get some more $$$

 

I did some checking last night on the strut mount area. Its is a little rusty where the lower plate attaches, but it seems to mostly be the undercoating that is peeling off and a little of the metal. It still feels pretty thick through. And from the top the “cap” that the top strut mount attaches to is still in good shape. I wonder if there isn’t a real thin layer of metal that forms the inner fender that butts up against that cap and that is what is rusting.?