I got some bad news today and I wanted a second opinion from the guys in this forum. I have a 1992 Z28 and my frame has cracked (again) around the steering box. The cracking is pretty bad. I drove my car to a local welder who looked at the crack and said there was really nothing he could do. The guy I spoke to said I would be putting good money after bad if I attempted to fix it.

I've already had this crack repaired years ago and it has occurred again. I believe the last time the car was repaired the guy had to weld in another section of frame. Way expensive!! I am unsure how to post pics but I would like to if someone can help me out.


Feedback welcomed. Way too late for a "wonderbar" at this point.

Rick

 

I've never had to weld a sub frame, but like anything it's always good to other opinions. You might be able to get it to a local collision shop for an estimate. They should surely have seen similar damage before and let you know.

Anything can be saved with enough time and money dumped into it. Usually once you get a major issue though like a roof needing to be reskinned after roll over or other major accidents most people will steer you towards getting a 2nd clean pristine car to swap over any parts you want to keep. That's just more logical for major fixes.

There are 2 ways of posting pictures. Go into the advanced post settings and use the paper clip to upload a file or use the little picture with mountains on it to link it from a URL.

 

Note sure if this will work. Here a picture of my cracked frame and my Camaro.

 

kinda looks like whoever fixed it before didnt do a good job.
i would check to see if its rotten first. hit it with a hammer lightly, does it fold in like a soda can? if so, its gonna get expensive.
if its not rotten, grind out the cracks and weld it up. i would add some scabs, extra pieces of steel wherever you can, that doesnt interfere with anything.
paint it.
and get a wonder bar.

any COMPETENT welder should be able to handle this. no big deal.

 

The same exact thing happened to my car last summer. What I did was purchase a thirgen frontmost sub frame, cut it to the section of just under the steering box ( I think it was about 8 inches in length, can't remember for sure) and had it welded over the crack, under my sterring box. I believe this is a permenant solution. My car feels alot stiffer in the front and can do corners a lot better than before. If you want to look to this way more, I can take picture of what it looks like now. I actually might have pics of what I did)
Good Luck!

 

That's very repairable. What probably happened before is who fixed it for you didn't get good penetration and ground all the weld off that was just sitting on the surface. This would make it look good for a while and crack later because the crack is still there under shallow weld.

 

Yeah, it was disheartening to hear a guy tell me essentially "don't bother" when he looked at the cracking. My car has been parked since 2004 and i was in the process of resurrecting it only to hear this. I have replaced the injectors, put a new dual cat back exhaust, installed a new radiator, etc all on my own . I am not one who likes being defeated, so definitely not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

 

That's it? LOL. I was expecting a warphole of doom. Sounds to me like someone else is just lazy and doesn't know how to fix this problem (whoever it is you talked to). Yeah, that's definitely fixable.. just find someone who knows what they're doing and is willing to work on it and you should be fine.

 

Agreed, looks repairable. The old repair looks poor, just some chicken-crap stitching it back together. Looks like it's largely mostly held though, and you've got a second crack there going off at 90 degrees.

Get some plate fully welded over both cracks, and check the other side of the sub-frame too. Then get a wonderbar to prevent repeats.

Mine was cracked around 2 sides of the sqaure, about as bad as yours. Got the repair done properly by a shop, and it held for a couple of years until a new one began to emerge nearby. Noodled some weld over that myself, and added the wonderbar. This was a great preventative, haven't had any futher problems for nearly a decade.

 

it can be repaired and can be done to where it is fairly strong, this is what mine looked like and my cousin welded it for me. he cleaned and welded the crack then put plates over it and drilled holes in the plates and filled them in with welds on the car and it is SOLID, then i added a wonder bar for good measure.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=3&theater

 

Thanks guys for the input. I think i can take the steering box, the trick is to get someone to come to my home to weld it for a fair price!

Rick

 

So far no one has mentioned this. Once you've had the damage repaired, install either a factory or aftermarket steering brace (aka wonderbar). The version I make has installs with 3 bolts per side instead of just the two every other mfr uses.

Lon

 

I did

 

seems like lots of people mentioned the wonder bar.

did you actually read the thread?

 

Sorry, I guess I missed it. It was pretty late when I posted.

Lon

 

You should get your car towed to a shop, they would be able to fix the frame better, or at least easier.

I went to school for welding and a company that fixes car frames may want to cut out that section and make a new frame section. It would cost more but it may be better if the crack formed on top of the old crack.

Getting a strut tower brace would also help stiffen up the front end some.

 

I disagree, a proper welding job with sufficient penetration is more than enough of a repair. You are adding more seams to be welded up than there currently is and thus more potential failure points.

 

Properly welded items will NOT fail on the weld point just because it's a weld point.

 

This is the crack in my 85 bad welding job once before it's breaking all over I was told it can be repaired lots of grinding off old welds replate it weld it the right way