The rear frame has a ton of rust and is kinda rotted out on the passenger side.
If that car has spent its entire life in Michigan, it may unfortunately now be a parts car. At least one of the members here has done extensive repair work to rusted out upper frame rails... but it's not a job for the faint of heart.
Hopefully your rust is confined to the engine cradle only… That is replaceable, you will have to unbolt it from the rest of the frame and separate it from the engine and transmission to install a replacement. That's what I did on mine.
Hey, I just bought an 87 gt and I’m trying to teach myself how to work on cars with it.
The rear frame has a ton of rust and is kinda rotted out on the passenger side.
I’ve been looking and I’m having a hard time finding a repair kit, I don’t know if I’m just not seeing it or if it just doesn’t exist.
Thanks I’m advanced for any suggestions or advice
Coffee Girl... are you a girl? I assume you're young... I wanted to send you a link to my daughter's YouTube channel if you're interested. She's also really young and interested in learning about cars... she's been doing a LOT of stuff, basically entirely on her own. In the background (what I don't record), I usually tell her what she should do, WHY she's doing it, and then she usually looks it up in the book and corrects me before she does it, haha.
But, I don't want you to be dissuaded from a rusty car frame. I mean that. One of the great things about Fieros is that the body panels sit on top of all of that. So honestly, it doesn't matter how nasty it looks. YOu can literally weld like crap, so long as you get it all repaired. It doesn't have to look good because no one will ever see it.
Cradles are easy to replace, but welding is NOT HARD, and you can get tons of welders (flux-core) that don't require any gas, and do all the work yourself. You'll just want someone to check your work to make sure it's safe.
Anyway, I agree with Patrick on most things car related... but I disagree here. If the car was actually too badly gone, it would have split in half. If it's still solid and on one piece, then there's enough metal there to reinforce that which has rusted away. You don't need original frame pieces, just steel tubing.
Anyway, I agree with Patrick on most things car related... but I disagree here. If the car was actually too badly gone, it would have split in half. If it's still solid and on one piece, then there's enough metal there to reinforce that which has rusted away.
Todd, IMO you're supplying deceptive information. Repairing a rusted out hulk (like the one I linked to above) is not a job for someone "trying to teach myself how to work on cars".
Todd, IMO you're supplying deceptive information. Repairing a rusted out hulk (like the one I linked to above) is not a job for someone "trying to teach myself how to work on cars".
Doing it the "right way" that looks good certainly isn't, but like 82 - t/a said, the plastic covers all that, if I didn't care how it looked, and had enough welding equipment and time, I'm confident I could get it together enough to be safe to drive on the road (I've welded 2 small spots, to hold a broken bolt once, trust me, it was horrible). My pastor learned to weld to repair his rusted out Jeep, it is safe, but man does it look horrible, Fieros have clean nice plastic to cover the ugly mess created by that.
No disrespect to anyone in this thread... but having a novice welder/fabricator tackle a job that involves the structural integrity of a motor vehicle is a fool's game.
let's actually see how bad it is. honestly as long as they can't hammer a dull Philips screwdriver through the rusty bit with minimal effort it might be ok. I'm assuming it was driven before purchase or at some point but clearly we have to wait and see before we judge anything or say immediately that they cannot fix it yet. it might just need a small brace or be a 150 fix at a body shop or nothing to worry about at all
Todd, IMO you're supplying deceptive information. Repairing a rusted out hulk (like the one I linked to above) is not a job for someone "trying to teach myself how to work on cars".
My entire life Patrick, I've been told... "You can't do this... not enough experience, requires someone with super special skills."
You know what... I've renovated 3 homes top to bottom (tile, electrical, plumbing, drywall, carpentry, HVAC, cabinetry, flooring, etc.), taught myself to program, taught myself how to restore/rebuild mechanical Swiss watches, taught myself circuits & soldering, blah blah... you know how I did it? YouTube.
Please don't tell people they can't do something. *THAT* is like calling Marty McFly chicken. You know better than this.
I'm not telling anyone what to do. I'm pointing out the potential issues that may or may not be apparent to someone who is unfamiliar with the job at hand. The structural integrity of a car does more than keep it in one piece while it's sitting in its owner's driveway. Lack of structural integrity could mean death of the car's occupants in the event of a collision, or even from just hitting a large pothole while travelling at speed. IMO, you're being totally irresponsible downplaying the potential consequences of an improper repair of a rusted out rotted car frame.
It's possible the OP's newly acquired Fiero isn't all that bad. If that's the case, great. If not, I'm glad I've spoken up.
I'm not telling anyone what to do. I'm pointing out the potential issues that may or may not be apparent to someone who is unfamiliar with the job at hand. The structural integrity of a car does more than keep it in one piece while it's sitting in its owner's driveway. Lack of structural integrity could mean death of the car's occupants in the event of a collision, or even from just hitting a large pothole while travelling at speed. IMO, you're being totally irresponsible downplaying the potential consequences of an improper repair of a rusted out rotted car frame.
It's possible the OP's newly acquired Fiero isn't all that bad. If that's the case, great. If not, I'm glad I've spoken up.
Nonsense... the upper frame rails only provide additional lateral rigidity, and support quarter panel mounting, they aren't even important for overall suspension or alignment of the car's chassis, other than to support the spring seats. They have almost nothing to do with impact protection except to nominally [laterally] brace the actual box frame, which they don't even attach directly to except through thin sheet metal and the strut mount. You can cut them out entirely and drive the car around, which is what happens with many kit car installations where a new suspension is installed.
You said,
quote
Repairing a rusted out hulk (like the one I linked to above) is not a job for someone "trying to teach myself how to work on cars".
... and
No disrespect to anyone in this thread... but having a novice welder/fabricator tackle a job that involves the structural integrity of a motor vehicle is a fool's game.
You could have just said...
"Make sure you have someone double-check your work to ensure you maintain the integrity of the frame."
Without Coffeevgirl's photos, you're arguing something that MAY or MAY NOT be true.
Again, wow.....
Haha... that was my "trigger," being told I (or someone) can't do something. I can't tell you how many dumb hobbies I've picked up because someone said to me, "You need an expert to do that."
I've done extensive rust repair on rotted out Fieros.
The only safe way to replace rotted metal is with OEM stampings removed from another car. They must be removed by drilling out the OEM spot welds with a spotweld cutter tool and rewelded at those points.
As Patrick so aptly pointed out, structural integrity of the repair is very important. I would point out that spaceframe response to a collision is more important, and the ONLY way to achieve that is by using OEM panels, welded in the OEM places.
The DIY sheet metal repair is not safe in a collision.
Looks like Coffeevgirl decided to have a latte instead.
That's why I rarely make an effort to help any new members until I see they make a couple posts. We waste our time answering or even researching some of these questions to help new members basically for nothing.
Unless this is another "girl" name like we've had in the past that Cliff determines is a spammer.
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 05-11-2024).]
