Frame Rails Crimpled

[irondawg]

Hi,

First time poster, long time reader. I've got a question about the frame rails under the driver and passenger. I've got a '80 FI that I'm considering full resto however, after beginning the teardown, I found that the rails have bends in them about even with the back of the transmission. This car did have a minor hit on the passenger front fender, under the hood the front section shows no signs of damage. I measured the engine bay and it's square. The doors open and close without lifting them and they line up nicely. There isn't much rust I found except the very bottom of the driver and passenger floor boards.

Can these bend be beefed up with welding supports in? Or should I pass?

Cheers,

John

[BEEK]

most likely the damaged area was caused by improper jacking of the car. Some people will use a floor jack placed on those rails instead of the proper jack points. This does damage the rails but does not ruin the car.

[RRoller123]

I bet these bends are more common than most of us expect. I have a small one that looks like it was made by some sort of impact, but it could be from improper jacking too.

Welcome aboard! You will find plenty of knowledgeable and friendly people here.

Post some pictures! They help a great deal when trying to help diagnose problems, inquiries, etc that you may have.

Here is a thread on how to post pictures directly to the forum:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... 13&t=32169

And here is another picture-posting thread:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... 12&t=23084

This short instruction covers how to resize pictures so that they don’t get cut off at the right side:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30441

And here is a link to a map of Spider owner’s locations. Many forum members have listed their locations.

https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=191825

Pete

[BwBrown]

Those rails can be replaced.
I bought for both sides, IIRR, from AR, the replacements fit right over the old ones. (The original rails needed a little "finessing" where they were flattened to allow the replacements to fit over.) Clean the car where necessary, drill holes along the new flanges and plug weld them in place.
Prime and paint - stronger than original.
The jacking pads are just as easy.

OR

Just keep the car right side up and no-one else will ever see them.

[irondawg]

Thanks everyone. I've put the car in storage and will pull it back out to continue the tear down. From the comments here, I'll keep working on it. It's going to be a long process though.

Some history...the car is from Texas. It's been owned by two other people, the last one had it for 19 years. He parked it in his barn in 2007 after he got into an accident on front passenger fender. He did keep driving it for a while but had heating issues. He tried some stop leak in the rad and made a mess. The heater stopped working and then starter quick working. Sent it to a shop to get it fixed but they failed. Not only did they not fix the car but lost the original starter and ignition key. They tried to hot wire it and made a mess.

He got the car back and started rebuilding. Bought a lot of parts including rad, lots of heater parts, and a number of odds and ends. However, he gave up and put it up for sale on ebay. I bid on it not thinking I would get it but I wound up with it for cheap.

Brought it home and started on the tear down. I've got a few pictures someplace. I'll post if I can find them. My plan was strip it down to bare body and replace all rotted metal...which wasn't much as far as I could see. That's when I found the 'kinks' so I stopped and have been debating on getting rid of it and buying another car.

I've got the engine disassembled and ready for rebuild. The tranny shifted and seemed in good shape. Oh...the car has 67K miles. Brakes work but need full refurbish. There's a lot to do but I've been thru resto's before. Take one thing at a time.

Anyhoo...I'll keep posting as I move on.

Cheers,

John

[Mick124]

Good luck John. Will be great to have another restored spider on the road.

[irondawg]

Here's what she looked like about 4 hours after I got home. Hood and a number of front end bits taken off so I could get to the engine.



Which was in bad shape after sitting for 10 years in a barn.



Here's the crud that was in the water pump. I'm not sure what he used but it was nasty.

[irondawg]

I've got bad news. I sent the block, crank, and head to machine shop to magnaflux before the rebuild process. Well, the block is cracked. Probably why the PO put all kinds of radiator leak fix in the engine.

SO...I'm scratching this project. The costs are starting to get excessive. I'm going to start with a better example.

I'm going to part the car out. There's not many engine parts left. The head is in good shape and the machine shop said it's been ported on the intake side and the valves look to be new. The exhaust valves are hardened. They are cleaning them up. I've asked to keep the engine apart so I can get pictures.

I'll start a new thread in Parts.

Cheers,

John

[BEEK]

If the car is solid and fairly rust free whats the difference if you use that block or another? Blocks arent that expensive! buying another car may be. With this one you know what you have. If you buy another and get it home you may discover worse things hidden.

Just my .02

[ORFORD2004]

I got a 2L block with 4.5mm dome piston and total seal ring.

[fredguaz]

I agree with BEEK. I would let the frame condition (read rust) determine whether to get rid of car or not. Check shock towers, rear end hard points and interior floor (after removing the stuck on sound proofing).

[DieselSpider]

Bad bodies with rebuildable engines are probably going to be more prevalent that good bodies with cracked blocks. Or you could do like the previous owner of mine diid and swap out a running diesel from another make and model into it to make it more unique. There is always the option to do an electric conversion using a totaled Nissan Leaf which you could pickup for around $5,000 from the scrap yard.