how bad is this shock tower

[knightdalejb]

I am trying to understand the shock towers. below are 2 pictures of a front shock tower with holes on either side. I poked around it and scraped off until I got to solid metal to see how big the rust was. the cylinder part inside (where the shock goes into) seems like it's the part that is load bearing and this part that is rusted seems not to be. the inside part and inside the engine bay have no rust, just this bracket part.

so my question is can I clean this up and weld on a patch or is this part actually structural and needs to replaced all together. I'd rather not have to rip off this tower and put a new one on, but I'd also not like to die in a fiery crash. and if a replacement is needed..... any other sources than international-auto and/or where the best one?

[mdrburchette]

All of it is load bearing but you can weld new metal there and paint it to make sure it doesn't rust any more. Your damage is nothing compared to what on my Lemons racer.
I hear the replacement shock towers aren't an exact match and it's a lot of work to replace them properly.

[ga.spyder]

You should definitely be able to patch that.It aint nuthin' compared to what we have seen...eh Denise?
Craig

[knightdalejb]

ok thanks for the reassurance. trying to make sure i do things right the first time

[mdrburchette]

Yeah, right Craig.
I didn't get a good picture but you can see what we mean here:

[ga.spyder]

It is a shame that Santa didnt bring you a new camera I forgot how bad that thing was!!

[SLOSpider]

Hey Knight how did you make out with this repair? I just found mine with some holes in there that I need to see how big they get when I start grinding. Do you have any pics of your progress? Thanks Brian

[velozi]

Can you save that one or is that too much?

[SLOSpider]

Can you save that one or is that too much?

Not sure Im going to go home tonight and start scraping away the coating and see what Iam left with. I am hoping that It can be cut out and new metal welded in. I dont have a great feeling by the feedback of people installing the reproduction panels that don not fit right and cost $1500.00 for parts and labor. I better take on a welding course this summer at the local college and see if I can make that my term project!

[knightdalejb]

well life interrupted me and i havent been able to do any work on the fiat in the past couple of months.....