Just a rant on wingnuts!

[brad131a4]

Why oh why can people not repair things correctly . Working on putting a spider back on the road to be my D.D and what do I find while I'm rebuilding the front end. Some goofball ( trying to be nice here ) welded the cross member to the frame rails.
I thought about just leaving it but the welds are so bad I don't trust that they will hold up with what I'm wanting to do.
They had at least started to repair it sort of by running long bolts threw the passenger side rail.
I'm guessing they just said effit and welded up the drivers side with the bottom bolts just hanging loose to rattle around.
Guess I'll be wasting a day to remove the cross member and repair the bolts correctly.

[124JOE]

sometimes the nuts in the frame spin or just wont tighten up
to fix this you need to open up the frame and resecure the nuts

good luck to you

[124ADDHE]

Good luck, can be done. Once when i was young (18-19), in college and working (no SS here) i was not able to effect a correct repair to my dropped crossmember and was forced to have the local shop just weld the crossmember to the frame with the intention of removing the welds and repairing the fram...turns out the rest of the car was trash (bondo) and I bought a new body for my project, but, i was ready to tackle the job and have some fun welding extra steel as I always find it pleasing to know that I, personally, beefed something up .

Have fun! Tis the season to fix a fiat

[brad131a4]

Oh yea this is not my first time at this. Don't mind repairing my own quick repairs. Just not happy when I have to repair something that is sketchy at best.
That's whats nice about having a welder and the place to do the right repair. Just not having the time or a lot of it kind of puts a damper on things.
I was hoping to have the motor and tranny back in before I had to go back to work after the first.
Not to sure if it's going to happen. It'll be close just might have to do all the pretty work later.
The only bright spot is that all the front braking components are new. Not to bad for a $75 car in ok shape.
Great for a D.D and beat it up on track day car.

[Fiat88]

I also discovered that one of the PO's had welded one side of my cars crossmember to the frame rails. At least he reinforced it with a thick plate running under the crossmember and fully welded.How are you gonna break the welds? Lucky you have access to a welder. Just asking as I'm thinking of what would happen if my crossmember became broken or lower control arm bolts broke, it would suck if I had to junk the body!

[brad131a4]

Well when I was looking at the welds they were pitted and just not very good looking. It looks as they just welded right threw the paint and dirt. I plan on using this as my D.D and as a track car. I just didn't feel comfortable not knowing how well the welds had penetrated. The bolts that they used to go threw the frame were grade 5 bolts. These needed to be changed to grade 8 but they were so rusted I couldn't get them out.

[weekend warrior]

If i could buy a complete spider for $75 i'd be so pleased i'd be doing cartwheels around the front yard!!!

[dmwhiteoak]

If i could buy a complete spider for $75 i'd be so pleased i'd be doing cartwheels around the front yard!!!

I hear ya , my thoughts exactly