I was poking around my engine bay and looked through the ports to see the inside of the shock towers. I noticed the rust on the inside layer of metal. It is rotting away in parts.

From what I can tell it has not perforated through to the outside of the shock tower. From the wheel well area the towers look intact. They do have a coating on them but from what I can tell there does not seem to be any rust though the shock tower.

The area that is rusted from the inside looks like a thin skin with solid metal behind...

the first two videos are of the lower area where the shock absorber passes through, the next three are of the upper area.
This is the passenger side..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhiPAKdYie8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RixIjtDG200

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zazr4k16Pf8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3x3BD7zu_o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Y2q76oC-M

Here are some photos:















Based on these photos and videos am I out of luck in that the shock towers need to be replaced?

Or if the rust hasn't gone through, can I pick and pull away that thin rusted metal layer and then spray the inside with something like Rust Cure 3000 to help inhibit any further rust development?

Feeling around the rust areas it seems like several layers have bubbled up....almost like layers of an onion skin, but not rusted through to the outside..

I fear the worst though in that I will need to have the shock towers replaced....

Frank,

I am in a similar boat though I must admit yours looks a bit worse off than mine. If I am not mistaken that rust inside the shock access opening is living in the heavier shock tower metal and something you want to address promptly. Maybe someone who has pulled these apart can weigh in more on that.

My drivers side has rust in the "pockets" on the outer layer, where the water and dirt pool, but and do not appear to be penetrating the inner layer, the heavier more structural element. In this case I am going to remove the outer skins and see what is really underneath. If it's not too bad I will grind the rust down and remove as much as I can. I may try to pour POR15 in any seams to keep further rust at bay. Then patch the holes in the outer skin and weld it back on. I know the outer skins are available but there are so many spot welds holding these on it might be easier to remove the entier tower than these outer skins. The passenger side is not so nice and I think i will just replace the entire tower with the version Casaba sells for $269. Finding good used examples is proving to be too time consuming. I would still have to remove them and clean them up from a downer car

My only question is getting the new one in the same place as the old. My plan is to etch around the old using a engraving tool so the lines are not removed during cleanup of the area. I will also measure from the front to the leading edge of the tower assembly in several locations and then again from the bottom of the spring seat to the floor, when the frame is sitting at a predetermined height from the floor. Floor slopes out so the car will need to be sure to be in the same location.

I have the advantage of having the engine out, so removing the many spot welds from inside will be a bit easier.

If your not up to this task, I can't even imagine the cost of all this labor at a body shop.

Rust never stops, so if your going to keep the car, I would invest in getting it repaired as soon as possible. Why add an accident or additional damage to the car to the overall repair bill. IMO.

Thanks for the reply!

I'm going to clean up as best I can on the inside..

Once I get the front end up on jack stands I will clean away all of the black coating in the wheel well area to expose the shock tower metal and assess from there.

I'm thinking replacements will be required..

I can see all of the pinch welds in the engine bay where the towers are connected. Do these get ground away or can you drill the pinch welds out?

Do you have any photos of what you are dealing with on your car?

Thanks again

This is what my passenger side looks like...the hole behind the upper bump stop has been there for a decade or more, so not progressing much in the cars softer life of summer driving. Unfortunately rust never sleeps and progressed outwards.

Passengers side by Fiat Parts, on Flickr
Passengers side by Fiat Parts, on Flickr

No surprise these creases only aided in the eventual rot by holding the water and debris for years.
Passage side by Fiat Parts, on Flickr

I was able to make some progress on the driver side earlier today but stopped as I am not able to access the spot welds on the back side closes to the firewall without an angle drill. Might be cheaper to just remove the entire shock tower and know all the rust is gone and not have to patch and weld all the rusted areas. Like most I have less time than I would like, so what works fastest is usually the better solution.

There are just a few spot welds -
2015-11-04_11-20-09 by Fiat Parts, on Flickr

Without the bump stop...you can see the same hole forming here as is already there on the passenger side -
2015-11-04_11-20-26 by Fiat Parts, on Flickr
2015-11-04_11-20-42 by Fiat Parts, on Flickr

Very little force needed to push this punch through..not very promising -
2015-11-04_11-20-56 by Fiat Parts, on Flickr

From inside the hole the punch went through appears rock solid on the surface -
2015-11-04_11-21-11 by Fiat Parts, on Flickr

Decent right angle drill will cost me about $200, almost the cost of the new shock tower.

I am not sure rust in this upper are is as bad as if it were in the lower areas where the shock actually mounts, but to me without this area being sound it could collapse after a stout pot hole and the upper control arm would roll up under the fender...catastrophic to say the least.

Biting the bullet and ordering two complete shock towers seems like the direction of least resistance at this point, though my wallet disagrees.

Thanks for posting those photos, I'll know more once I get the car set up for winter storage.
I will be able to get to the outside of the towers in the wheel well at that point.

Are you drilling out those spot welds or angle grinding them away?

I'm using a spot weld remover from Blair. The metal is so soft it works very well. Only issue is the welds are often not round but more oblong, but you get enough the pop them off. It's about $60 for the kit with 4 cutting g heads. I think I will start a thread on the cimplementation towe R&R. I could find little complete info on the job. Does that mean most abandon it or take it to the local body shop???

I'll look into that tool..

I wonder what most people do? I think if you have welding skills and are careful in the prep and alignment you can do it yourself.

I would imagine having the outline of the old tower would greatly assist in lining up the new tower..

Maybe some sheet metal screws to hold the new tower in place as you get things lined up and then add the spot welds from there

76124, were you able to remove the spot welds by working only from the wheel well as opposed to inside the engine bay?

Thanks
Jeff

Finally found my old thread about the shock tower repair on my 75 if your interested:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9420

Thanks for the link!

Going through the same thing right now. Here is a little lesson learned. I ended up drilling them from both sides. Once I had the tower removed I cleaned up the holes. I used spray paint to mark the outline of the old towers. Then I drilled four holes in the new towers at the same place of some of the spot welds. I ran some screws and washers through to hold them in place while I welded the towers in place. In theory this should have worked prefect. Except now the bolt hole for sub frame doesn't line up with the hole in tower. I had purchased the new towers as one piece items. *** They don't necessarily match the contour of your towers *** You can buy them either pre-welded or as two piece assemblies. I will definitely go with the two piece assemblies next time. Had to drill out the hole. Hope that it won't mess with the alignment too much.