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Advice on a little frame repair job.


Nefarious
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hey people. i am about to repair a weird rust hole/crack in the back of my frame, it's right between the frame-side mount for the pan-hard bar and goes a bit into the area where the upper bump stop is bolted on. Luckily its just the bottom and outside portion of the frame that is bad and its only for about a 4-5 inch area, the top and backside are perfect and solid steel.

 

Really weird how localized it is but anyways....must be fixed before more winter road salt eats it up worse.

 

Theres about a 2"x2" hole ont he bottom of the frame and a crack that runs half way up the outside of the frame. I'm wondering...

 

1) Would it be better to cut out all the bad rust and weld in new metal in its place? or...

2) Should I put a plate over top of the rusted area and just weld it up like that..

 

It seems like I would mess a lot less with the structural integrity by just welding a plate over top but the rust behind it would bother me and I don't know if it would just spread onto the new metal even faster... But my brain tells me to cut out the rust and weld in new metal in place of the old.... Anyways, any input is welcome, especially from those that have done frame repairs!! thanks

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I haven't done any frame repairs, but... real rust isn't doing anything structurally, so you don't have to worry about "cutting it out" but if you are actually cutting, and not just knocking off with a chipping hammer or whatever, then maybe you are really just removing metal with rust on it. Anyway, maybe you see what I'm getting at... don't feel bad about removing stuff that is truly totally useless.

 

I'd probably do whatever makes it easiest for you to make the repair. Often you remove rust so you can find where it ends and you then weld to the good metal. You need to find good metal regardless, so it kindof sounds like it's pretty much the same thing, just a decision of whether to get rid of the junk before you put the plate on. My guess is that it really isn't going to make much difference in the end. As long as you are doing a good repair job, I'd probably lean towards getting rid of the junk... less place for dirt to build up and cause more rust etc.

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Rust is like cancer... hack out as much as you can and treat with toxic chemicals!

 

That said, we didn't bother on mine. We ground the surface down to metal and blasted out the inside with water, but we didn't hack out the thin metal. I would've preferred to cut it out and do it that way, but I wasn't the one doing the welding. We don't use road salt around here and I wash it out occasionally, so I'm not too worried about further corrosion.

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Lots of spray on ice inhibitor on the roads here which is supposedly worse than salt.(I live in BC Canada) I think I've decided to cut out the bad and weld in all good new metal. It's already a pretty square area the rust hole/crack is in and luckily the crack ran up to one of the weeping/wash out holes so I don't even need to stop-drill it.

 

My next question is should I use factory width steel or go thicker for the repair? I have a chunk of 1/8th inch plate around that is about the right size for the repair but I noticed the frame is only 2.5-3mm thick, the plate is definitely thicker...maybe twice as thick. I don't want to blow holes in the frame trying to heat up the 1/8th inch enough to get good penetration on the welds. Or do u think that should be ok? I could always get more steel but its always nice to work with what ya got!

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I hit mine with a grinder to find good steel then sprayed rubberized undercoating into the holes to try to coat the back of the frame. I reground the contact surface and welded a plate over the holes. once done, I sprayed the entire area again with undercoating. The northeast loves road salt

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I TOOK A GRINDER and cleaned up the rust and metal surface to be welded.Then used 1/8 inch steel and mig welded it and used some rustolem to combat the rusted areas on it.Just my fix yours is up to you.

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One of the problems with the frams on the WD21's is that they are designed to drain... which also means they can be filled. There is no good way to combat rust that occurs from the inside which is how most of it progresses. It's too late for my 95 but the next new vehicle I get will have its frame filled with expansion foam (Great Stuff). Hell, if the water can't get in, it won't rust, right?

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