rustyole88pathy Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 Hey guys...so I've had a 4 inch +/- crack in the body of my Pathy since I bought it...It starts at the corner of the passenger side rear window and heads towards the rear of the vehicle (see pic below). At first I just left it alone, but then an ugly rust stain began appearing below the crack and I said enough is enough and this summer I went at it. To my surprise when I hit it with a grinder I was grinding a substantial amount of bondo. Previous owner swears of no accident/repair in that area...and I trust him. Because of the bondo, I could not weld...and even if I could, it's proximity to the window would have seriously worried me (heat and glass/plastic don't mix!) I didn't have too many options for the repair, so I just filled in the crack to the best of my ability with bondo and painted over it. I had a feeling that the fix wouldn't last long...and over the last couple weeks it has cracked again, as well as bulging out the bondo I put in. All in all I'm glad my other body work has turned out 100x better then this attempt! But she's not a show truck...so oh well... Anyway...a buddy of mine told me he saw a 2-door at a jobsite he was working at with a crack in the same location. Is this a common issue then? I think for my next attempt I'll use fiberglass...which I hope will have the strength to resist cracking unlike bondo. Sound like a good plan? Any comments/suggestions are welcome... Thanks! Caution LARGE pic! (yes she's a little dirty...and yes she could flex more if I had a bigger ramp...and yes I do have a NPORA sticker on her now...so I don't want to hear it!) lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 I havent heard of it...to me it looks like there has been a whole corner piece spliced in back there from about an inch below the start of the top of the glass all the way down to about halfway up the fuel door... that part of the body doesnt seem like it would be a high stress area b/c most of your loads are transfered in the corners...if one were to rip I would guess it would be the rockerpanel area that would go 1st where you get most of the body twisting...there arent any seams in that area either so that makes me believe it was repaired at sometime esp if theres bondo...might not be the prev owner but maybe the owner before that and kept i quiet... I think a body shop could fix that without a problem with slow and easy spot welding until its done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pathoffroad Posted September 16, 2007 Share Posted September 16, 2007 I've NEVER seen a crack in the body of any 2-door. Was there a huge bass system installed at one point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPath88 Posted September 16, 2007 Share Posted September 16, 2007 I have one on the other side that wraps around the back, but it was obviously caused by physical damage to the metal. That area was repaired and either it was done under the ownership of an ealier owner, the the prior most owner has not been fully honest with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyole88pathy Posted September 16, 2007 Author Share Posted September 16, 2007 Just FYI guys...that difference in paint that you are seeing was done by ME, painting over the bondo. I tried to fade it into the existing paintwork...and failed miserably. As for a huge bass...i highly doubt it...an old timer was the previous/original owner. My thoughts were that MAYBE there was a joint at that location originally from the factory, and Nissan had thrown some body filler on it. Then overtime, offroading it etc placed stress in that area causing a small crack that just got bigger and bigger. If that is not a possibilty...then yes I agree it smells like previous damage and repair Oh well...I guess I'll just fiberglass it (and try to forget about it)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted September 16, 2007 Share Posted September 16, 2007 My thoughts were that MAYBE there was a joint at that location originally from the factory nope no seam...your best bet would be get a sawsall and go to a u pull it yard and get the back corner and take it to a body shop..if the flexing gets too bad in that area you will eventually bust the back glass I would suspect that it would rip over to the glass then follow either up or down on the glass and then down the top or bottom edge of the glass whichever path it took prob the bottom path and then across over to the triangle window granted that may take 10+ years but if its wheeled a lot and flexed it could happen a lot sooner...i'd get it fixed right to ensure the truck lasted a while more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freezerburn Posted September 16, 2007 Share Posted September 16, 2007 My pathy didn't have a rip per-se but it was very rusty at that spot. The spare tire rack was pulling the body apart at that point (very minor but i took it off anyway). There is somewhat of a subframe that the spare tire carrier bolts into and it had come partially detatched from the body. My fix was to remove spare tire rack and bondo/ fiberglass it closed and its doin alright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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