Crossmember renewal

[taupe]

Roy

Once you have the paint off give the metal a light sanding, this reveals the spotwelds quite well usually unless its very rusty. They were at about 1 1/2" centres.

Taupe

[bmcecosse]

Hahaha. It's well sanded.... Some spots already predrilled with 1/8" bit. There has been some welding in the past on the floors in that area - which doesn't help. All and any encouragement actively welcomed!

[stag36587]

All the best. On my car there had been previous surgery which made tracing original spot welds very difficult.

[David W.]

Here's some encouragement from the colonies.

[bmcecosse]

Hahahaha - thanks!

[Jefftav]

Hope your going to start a "How To" thread so that other can learn from you

[bmcecosse]

Torsion bars removed this evening - the driver side is actually very solid - begining to wonder if I should just fit a half-Xmember on the passenger side - which is rotten as a pear........ I'm thinking the driver side may have had a half fitted some time in the past. Although I don't see any sign of that below.

[kennatt]

Half the cost half the work........seeing as how you are over the border, would have thought...... no contest good luck with it

[Jefftav]

It might be better to bite the bullet and do the entire member now as even replacing 1/2 a xmember isn't a job to take on lightly - my 2p's worth

[bmcecosse]

It's a LOT less than half the work - that's the thing. I already have the complete new Xmember - but further investigation this morning and decision by lunchtime if I need to order a 'half ' section - which is actually a lot less than half the length - and doesn't involve any welding at the chassis legs!

[stag36587]

[quote="Jefftav"]Hope your going to start a "How To" thread so that other can learn from you :

Yes and would be great to see 'before' and 'after' photos too

[bmcecosse]

No chance....you would all spit your sides laughing........ But I will pass on any advice I can after the event to anyone who is contemplating the job. Progress today is that an 'end section' has been ordered from Bull Motif who very helpfully went off and confirmed he had one in stock - and that it is 18" long - more than long enough for my needs since I am not going to (don't need to) disturb the part where the crossmember is attached to the ends of the chassis rails. This leaves me with a complete spare/new crossmember which i bought a couple of years ago - but I couldn't bring myself to cut it........ The rotten section has been removed from the car - with great difficulty since it had been 'patched' at some point in it's life (not by me!) and was substantially welded to the floor (patches). This was an awful job - and to have to remove the whole crossmember if it is like this would be a dreadful task..... The way I am doing the job, I haven't had to remove the prop/cut the fuel pipe/cut the brake pipe/ pull back the wiring harness. I have disconnected the exhaust and pushed it to the side. Rotten floor section cut out, and a close fitting patch cut to size and in place ready for welding when poor light stopped play......
Oh and the pneumatic chisel set and sheet metal cutting disc tool I bought from Aldi some time ago have both proved to be absolutely useless.......
.

[bmcecosse]

Crossmember end section (BM) arrived today......bit of a disappointment - it's made from flat steel (not laminated) - I could easily have made it myself. Supposed to be 'Hadrian' but no sticker...... £14 on the web soon becomes £25 when carriage and VAT are added.... And the top section is incredibly thin - dunno why they have done that - the rest is good 3mm steel, and the overall height of the part is actually slightly less than it should be - a 3mm top section would be much better - and make the height correct. I considered taking it off (only held by 3 short weld runs each side -surely not enough??) and fitting thicker - but decided it would take too long (and I'm worried about losing the weather window since working outdoors) , so I satisfied myself by adding a lot more weld bracing between the vertical section and the top. After all - the 'top' is the basic means of attachment to the car! Made a cardboard test piece/gauge to help me cut the new part to an exact fit with the cut line on the old crossmember - critical part being to maintain the distance form the rear T bar mount hole (which in this case remains as part of the old crossmember)- to the slot for the reaction arm bolt - nothing else really matters.. Bit of final trimming and then held it up in place very securely with a jack, while applying weld. Removed jack - lots more weld, and some holes drilled down from above (where a patch piece had replaced the torn hole in the floor.......) and some 'spot welds' applied with the MIG gun. Day off tomorrow (steam engine) back to slap on the underseal and assemble the suspension on sunday.....

[MarkyB]

flat steel (not laminated)

Laminated = rust sandwich. Surely there will very rarely, if ever, be any pull on the cross member?
Good plan to replace the ends though, the middle has an automatic rust proofing system

[Jefftav]

Great success Roy Always good when a job turns out to be a bit easier than you are expecting. The replacement end section sounds like a bit of a disappointment though but at least you managed to work a way through the problem.

[bmcecosse]

Hah! It's been anything BUT easy......especially as the car is out in 'full sun'. I'm glad I didn't attempt the whole xmember......this has been hard enough, and to cap it all - ran out of gasless wire this afternoon - and does anyone in west of scotland stock it?? Order it in for monday for you sir......and only£22 or so. Hmmm - £7 on ebay - delivered to my door..... So had to drag out the Ar cylinder (buried deep in the garage with the other cylinders where the Fire Service won't see them when they do the 'safety check'...) and go with gas. The spare xmember I have (with Hadrian sticker) is 'laminated' in the sense that it is two halves back to back. The old one on the car seems to be 4 layers thick.....goodness knows why. I like the flat plate idea - just wish I had thought of it - could have made what I need in a couple of hours - saved £25 and 2 days waiting for the thing to be delivered - and it would have a good thick top section......

[katy]

BM must have changed their supplier, the end sections I got from them 2 years ago were the "2 pieces back to back" style.

[tysonn]

"Slap on the underseal"!!!!Surely not.

[bmcecosse]

Absolutely - thick as possible !