So as I was preparing to start my cowl and floor board rust repair I ran into a much more significant issue. As I was moving the car around in the driveway to put it on the other side of the garage I noticed something felt like it "popped" and then the back end felt strange. I get under the car and this is what I find. It looks like there was some rust lurking under there and the spot welds finally gave up. What is the process for fixing something like this?? It seems like something that might need to be left to a frame repair shop. Thoughts please!
Definitely looks like rear uni-body frame rail/pad has separated from the body and until you can arrange to have rewelded, would not drive around! You can remove the rear seats, pull back the carpet and see what condition the floor pan area above where the spot weld has separated. If it is in rough shape, ie. rust holes etc., the area may have to be reinforced with add sheet metal before rewelding up. If you or someone you know can weld, then it is possible to jack up/support the frame until it lines up with the body (easy to see, as it has been painted/undercoated) and weld. You obviously would have to clean/prep the area........ If you can not get it to line up perfectly, then I would suggest taking to an frame/alignment shop where they will make sure it is lined up/welded correctly. Remember this is an important part of the rear suspension! From the picture, it looks like still solid metal, but might as well give it a really good looking over, as this could be a sign of other underlying issues..........but for the time being, I would park it in the garage and place a jack stand under the damage area to support it to prevent any further damage. Good luck and keep us posted! David
Did you run over something? It looks like the floor has been pushed up and torn away from the torque box. Looking at the springs/frame compared to the muffler I would say sheet metal over structure but hard to say with that picture. Compare the floor pans behind the seat and I would bet one isn't right.
I have not run over anything but now that I look at it again you are absolutely right! the floor in that area has been pushed up. I did have a shop replace the timing chain and front cover a few months ago and then I got tied up with work and hadn't been able to do anything with it (or even drive it) since then. From what I can tell it looks like they put one of the lift arms on the floor instead of on the torque box...that's the only thing I can think that could cause such damage. I have my doubts if they would ever own up to doing something like this though, especially since it has been months since it was with there.
Just put a jack under the pad and gave it a few pumps..the whole car lifted with no deflection to the pad. This makes me think pad and frame rail are still solid its just the floor that has come detached on that inner side. The frame rail is still attached to the body on the outer side. I'm going to measure the height from the ground on both sides to see if there is a drastic variation. I'm starting to think I could possibly just pound the floor back flat (the metal there is still solid) and weld the pad back. Thoughts?
Either way, you will have to remove rear seat and pull back the carpet and see about banging the floor sheet metal back into place. If that is all that is wrong, then you are good to go and while you are at it, might as well spray some sort of rust protection in between. How was the other side? Any signs of lift pad marks left behind on the paint/undercoating?
Wonder why they would have to put car on lift to change timing chain and front cover?? Too bad it was so long ago, like you mentioned, trying to go back to them now.........
So I measured the camber, ride height, and front to back spacing of the wheels on each side along with the height of that plate to the floor and they were all identical. That along with the fact that the outer spot welds were still intact told me that I could probably just hammer the floor back down. So thats what I did and I am really happy with how close it lined up, the spot welds even lined up perfectly! I'll probably massage it a little more and then weld it back!
Man those are some nice floor pans, mine looked just like them but full of holes!!! Glad it was as simple as putting it back where it belongs.
They sure are nice on the driver side..the passenger side is a different story haha. I'm tackling the floor pan and cowl repairs soon, i'll be sure to make a thread.
