Advice need on chassis rail

[tyroguru]

I'm looking for some advice around what to do with my passenger side chassis rail so massive thanks for any suggestions on how to go about things.

Basically the battery tray area including toe board, firewall, chassis rail, battery tray floor and the battery tray were rusted to different degrees and need some replacement. I replaced the toe board as part of the floor work and have moved on to the engine bay side of things. Below is a photo for reference on how things currently look:



The chassis rail was holed in several areas and I have removed the rusty section it as you can see above. The rest of the rail and the inner fender (do we call it "fender" in the UK?) is in extremely good condition though. My question is: do I need to replace the whole of the chassis rail as one complete unit or is it possible to just replace the section shown above? I have bought a whole chassis rail off Andy @ Auto Panel Solutions which looks great and I don't mind doing the whole thing but it seems a shame to remove a lot of perfectly good rail if there isn't any need.

FYI, Andy said that it should all be done as it would introduce a weakness and I guess a lot of stress gets introduced in that section with the compression rod.

 

[Rob Gaskin]

I'd just replace what was rusty, the rest looks strong.

 

[jonbills]

I don't know enough to advise on the chassis rail, but I can confirm its not a fender, its a wing.

 

[Turn & Burn]

I’d be tempted to sleeve it with an internal section 1st. Make the sleeve slide in about 50mm into the existing and as far as you can into the new section of rail Drill some holes in the rails for some big plug welds, say 10 or 12mm. Fit the sleeve and everywhere else you can get at before fitting the new piece of rail over it and fully butt welding. I guess it could be a tight fit as ur close to the bulkhead. Hope this makes sense!

 

[uk66fastback]

T&B = great idea - internal sleeve for added strength. As long as the welds are sound there is no reason why it would be any weaker than a whole new rail.

 

[tyroguru]

I’d be tempted to sleeve it with an internal section 1st. Make the sleeve slide in about 50mm into the existing and as far as you can into the new section of rail Drill some holes in the rails for some big plug welds, say 10 or 12mm. Fit the sleeve and everywhere else you can get at before fitting the new piece of rail over it and fully butt welding. I guess it could be a tight fit as ur close to the bulkhead. Hope this makes sense!

Great idea thanks Andy! Yes, I think I understand pretty fully what you describe. Obviously the challenge will be to fabricate it really accurately to get a nice tight fit but that will be a nice project-within-a-project for me. As Mike says, success is predicated upon my ability with the welder so I'd better make sure I get some good butt welding practice in on the bench with some thicker metal...

I don't know enough to advise on the chassis rail, but I can confirm its not a fender, its a wing.

lol! Thanks Jon. I was having a senior moment when I put this together last night and for the life of me I couldn't get 'fender' out of my head.

 

[Rob Gaskin]

With an internal sleeve you could also 'puddle weld' after drilling holes in your chassis?

 

[tyroguru]

With an internal sleeve you could also 'puddle weld' after drilling holes in your chassis?

I'd not heard of puddle welds before Rob but looking at some YouTube vids they seem to be another term for plug welds (or vice-versa). I'm great at making a poor job of them .

 

[moggy240]

Bolt the front crossmember in before welding.

 

[richiep]

Bolt the front crossmember in before welding.

Wonder where you got that idea?