Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: basaltblack Apr 13 2009, 07:50 PM

Hey guys. What should I do with these small holes in the longs? Should I patch with pieces of spare longs I have or try to fill the holes with molten metal. Any advice would be appreciated.


Attached image(s)

Posted by: sean_v8_914 Apr 13 2009, 08:25 PM

step away a foot or 2 let me see more and I'll tell ya. is that the junction of eh long with the floor board?

Posted by: basaltblack Apr 13 2009, 08:33 PM

Yes it is right where the floor pan get welded to the longs. Very small holes and I think the inner long has two sheets of metal. I heard you can stick a nail in the small holes then weld it in the hole and grind. Oh yah I took the pictures with my damn IPhone. Will take more pictures with actual camera tomorrow

Posted by: Richard Casto Apr 13 2009, 08:38 PM

IMHO, pinholes like that mean it's much worse on the inside. But it's really had to tell from those photos whats going on.

Posted by: jcambo7 Apr 13 2009, 10:40 PM

Just cuz u see rust on the outside of something doesn't mean that there isn't any rust underneath. These cars a natorious for rusting. The longs r one of the areas that rust a lot. IMHO...You might want to look inside the longs to c if it's rusted on the inside. Especially since you have the parts to replace the rusted out longs when u find the ares that r rusted. Cut it open and have a look. You have the spare metal; might as well make sure 100% that the longs r rust free before you call it good.

Posted by: Richard Casto Apr 14 2009, 08:34 AM

This is from my car...



Pinholes on the outside of the longitudinal



This is what was on the inside.

In my opinion how bad this section is depends a lot on how bad your hell hole is. pretty much all of this is due to drainage from the hell hole.

Regarding fixing it. It just really depends upon how "nice" you want your repairs to be and how deep you want to go. I could have just welded on clamshell reinforcements and sprayed down the interior with some type of rust treatment and it might have been just fine for a number of years, but I decided against that.

Here it is after a lot of work and just prior to welding back a new repo outer longitudinal...

Posted by: basaltblack Apr 14 2009, 09:38 PM

Thank you for your input. There is no rust on the outside longs. This is all where water would pool in the floors. I have the floors off ready for replacement and want to fix all of the rust before I weld in the new floor. I might error on the side of caution and open up the long just to see. The hell hole is ok but I think is has been repaired before.

Posted by: veltror Apr 15 2009, 08:42 AM

My pics show more rot outside then I expected and a lot more rot insde....

Posted by: kwales Apr 15 2009, 11:57 AM

Here's a thought. Pick the worst area, of the long and cut out a small section (several inches long) that captures the worst area. Look at the inside of the small section and make your decision.

If it's rusty inside, that long rusted out from the inside out and needs fixing.

If it's not, then the long rusted from the outside in and might be patched.

After deciding that it's OK, then you weld the cutout piece back in.

However, if I'm reading the pics correctly. the rust looks to be in a line along the bottom of the long. That line of holes means that there is a local line of weakness in the metal and a tendency to break along the line. To fix it, you have a lot of pinholes to weld without access to the inside of the long. Pinholes tend to get bigger at welding without a copper backing plate, and it can be a real b*tch to weld upside down.

Do a search on sizzling droplets falling into clothing......

Ken