What to do about my inner longs, The plot thickens... Options

[thomasotten]

Ok, here we are on day 6 or something of the War on Rust. Today, I am focusing on the inner wheel house, lower portion. I removed the outer skin and the inner structure. Before would seal this area up, I wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions about what to do about the bottom of my interior longs. As you can see from the following pics, they are rotted on the bottom. I was kind of surprised that the car can rest on the jackpost here. The sides of the longs are redeemable, after some POR-15. Any suggestions? Should I just treat it with POR-15 and call it good? There door jambs are fine on this vehicle.

[thomasotten]

More pics...

[thomasotten]

last one...

[Joe Bob]

Fix em or buy a roller.....

[SirAndy]

yup, weld'em up ...

[thomasotten]

yes, fixem, but how? Not much room in their to weld.

[Joe Bob]

Depends on your welding skills.....the right way is cut out the whole long....about 12 inches on one side and where the main weld is.....patching is not the right way.

Or you can get another roller and transfer parts....unless you areally attached to the tub you have now. That's the way we do it here in CA....but if you have a friend or access to welding....fix it.

[RustyWa]

Wasn't there someone here that recently, last few months I'd say, posted pics of his patch repair? It looked pretty good.

[thomasotten]

About the same time that Saddam was being dug out of a hole in the ground, I managed to fix the rust on the inside of my inner longs. The rust here wasn't so bad that it weakend the frame much, but since I went this far, I wanted to do something. My solution was to keep as much original metal there that I could. I created L-shaped patches out of 18ga metal and spot welded them to the good metal. I used to be able to flex this area slightly by gripping the frame at the jack point. Now, it is very firm. I will be following up by treating the whole area w/ POR-15. The rust extends about 6" to the right of the last patch shown, but I won't be doing much about that other than treating it because the heating tube doesn't allow much room to work. I did weld a patch from the bottom, however.

[EdwardBlume]

Nicely done! Another 914 saved.....

[Brad Roberts]

Thomas,

You are doing fine. The only thing I can think of would be to bead blast or sand blast that inner area to remove all the rust that you can before treating the inner longs.

Honestly.. the strength is in the inner frame rail.. not the outer... so you did the right thing by patching that inner with the L pieces.


B

[SirAndy]

spray plenty of metal ready onto all of the inner frame rail.
then cover with por15 ...

Andy

[jdogg]

Looks good, Thomas. I am facing the same repair in the coming days on my car as well, my biggest fear/question is what to do to keep the chassis square during welding, and also, if the chassis does draw up during welding, can a competent frame repair shop pull the car back straight again? I autocross this car and don't want to have to chase ill handling characteristics due to a twisted chassis.....

[thomasotten]

jdogg:

I actually called George at AutoAtlanta with the very same question before I started. I was worried that once I removed the outer skin near the jackpost that the body would start sagging. I did what he suggested, which was to run 2X6 boards along the frame, and rest the entire body on those boards. Then, if you have unwanted flex, use a jack at the rear to get the door jambs just right before you weld. Of course, the door gaps will get larger when you have it up, that is just the way these cars are. Mine wasn't so bad that I probably didn't need to support it in this way, but I wanted to be safe. Thanks everyone else, for the comments.

-Thomas

[Brad Roberts]

Problem is: the car's SHRINK when you start welding to the inside frame rails. We us a door jig. It replaces the doors and is adjustable. It *helps* keep the tub from shrinking up. The 2x4 idea ia pretty good but it doesn help you in any way keeping the tub from shrinking after you apply tons of heat.

I suggest taking some measurements and crossing them with numbers we have here on the site and making some kind of brace that goes to the top of the targa bar and down to the front of the center tunnel where it meets the firewall. Wedge a 2x4 in there if you have to and help keep the tub from shrinking. We have even over compensated and made the gaps bigger and then welded. When everything relaxed.. the measurements where dead on.

B

[stock93]

Yeah make sure you do what brad is talking about. When I welded my cage in my perfect door gaps shrunk to almost nothing in the rear. The doors are now a lot harder to get to pop open. I need to do something about this.....

John

[Brad Roberts]

You'll have to cut any tabs you have connected from the main hoop to the targa bar and support the car at the stock outside jacking points..and pull down on the back of the car until the gaps are correct. When you get them correct.. re-weld the scab plates leading to the targa bar (probably have to weld in new ones).


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[stock93]

The doorgaps are even, they are just to small. I'll give it a try cause what do I have to lose? I dont have any of the cage attached to the targa bar, yet.

John

[RON S.]

I had to make a door jig when I replaced my inner longs.I then still had to take it to a local Porsche shop to put it on a 914 frame jig they had.Just to ensure all alingment points were in sync.
Ron

[Brad Roberts]

We jig the cars PRIOR to cage/welding..

Cellette bench in pic.. rent the fixtures from a local place for 75$ a day lock them down. The ONLY way to know if the tub is straight.


B