Hello World,

I have cleaned her down to this point and would like to hear opinions/suggestions on how much more I need to cut out and how bad this one is, in contrast to others.

Have enjoyed Jeff Hail's "Bringing out the Dead" Thread and have learned much about the longs from his 30 pages.

The vehicle is currently on a Rotisserie with both sides of the Long supported laterally/horizontally from front jack point to rear jack point (Both Sides). The door openings are secured in two places on both sides. She is secure.
Additional plans on the car call for total floor plan replacement as well as an Engman Long Kit.
Looking down into the long I saw minimal if any damage?

Ok here it goes your thoughts gentlemen, what would you do?


Thank you in advance for your thought and help!!!

Vysoc

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good job cleaning!


patch in pieces
not a bad hell hole really

brant

Spray some rust encapsulator down in there before you patch the top side

That looks fairly typical. Not too bad.

Here's what the hell hole on the Limo looks like:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?s=&...t&p=1943880

I was thinking the same thing. Or remove some of the top portion of the hole and see what is inside. Plus you can get more cleaning done INSIDE the long with a good size hole. I have read posts that made sense. Saying, if there is even a pin hole in the top of the long, then acid and water have gotten in. That needs to be cleaned up, or coated or treated. Something you can spray inside to treat would be the POR-15 metal-ready, then rinse with water.

IIRC it is an acid treatment that will eat the rust and prep it for paint, and you stop the treatment with water, let it dry, then paint or coat.

So far so good on the outside.

I would check out Maddogs Motorsports hell hole repair kit and while it may be using a sledge hammer to drive a thumb tach, you won't ever have to worry about it again!

Not too bad from that shot anyways… I'd use some sort of rust paint/spray in the longs if they're in good shape.. I used eastwood internal frame coating in mine.. then patched the hell hole which looked pretty close to what you have there..

I am using the Eastwood Internal Frame Coating and have the Hell Hole Kit patterns.
I think that I would prefer to fabricate my own custom pieces to really tighten up the openings.
I am very glad that what I have looks to be on the minor side as opposed to major damage.

Thanks for your comments!!!

Vysoc

I wish my hell hole looked that good.

Mine was more likd a hell VOID.

Built my own repair kit for the top of long.




This is what mine looked like before!

Not all that bar really. Just take your time and you should be able to fabricate something very solid and suitable in a day or so.

+1 for the Eastwood kit.

As the OP referred to Jeff Hail's excellent thread, I'm wondering about the need to "sleeve" repairs on top of the hell hole. IIRC, Jeff said to sleeve any structural repairs, rather than butt welding in a patch. What is the collective wisdom for the repairs that are being pictured in this thread?

Ditto ..................

Bump for thoughts on the question in post #12.

I think that is more dependent on the intended use of the car and how good your welding skills are. If it was intended for the track, the higher loads placed on the frame could potentially cause issues with poor butt welds and may lead to cracks. Not to mention that butt welding is always going to be more tough than lap welding. There are also several portions of the longitudinal that are actually double-walled anyway, but it doesn't look like you'll be dealing with any of those sections with your patches. With the few small holes you have, and if you're keeping the car on the street, I would say it's fine to butt weld your patches in.

That being said, I did all of my patches as butt welds, my damage was far more extensive than yours, AND I track the car. No problems yet.

First you'll need to cut it out exactly as you see here.

Haha. Kidding! I love to kid. I'm a kidder!

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first off " sleeving " as you refer to it is going to leave a step between the two panels. If you aren't looking for 100% appearance that is fine. IMHO an amateur would have a much easier time putting a small piece on the underside of the existing metal, laying the new piece on top of that and then welding all 3 together, thus creating a lap weld situation. It would be strong, the gap wouldn't have to be spot on, it would prevent blow through ( assuming his settings are close ) and allow some extra metal in the event he were to grind the weld down too far.

BAD idea. I sincerely hope you or someone here didn't do that. That is on the verge of having the rear of the car sag while repairing. Good luck closing the pass door on that

Scotty, now that I've done one and learned my own lessons, I was curious - what would you do in that case, with so much metal needing cut out? Would you replace small portions at at time to retain some rigidity rather than taking one huge chunk out?

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BAD idea. I sincerely hope you or someone here didn't do that. That is on the verge of having the rear of the car sag while repairing. Good luck closing the pass door on that
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Wait. What? I've been driving it like this and it seems fine.

Scotty b,

Yes, I see what you are saying, I like the layering as I was concerned about the quality of the metal in the middle. This would create a strong Lap Weld.

Thank you for the idea!!!!

Vysoc