Chassis rail damage - advice

[Nic_A31]

Hey guys,

Im in the process of cleaning up the underside of the car at the moment.
When I got the car couple of years ago, it was like this thanks to CEVA.

It's unregistered at the moment, so I need to tidy this up before I can take her over the pits.

Sorry for the shit quality pics, couldn't find camera so took these on phone.

http://i43.tinypic.com/f0rrk0.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/fwufie.jpg

That's the worst side, the passenger side has similar damage but to lesser extent.

Advice on how I can go about fixing this up ?

[Chompy]

maybe

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i436/atworthbunch/DSC04273.jpg

[DISTRBD]

How did Ceva damage it and why didn't you get them to fix it ?

[Aristoman]

Forklift damage ?

[Nic_A31]

God only knows, and because itd be more trouble than its worth to chase them up over it.

[upgarage]

how can you be certain CEVA did it?
could have happened in japan?

[Aristoman]

Agreed to much trouble, lookslike it wasnt a roller and they've used forks to move the car.

[SircatmaN]

Recheck it, get down on one knee, I'm sure it will be fine.

[Chase_d]

One of my cars had very similar damage - the mob that fixed it) said it was from previous owners thinking it was a structual support and trying to jack it up from there.

Attached some pics of what they did - I dont have any before pictures (dont by any mean meant to hijack your thread...)

http://i35.tinypic.com/2r7ssac.jpg

http://i38.tinypic.com/990407.jpg

http://i37.tinypic.com/xn55yf.jpg

http://i35.tinypic.com/wjb606.jpg

http://i34.tinypic.com/66b2ug.jpg

http://i37.tinypic.com/2m5knc5.jpg

Was then all stone guarded,

Reason I had it done, was licensing centre wouldnt pass it until I got it sorted - wanted me to come back with no stone guarding to prove to them it was all welded - but above pictures were enough.

[mc68]

I had a mate with this exact problem who got his chassis rails capped with aluminium plate after months of fucking about at the pits. I think what they welded on was like the 90 degree bracket stuff, and it passed fine like that. I can try get the bloke's number who did it if you like?

Aluminium welded to the rails you say, was it a jaguar or a landrover or a freaking delorean by any chance?

[family guy]

Was going to say unpick it, hammer it out and weld it back in. brickies bolster will come in handy for the job. Worse case is to unpick it and fold some fresh metal up.

[DISTRBD]

God only knows, and because itd be more trouble than its worth to chase them up over it.

I have done repairs for ceva in the past , they are easy to deal with .

[Chase_d]

You wouldn't perchance remember where you got that done would you?

Thought I mentioned on there,

All work was carried out by Rowe and Sons Car Restoration.

Great Quality Cars and Workmanship comes out of there - unfortunately - quite long waiting lists as all there jobs are usually long term builds.

As for price - was cash only, was about $800 or just under.
I completely stripped the interior (carpets, seats, trim for them and put it back in myself - as I got asked to go to the pits with the car bare and stripped for them to inspect/evaluate the carried out repairs)


Free Plug: They were great to deal with, took all pictures themselves without me asking, worded up paper work in such a way that even the asshole at the licensing centre couldn't argue with it.

[Kickit]

how good are you with a panel beating hammer and welder?

If it was my car id do it my self. but if you've never done any panel work don't bother touching it haha

[Chompy]

Alluminium chassis s13 - becasue race car

[Chompy]

Aluminium welded to the rails you say, was it a jaguar or a landrover or a freaking delorean by any chance?

deloreans were stainless steel...

[mc68]

deloreans were stainless steel...

FFFFFUUUU :)

[Chu]

Ok, time for a thread dig.

I am now unfortunately in the same boat as the people above who need to get chassis rails straightened in order to pass pits. I have rung around many workshops and resto places and they either want crack prices or can't fit me in for 6 months, so I have decided to give this a shot myself. I have fairly limited panel/chassis repair experience but I am reasonably good with tools and I know what needs to be done so I am certain that I can do it myself. I do have a few questions though.

- I am going to strip the interior when I do this but will I need to remove the sound deadening as well? I can vaguely remember someone telling me a story about a car that went up in flames due to it not being removed prior to welding.

- The rear of the rails also have two small dents that are barely noticeable so I was hoping that I didn't have to cut them out and could maybe repair them while they are still on the car. Is that possible or would I be better of doing the same as the fronts?

There is something else that I was wondering as well but it escapes me at the moment so that will do for now. Thanks :)

[Chase_d]

Thought this thread was familiar.

Going by the pictures after I got the car back, the sound deadening was only removed where they were repairing it. Considering how easy it is to remove, I wouldn't hesitate in removing it. Dry Ice will be your best friend here.

Since I have had the above done, I have heard of someone else in a similar boat - managed to spot weld a little hook into the area that was dented and attach the hook to a slide hammer to straighten it. I haven't seen pictures of the above method - so cant comment of how it looked when it was done

[Chu]

Yeah I suppose I might as well remove it. How noticeable is the difference in road noise without sound deadening?

I think the hook idea will be perfect for the smaller dents at the rear, so I'll give that a shot first. If it works I might even give the fronts a shot, but they are pretty far gone so I don't like my chances.

[Chase_d]

Cant comment on how much louder the car was, as the muffler was changed at the same time for the pits and never changed it back to the old one.

I am sure there are quite a few people here sound deadening removed and would be able to answer that to more detail.

Personally I didn't have the time or the knowledge to do it myself so I let the above company do it. They told me they were also booked for months at a time but said left my number if they had a opening. Thankfully they did...

Having had them do it was also a lot easier when it came to re-inspection as there a legitimate company that had completed the work (quite well known to the licensing centre)

[Brett_J]

You can always put in sound deadener when done, use the stuff from an audio shop.

I've repaired a few rails in my time, if you can work a welder and a grinder decent enough it's piss easy. don't run big beads of weld, just a small one, then do another in the opposite end.
I always have a wet rag and immediately hold it against the weld to cool it, lessens the warping. but that is more panel orientated.

Get some 2mm sheet and measure the size of the rail and find someone to bend it into the rail size, that way you can just cut whole sections out and weld in the new stuff.