I knew my car had problems, but MOST of the stuff underneath seemed solid (with the exception of the floorpans, and thus the cowls). Unfortunately, I started prodding around, and found that the front frame rails are rotting away. They're still solid, but they won't be if I don't do something about them soon enough.

What do you usually do, just weld patches into them? Am I risking completely destroying the alignment if it isn't perfect? Are there any other options, other than finding a new car?

Thanks.

 

you can buy all of the sheet metal you could ever want from several sources. (NPD is a good choice) Mustang monthly has technical articles on how to do most of these exchanges. I'm not going to fool you into thinking it's a piece of cake cause it is some work and you need some decent mechanical skills to do it.

 

I wasn't too concerned about the work or the materials, but more with how "gone" the car is when the front frame rails are rotting. I guess it's not all that uncommon of a repair after all, which makes me feel a lot better.

Thanks.

 

All you have to do is replace the frame rails , If I were doing it I would replace all the frame rails and then add sub frame connectors

 

I replaced both front frame rails on mine and it is some work. I built a jig that the car sat on to line everything up before i started cutting. As long as you don't move anything, the new frame rails should line right up and weld them in.

 

I also replaced everything in front of the firewall. I put the car on a rack, welded up some jigs to line all the bolt hole to and did one side at a time. It is a lot of work but much better than patching the car up. I also added torque boxes to both sides and subframe connectors.



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