Poor thing only has 250k on the odomoter. I investigated the clunking that has been going on in the rear all winter. For the moment this car is retired. it looks like its 1 set of railroad tracks away from sending the strut into the trunk.

However, i build industrial machinery for a living, am a fairly competent fabricator and have a machine shop at my disposal.

Any chance i can safely get away with cutting/bending/forming a chunk of 1/8 plate to fit up in there and just weld the crap out of it to anything i can find that'* solid? Other then the heavy bracket at the top, the rest of the tower seems to be made of lighter sheetmetal. Guessing 16g or so. The whole setup seems like it was kind of flimsy when it was brand new.

Or maby just cut some of that 1/8 plate to fit around that heavy bracket and weld to everything around it?

If i can get another year or 2 out of this thing, that would be awesome. Its just too fun to drive to send to the crusher.

I took a screwdriver to it and knocked off what was loose and bent the hanging bits back and forth till they came off. Not a whole lot left.

Any advice?


[/URL]

You really need to determine the full scope of rusted area.
Can't weld to rust but if you can find a good amount of clean metal, it may be repairable.
Remove the carpet inside trunk on that side, how does it look on the inside?

Its hard to get a decent picture in there, but it looks like most of the rust stops where the glue is. There is a small patch where there is some rot on the outside of the glue joint in the direction of the quarter pannel.

Some of that mess is just the rust cookies that i pulled off the top trying to feel what is going on back there.

The passenger side is rusty too, but i couldnt stab a screwdriver through anywhere.


[/URL]

Maybe:

Looks like that thicker-metal support pad that rests on top of the strut is just spot-welded. Drill the spot-welds out. Then find a rust-free 1997-2004 donor, hack more-than that chunk (of shock tower sheer metal) out, sandwich it under the rusted/damaged area on yours, bolt and/or weld it in place, bolt and/or weld that support pad in place, drown it in rustoleum, reassemble strut etc. bolted through both layers of sheet metal and the support pad, and voila' . . . ?

That corner would be 1/8" taller but probably not noticeable.

If the other side is about as bad then do same over there?

I wouldn't waste my time for a beater. If it was in my shop and I was doing a NYS inspection on it, I'd fail it.

Agree with Mike......can only imagine what the rest of that underside looks like.....

I think I told this story before....customer came in with a late 90'* Regal/Century, with a 3.1L....had a head gasket job done.....came in two weeks later with the left front strut assembly through the hood of her car....the headgasket job should never have been done...

Agree also, just trying to find Asymetric an option to get another couple of years out of it. Welding unformed pieces to that mostly-rusted sheet metal would be way worse. Really that much rust is pretty insane to me.