W-Body rear strut tower failure! help ASAP!
 

ok, girlfriend's 97 grand prix might be headed to the scrapper because of this one! her driver-side rear wheel well rusted out so bad that her strut and strut mount has broken free and gone up into her trunk. obviously the metal needs to be replaced but is there a place where we could look for the actual replacment panel needed or does it need to be fabricated from scratch? also, is it safe for her to be driving the car like this? she's been driving it for over a month with the loud clunking that it was making and nothing bad has happened yet, but i worry about it failing even more!

Sounds like it may be far from repair. Her vehicle stability depends upon working shocks and struts to be safe. I'd park it for the time being.

If you can find another one in a scrap yard, you can cut the strut tower out of that and have it welded in to her car. Just make sure you take enough from the donor car to replace all rust on her car. If it's put in good and straight, there will be no problems. Driving like it is is not safe.

so, what would I use to cut the part out of the donor car? I really have no idea how to approach this but it sucks because we just got a full tune-up on her car with all the fluids changed and its running like a champ finally!

Depending on what needs to be cut, a sawsall should do it. I would say cut way more then you need. You can always trim it, but it's harder to add.

Hey Richard...if you can post of photos of the carnage, we can give it a lookey-loo and see how much you need remove and scab in. I suspect that you'll be taking a large chunk of the wheel well out if there was that much rust...but, let hope for the best and pray it's just the strut area.

Ok, will do. The earliest I can have pictures is next weekend...I'm off at college for the week and shes driving her sister's car for the time being...

yea i to wanna see the carnage never herd of wheel wells rotting out on these Ive seen the strut mounts die and the strut hits the back dash