Front Frame Rail Evaluation

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pinball

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I am looking for input on a previous repair to the front frame rails on a 1969 Barracuda. The bottoms and inside edge of each frame rail are patched. The metal on the outside edge of the passenger frame rail is a bit thin in a couple spots as can be seen in the 4th picture. The repair was probably done 8 years ago or so. I am wondering if this repair could be considered adequate or if further repairs need to be made and if so what the best plan of action would be. Thank you for any input; below are pictures:

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I don't know man. There's a lot of rust coming out from under those welds. How much is under all that?
 
Some bad welds???
Suspet thin metal? I give it the hammer and screwdriver tests!!
Remember it is hard to get good mig welds with rusty/dirty/thin metal.
 
As a professional welder- my rule is “would I walk on that weld 10 stories up?”
My answer is a hard “NO!”
As tough as it is you don’t want to break a frame rail while driving.
Even cutting out the junk and using one of those “safe-t-caps.” Is way better and less involved then a full frame replacement.
 
I'm in the process of swapping everything from one car to another that had similar issues.

clip-pic-jpg.jpg

I figured the only way to do it right is to swap the front subframe.
 
No. Not safe. Do you have someone that does fabrication (roll cages etc.) near you? They or you will need to clean everything to bare metal first to see what ya got. And on a side note for extra safety add frame connectors.
 
OK. You asked. Some of it looks kind of OK, and some of it looks cracked (although that could be a shadow caused by a thick weld bead sticking up). All of the welding looks rough. I do a lot of rust repair and welding. I am kind of anal when doing repairs like that. I always grind the welds down so as to make the repair undetectable, and I can see all of those rather sloppy welds. I would personally redo all of it. Whoever did those repairs did very sloppy work, and if it looks sloppy, the actual repair may not be good. You can slop a bead of weld on a repair area, but if the welder is not set up properly, you will wind up with a weak weld. You need good heat penetration for a strong weld, and I don't trust sloppy looking welds. I would do one area at a time. For maximum strength, I would even consider plug welding some heavy angle iron pieces on the inside of the corners. When welding the outside of the corner edges, make sure you have good penetration and properly dress the welds. To ME, a good repair is undetectable. If you lived near me, I would help you.
 
Those TV car show guys that blast a car clean before work. yea it costs $and takes some time..but they have a reason!!! Me, IF I beat the crap out of suspect metal and try to drive a phillips in it, I have an idea! Any area not totally solid and clean when trying to mig will always have issues.
Make it safe like said and IF you will ever sell, make it clean and PRETTY!

I make my own frame connectors and add those to every car I will drive. If someone buys one of my cars and don't want them, he can cut them OUT!
 
Thanks for the comments. I'll look to get it fixed up better.
 
That's going to get ugly real fast. There can't be much under those patches.
 
You can tell how strong those frame rails are by jacking up the car and seeing if the front fender to door gaps open up or close up.

If the gaps are moving, it tells you the frame rails are weak. If things are staying put within reason, then it's pretty strong yet.
 
There's really only one correct way to fix it. With good used frame rails. Does anybody make new reproductions? I'm not aware of any.
 
This company used to make rust repair kits for Mopars but not any longer.
Mopar Archives - autorust.com

I had a similar situation with my 69 cuda. The front rails rust from the inside out. The picture you show of the side of the rail tells all. That metal is paper thin and if you keep driving, the T-bar anchors will twist out. Guaranteed. The "repair" you show is ok in some areas but absolutely terrible in others.

To do this right at a minimum:
Front rusty floors need to be removed. You will then be able to see the inside of the rails where they go under the floor.
T-bar crossmember must be replaced. AMD has them.
New or rust-free rails need to be welded in. See those upper suspension mounts? Check those too.
New front floors to finish.

My car had been in an accident and besides the rust, the left rail and lower radiator support were bent. I straightened that but after further evaluation did exactly what is shown in post #5 above about 25 years ago. Bought a complete front clip including rails, t-bar crossmember, inner fenders, and radiator yoke. Drilled out hundreds of spot welds to remove the old clip, blasted and rust-treated the "new" clip and welded it in.
 
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