Rear Frame Rails Replaced

Matt and I expected to have alot of work to do on the rear part of the car, but honestly thought it was in better shape than the rest. We started peeling back the layers of paint, fiberglass matt, and filler where someone had repaired some major rust improperly. We ended up pulling the full trunk pans out, and replacing the last 18" or so of frame rails on both sides. We also put in new trunk pans, tail light panel, rear valance, and replaced both quarter panels.

Click to enlarge pics

Some Rust!

This was hiding underneath layers of fiberglass matt, fiber filler, and paint. Ouch!

So we welded in some bracing to keep things in tact and cut out all the rust.

The frame rails are galvanized from the factory, so they were actually in decent shape, but the inner supports for the spring shackles and the tie downs, were uncoated mild steel, and as you can see they were rusted pretty bad. So we decided to replace the last 18" or so.

Frame rail section cutout.

Here is the piece we cutout compared to the new replacement section.

We cut the new piece the same length, and clamped it in... making sure to keep it square and level. Don't want the car going down the road crucked (if that is even a word).