Rear frame rot
- Thread starter Baker7888
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Thats the spirit, if you can weld and have the time then rust is largely irrelevant.
The one with the metal insert will be on top with the body resting directly on the metal insert.
Thanks. How about the bolt? I was gonna just use a nut and bolt and two large washers ..
They are normally a cage nut set in a pocket of the body under the floor sheet steel. I think there is a tech thread on it here. You can nut and bolt it like your thinking but not sure if it will leave the body move to much because of the gap of that space. One of the other guys may know better then me.
Sadly this was the reason why i had to do a complete part out on my pretty rare 1978 Pontiac 2dr Grand LeMans Landau coupe 🙁 Even had the console and bucket seats in the 1 yr only white interior. RFR where gone. No meat left anywhere. needed extensive body work as well.
Sounds like a…. fun welders challenge haha.
With so many others contributing what they did to address this kind of extensive frame rot, I'm curious as to what was/is the major cause? GM's design flaws? Environment, i.e., salt on roads? Or, what the owners did?
Last year, due to frame rust, I did a full frame swap under my 87 El Camino for one from an 84 EC. Similar to the OP's Malibu, my EC's rust was concentrated in the rear half of the frame because it appears a prior owner had used the cruck to launch boats. While the exterior of the frame rails showed signs of rust flaking, I was uncertain of the condition inside. Since any rust results in thinning of the metal and because this involved the vehicle's frame, safety was my biggest factor!
So, as others have suggested, I would recommend a frame swap. While repairs represents a challenging project, do not jeopardize yours nor your families safety!!
Last year, due to frame rust, I did a full frame swap under my 87 El Camino for one from an 84 EC. Similar to the OP's Malibu, my EC's rust was concentrated in the rear half of the frame because it appears a prior owner had used the cruck to launch boats. While the exterior of the frame rails showed signs of rust flaking, I was uncertain of the condition inside. Since any rust results in thinning of the metal and because this involved the vehicle's frame, safety was my biggest factor!
So, as others have suggested, I would recommend a frame swap. While repairs represents a challenging project, do not jeopardize yours nor your families safety!!
My theory, GM trying to make the cars smaller & lighter for better fuel economy they tried to go with a lighter steel than the three generations before. It wasn't just with the frames as we all know. On top of that I'm believing our generations was originally drawn a bit bigger but was scaled down which also added to thse rot as the original design could of prevented those areas prone to rotting from holding what materials being water, salt, dirt, etc... I would say if our cars were like the third gen A's, something like how the first & second gen A are like, we might not have as much of the rot we have had. So in the end, GM fudged up everything so I'll place it as their fault. Enviromental conditions didn't help & was most likely helped by GM's final design.
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