Dare

Some time before I purchased my car it had been involved in an accident that damaged the front frame rails immediately before the suspension points. At the time I bought it I had a PPI done which said that the damage had been repaired adequately. Now that I have front completely apart I beginning to doubt that assessment. The driver’s side rail looks okay, but the passenger side has a large split in the metal that runs across the bottom and half way up the inside. If I yank on the cross piece near the radiator mounts I can see rail flex at the tear. I assume this is not a good thing.

So my question is: what’s the best way to fix this? Can the split be welded or does the rail have to be replaced? The car will mostly be used for the track, so I’m not looking for perfection here. However I assume it’s not safe to drive with that tear growing each time I hit a bump in the road.

Here are some picts of the damage:

KY944S

OMG...Who did the welding there???

I would grind down the weld and hit (weld) the spots they missed. Then I would cut some sheet metal to fit the affected area and weld that into place for structural support.
I would not have put my name on that fix

bearone

whoever did the ppi and said it was ok was an idiot.

87951

xsboost90

thing w/ that is the weld looks like crap- or just non existant. Now this part of the car has almost no stress on it from the suspension besides the sway bar, so it doesnt take much to hold it together- so it would prob be ok the way it is- personally i would get someone to weld that up real good though.

Catfood

My car had the same thing happen to it. However my damage was not as extensive as yours so I just bent it back.

If you really want to get it done properly you take it to a body shop and porsche makes a replacement. They are pricey, but what you do is chip off the two front frame rails up to the bent portion. Then you get two replacement rails from Porsche and they slide into your frame rail still attached to the car. At that point you weld it in and put everything back together. The piece porsche sends you has holes already drilled into it, so it should match up pretty close.

If your just looking for a quick fix, following xsboosts advice is probably your best route.

mclarenno9

I am sure you know this but the car will probably suck real bad if its in an accident. See this interesting clip from Fifth Gear...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWEdlUT17PI

But..... it is a Ford Focus

KY944S

Wow that 5th Gear video realy brings things to light. Consumer Beware. I guess you can never do enough investigating, even Carfax does not show all.

xsboost90

still a very valid point. Ive seen quite a few rolling around like that too. When my dad was a body man some 20 years or more, insurance companys would pay to have a car cut in half, and a new front or rear welded into the car- sometimes they would be brazed. Now im sure that my father did a great job putting them back together, but im not sure i would want to get in another accident with one of those cars.

Nicole

The results are not surprising given the quality of the repair, but shocking to the unsuspecting.

I'll post this in OT as well - more people need to see this!

Your comment about the Focus is unnecessary. Obviously, the intact car shows that a Focus is a pretty car. You don't need a tank to survive - you need a crumple zone that works, a passenger cell that doesn't collapse, and carefully designed restraint systems.

Dare

Anyone know the part number for this and approximately how much it costs?

Dare

Well, the video was certainly dramatic, with lots of slow-mo and fast editing, but as with most of their stuff it was pretty thin on real information. It would have been great if they’d talked about the degree of the original impact and what could/should have been done to fix the car.

V2Rocket

I'd suggest cutting it out and replacing it with some new material.