CountryBoy

Thanks, let me get it cleaned up see what we have.

Mrmerlin

If you plan to replace the front clip I would contact AO On this board he has the Coke car and had some frame work done

dr bob

There's so much collateral work that can be done with engine out, I'd pull it regardless. But that's me -- a no-brainer. And while having a lift is pretty handy for lots of things, pulling the engine still happens (for me anyway) with the front wheels on the ground. The lift is handy for getting to lower fasteners and some of the plumbing prior to actually lifting the engine out, but the actual pull and replace benefits none really.

Having the engine out means you can look at the engine side of the wheelhouse metal for distortion, and make a better decision on where to section if you decide to replace. There's usually a pretty extensive amount to cleaning to be done, with 35 years of road crud and leaked fluids coating everything. Inspection and repair work is so much easier with everything clean. Greg B shares his "lick test" criteria for cleaning. Mine is more "I can put my sandwich down anywhere without worry." I don't want to risk contaminating the project, considering where my tongue has been.

Mrmerlin

like i said before by the time it`s all said and done,
it might be easier to buy a good chassis and swap in your parts ,
that way you get to install a new carpet set,
and clean the interior parts before you install them.

Its only money but ,
swapping in new front frame rails properly will cost more than a rolling chassis that you can swap your parts into

karl ruiter

Best path forward will depend on the condition of the car, your resources, your goal, and your level of interest. Does the car run and drive? What is the condition of the paint?, The interior? Do you want to make is a solid driver, or are you aiming for a restoration? Are you just tinkering for fun?
-You could certainly buy that section used and replace it. Probably little to no money for the section, and a good welder to do the replacement. There is nothing magic going on in that section and in stock form, it is not really all that strong. Motor has to come out for sure.
-You could probably reinforce what is there, just by adding material to the outside. Without pulling the motor.
-You might be able to live with it for a while. I cannot see from the photos if the front mounting clamp for the lower A arm is in alignment with the rear mounting clamp. If it is basically in alignment you could leave it while you work on other issues. Depending on what you see from cleaning and inspection you may be able to drive it moderately without fixing this. Does the suspension currently align properly?

Pulling the motor will give you a chance to clean, update, inspect, and repair a bunch of stuff. But it also gives you a chance to bog down and leave the car sitting with the motor out until you need the space and have someone haul it away. Are you prepared for the amount of money and time the 'while we are in there' items will require? Hard to say what those might be, without knowing more about the condition of the car and how perfect you want it to be, but it could be substantial.

If the car runs well and you can contain the 'while we are in there' factor, pulling the motor is not very hard and does not take that long. If you can contain yourself to, say, pulling the motor, changing the oil pan gasket, cleaning, reinforcing the area, putting the motor back in, you might be looking at $200 in parts, a weekend to pull, two weekends to clean and do the opg, the cost of a welder to come in and reinforce the area, and a weekend to put the motor back in. Plus the cost of a cherry picker, stands, jacks, etc if you do not have them. Personally I can pull the motor and put it back in in one day, but I have done it a bunch before so you will likely be much slower. If it were me I would also do the high side fuel line, at a minimum, for perhaps another $100. Maybe also have the high side power steering hose rebuilt and put in a new timing belt but only inspect the water pump. Probably another $150 for that.

If you are infected with the 'while we are in there' virus, or it's cousin 'do it right', you will want to do motor mounts, power steering lines, fuel lines, intake refresh, cooling hoses, possibly steering rack, clutch throw out bearing and pilot bearing, engine seals, timing belt and water pump, possibly a engine wiring harness. Easily $1500 to $3000.

If the car does not run and drive well I would not start here. Start with the fuel and injection systems as you are facing a long and potentially expensive journey there. If the interior or paint are trashed then you need to think hard before investing a bunch of money in trying to get the motor or suspension perfect. Interior and paint are where the real expenses are on these cars.

CountryBoy

The car was running, my mother had bought it as a bucket list item off of Ebay from up north. Visiting her and inspecting the car, I had asked her not to drive it much as I didn't think it wise to drive a 30 year old car without new coolant, brake and fuel lines.
So it sat in a building for 5 years until she just recently gave it to me. So far I have pulled the gas tank, upgraded the fuel pumps to one Bosch and was in the process of replacing the electrical, fuels lines, brake lines, master cylinder, brake booster, master and slave clutch, ball joint boots, steering rack boots, axle boots.
That's when I found this issue. My original intent was to make it into a reliable fun driver and keep as close to the original as possible. Now I'm torn in what direction to go. I personally was leaning to pulling the motor, putting the body on a cart and cleaning things up a bit more and getting someone to reinforce the area or replacing it. The interior is decent, seats have no tears or rubbing much, but the leather is a bit hard. I've been trying to use some leather products to restore pliability.

Do I need to pull the front bumper to remove the front fenders?

Thank you for all you input, here are some additional pics. Seems like weird damage to me, only between the lower control arm mounts not distortion or damage else where.

Mrmerlin

FWIW there are also cars with cracks in the frame rail between the front and rear lower control arm attachment points,
NOTE this isnt very common but it has been seen before,
Mostly the right frame horn has the cracks, welding a patch over the crack can fix it .

jcorenman

This still makes sense, I think. The paint is good, the interior is good (search here for "Leatherique", works wonders on hardened leather), it sounds like this the only real issue (other than the usual worn-out leaking stuff).

Something happened: Might be corrosion, more likely an off-road excursion that bent things. The welding reminds me of stuff I have done, which my mentor at the time described as a "giant stinking pile of turkey poop". It looks ugly but doesn't need to be that big a deal. Any semi-competent body shop is capable of cutting out the bent "turkey-poop" section and welding in a matching section from a salvage car. I am sure that Mark (928 Int'l), or anyone else with access to a clean/straight salvage chassis, can make a few saw cuts and send the offending section. From there, it is just a question of cutting down the replacement part to match what was cut out of your car. Then primer, paint and undercoat-- shouldn't need to touch the exterior paint at all.

Yes, I think so. You will also want to pull the engine, to provide better access, and give you a chance to clean and maybe re-seal the engine.

I am sure there are stories the car could tell, if only it could talk... lots of weird things happen. Good luck, keep asking questions, and keep us posted!

dr bob

Pictures of globs of undercoating don't really tell about the metal underneath. Undercoating generally comes off with a little heat-gun heat and a scraper, then a wire wheel in the angle grinder at least for me. In my limited experience, this kind of damage is consistent with a drove-over-a-curb-at-speed-sideways event, or a simple front-corner impact. You'll have a clue for the latter if you can see the color of the underside of the fender. There would usually be ripples in the fender wall too, or welds where it may have been replaced. Regardless, undercoating comes off for inspection and possible repair.

Imo000

I would bolt it up and get an alignment. If they can get it in spec then drive it as-is or until it's time for a full restoration. If you want to cut it out and replace it with a good used one then this will not be a cheap experience unless you can do all the work yourself. Can you post pictures of the rest of the car?

Roy928tt

What He Said ^ ^

I had the cracked chassis, yep it's cracked, and it stayed that way the entire time I had the car. Didn't get any worse and I didn't do anything to fix it.

If your car aligns correctly and drives fine, then what is to be gained by fixing it?

Jerry Feather

Roy's advice might be the best, so far, but if it were mine here is what I think I would do. I would clean up all of the damaged area(s) and then grind off as much of the welds as I could, the welds put on originally to try to fix the damage. Then I would probably open up all of the welded areas that were repairs of cracks or breaks. Next I would obtain a long piece of box steel tubing about 2 by 2 and quarter inch wall, probably about 12 feet long. I would also obtain a steel plate about half inch thick and 4 inches wide about a foot long and then put the bolt pattern holes in it to match the front mounting point for the lower control arm. I would bolt it in place on the mounting point. Then I would clamp the long box tubing to the plate.

In the meantime I would have the car up on jack stands and I would have the left front jack stand just in front of the mounting point with the plate bolted to it. Then I would push down on the outer end of the tube and bend the mounting point back into position. I would measure its location carefully with the other side to be sure that they are square with each other and pretty close to parallel if they should be.

Then I would begin to realign the metal where I had opened up the previous welds and then weld them back together, using some doublers as previously suggested, in places that you are not too sure about. You may need to obtain some method to weld on some sheet metal pins and a slide hammer to pull some of the metal back out to get the correct alignment of the metal on the frame horn to make the new welds.

The 928 frame component of the 928 uni-body is made up of body weight sheet metal and in the frame around the passenger compartment it consists of three layers. I am not sure if the front frame horns have two or three layers, but that probably doesn't make any difference in what I might do as described above. If there is an inside third member, which does not show in you pictures, I doubt that it has been bent much at all.

CountryBoy

A little update, removed engine. Cleaning up the area.





Looking at buying a salvage vehicle, will post pictures of the car overall this weekend.

Mrmerlin

I wasnt joking in post 3

Imo000

So what are you planing to do?