battery acid - new suspension pan?

[turbo6bar]

When I bought my 78SC, the shop doing the PPI said that I might not need a new suspension pan. I never asked the fellow to elaborate. I have my car apart for new bushings and torsion bars, and I decided to finally check out the problem.

Do you think there is any way to repair the area, or just bite the bullet?

On the driver's side, the front a-arm insert in the pan has fallen out, but the two rear inserts are fine. The passenger side a-arm mounts are solid.
thanks in advance, jürgen

[Shuie]

What really bites about this is that some of the acid has more than likely leaked down in between the front tank support and the pan where its going to continue to rot. You wont be able to clean this up without removing the front tank support. Mine was rusted from the inside out starting at the hole that was cut in the front tank support to mount the AC equipment. I couldnt see the source of the rust at all until I cut the front support out.

If the pickup points are not bad, you might get away with grinding away away the underbody coating, cleaning everything up, and treating it with POR15 for now. If the pickup points have broken away from the sheet metal or been compromised, Id order a new pan and start budgeting to have it replaced.

If you do have to have it replaced, it looks like it will be a clean install. The lateral support areas look clean so a new pan should snap right in.

Good luck.

[jpnovak]

Get out your welder. I would recommend replacement. Its not difficult and has been documented many times on the board.

What scares me is the amount of corrosion around the other two a-arm inserts. The look like they are ready to come out as well. This area usually rusts from the inside out. There is much more damage you can't see. Fix it now before you have to fabricate lateral tank supports and inner fender wells.

As Sherman Said, A new one will drop right in.

[turbo6bar]

Thanks, guys. That settles it. Ordering new suspension pan and tank support from Restoration Design/Pelican.
jürgen

[na2ub]

I am in the process of doing mine now. I have not really gotten stuck anywhere, but it is taking a long time to figure out what seams to dismantel and drill out all the spot welds. Pat S has a good thread title "shiny new pan" or something like that. You might want to get a hold of a restoration 911 book, by haynes publishing. Although not wonderfully helpful, it seems to be enought, and has some good measuring specifications for orienting the new pan.
Good luck.

[Shuie]

Its pretty easy really. Dont cut anything out until you get the new pan in your hands and you can see exactly where all the seems are. Also, dont cut anything out that is not rusted. You shouldnt have to go very far back into the pan to get the rot out, yours isnt that bad at all.

Get the diagonal measurements between the suspension points as it is now. Use your suspension as a jig to get everything square and true to the measurements and tack it in place. When you are finished, treat everything with POR15 and underbody coating.

There is a lot of documentation here from a few people who have doen it themselves.

good luck

[turbo6bar]

Originally posted by Shuie
Its pretty easy really. Dont cut anything out until you get the new pan in your hands and you can see exactly where all the seems are. Also, dont cut anything out that is not rusted. You shouldnt have to go very far back into the pan to get the rot out, yours isnt that bad at all.

The past threads I viewed showed everyone cutting out the entire pan. That's what I thought I'd have to do. So you're saying just cut out until I reach good steel. Then, set the pan on top or beneath the good steel and weld it along the seam? Or, do I need to cut the new pan to fit the material I removed?

I have the tools and space to do the work, but I've never done this type of surgery.

[Shuie]

Originally posted by turbo6bar
The past threads I viewed showed everyone cutting out the entire pan. That's what I thought I'd have to do. So you're saying just cut out until I reach good steel. Then, set the pan on top or beneath the good steel and weld it along the seam? Or, do I need to cut the new pan to fit the material I removed?

I have the tools and space to do the work, but I've never done this type of surgery.

I wouldnt cut the entire length of the pan if I was doing this again and had your car. Its difficult to cut the length of the pan out wihout ruining the lateral tank supports. These are not cheap or trivial to replace, so I wouldnt cut into them if I didnt have to. You can always weld them back up, but it will be less work if you dont cut into them. Im a big fan of less work

this link has a few good pics illustrating what I was trying to say, scroll down a little to the 9th or 10th pic

[kach22i]

Thanks to this thread I became motivated enough to wash off the inside of my trunk/pan with baking soda and water (several times). There was a battery leak or something before I bought the car. There was a light wash of rust across the front, from battery to under the spare. It wiped right off, no damage to the paint.

When it was dried out, I sprayed some anti-rust spray all over. There was one small area of rust trying to break though that I have never noticed before. It's all black now because of the spray, should hold it until fall - I hope.

There is a yellow poly-felt mat that goes under the battery avaliable though one of the mail order catalogs (Griot's). It's supposed to neutrlize any acid spillage. I believe this is the one I saw on PBS/MotorWeek a while ago.

Anyway, the car starts better with clean post and so on- good thread.

Good luck welding.