Rust on front cross-member

[yogi]

This is an 87 coupe and like the title says I have found rust on the front cross-member. I bought this car 4 years ago and had the battery tray and area cleaned and painted because it showed some rust. The records for this car show that the battery overcharged about 10 years ago and spilled acid. The rust is by the driver side front tow hook on the cross-member.

I can think of 2 options unless anyone else has some ideas. Option 1 is have the cross-member cut out and a new one welded in. Option 2 is clean and treat with por 15 and use some JB weld by the rust hole. Or use the JB weld first and then the por 15. Any suggestions or first hand experience will be appreciated. thanks

[doug_porsche]

Same sort of thing happened to my car. They sell replacement pans. Very time consuming to install, (13 hours for me.. first time project on a hoist), but was worth it for the piece of mind.

[yogi]

Doug thanks for bringing up the front pan. I forgot to mention I showed the rust to a porsche independent mechanic who's been working on porsche's for 20 years. He does have a person who does front pans, but he said I didn't need one I just need the front cross-member worked on. If I don't do something and just let it go I will end up needing a front pan. I'm looking for ideas on how to go about fixing or replacing the front cross-member. The person who replaces front pans was thinking I should call some restoration shops. I'm sure someone else on this board has dealt with rust on the front cross-member. Does anyone else have some suggestions? thanks,

[g rad]

I replaced mine two years ago,, I could put my finger through from the bottom on each side, around the torsion bar anchor points.. Must take off top pan cover to see full extent of damage... may be a few 1in or larger holes with a hole saw through the top pan would give more info.... if not heaps of flaking rust,, take appropriate stop rust action... then mig a plug over holes... IMHO..... g rad

[eapcpa]

Jerry,

You might want to post some pics.

[JeremyD]

Post some pictures - a few close ups and a few for perspective. One thing this board is not short on - opinions...

[burgermeister]

Certainly a DIY job - if I can do it (I'm 9.8 on the Retarded Monkey scale and it took me at least 40 hours) anyone can. Lots of threads covering the subject. A perfect excuse to fix up the steering, fuel pump & lines, and front suspension, as well as install an Optima battery ...

I'd replace the whole pan - probably easier than piece-mealing the crossmember. Plus, what looks like a teensy hole can look real ugly once you take a wire wheel to it.

Before:



After:

[EarlySport]

I just replaced my front crossmember on the weekend.
It had rusted from the battery tray across. I cut the whole piece out ( which really showed the extent of it ) and welded in a new folded piece of steel. The whole job took about 4 hours including POR15'ing the inside of the suspension mounts etc for future rust prevention. I think when you have a hole in this area you will find the rust is quite severe underneath...

[911pcars]

So as not to confuse.

The sheet metal is the front pan.
The crossmember is the steel (early) or aluminum (late) beam that connects and the suspension members under the vehicle.

Sherwood

[yogi]

I'm having trouble posting pictures so I hope this works.

[yogi]

Ok I got it to work so here is another picture.

[yogi]

These are very random pictures. Right now the car is in my driveway. I just held the camera under the car and took about 20 pictures. These 5 pictures are the only ones that showed the rust.

[yogi]

another picture

[yogi]

This is the last picture. When I get the car up on a lift I can get more detailed pictures.

[burgermeister]

Get a screwdriver and start poking. I hope for you it's just local, but I would expect most of the cross-car part of the front pan (I think calling it crossmember makes some sense - hard to confuse with the rear bushing crossmember) to be gone...
If you can borrow (or have) a mig welder, the DIY repair is not all that expensive if you don't run into other trouble (maybe $500 including gas, parts, coatings & such, more if you get the galvanized Dansk pan ... which I would do if I had to do mine again. But most folks seem to have had good luck with the RD et al parts).

[JeremyD]

Yogi - From those limited pictures, I definitely think you have some more rust to deal with. I would plan on replacing that whole piece as bergmeister did. Just my opinion -