battery tray and sill rust questions
 

Well I was back at it last weekend, and I found a couple of things I want to ask about. The first is the "custom" battery tray the previous owner added.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1087245173.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1087244760.jpg
Is this OK? or should I have the proper one welded in. Does the battery tray contrubute any to the chasis stiffness? Also the peice of sheet metal under the "battery tray" ( pics are looking down from top of engine compartment), is that structural, or just part of the cooling system? the "custom" tray is resiting on that peice and it doesn't seem to strong. (look throught the tray to see the peice i mean). Is the circled area in the second pic the place where the battery tray is suposed to reside?
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1087244552.jpg
Second is the rust I found in the drivers side door sill. I think it is non structural, just a sill plate. any opinions. The longs seem strong. sSo I was wondering if I can just get that area patched with a peice of sheet metal ( looks like it was poorly patched once already).
thanks for the advice

MARK

Mark,

The metal underneath the battery tray location is critical. If you look under it, you'll see that is where the right rear trailing arm mounts to the chassis. If that area is weakened, that section will flex. If it's badly waekened it will collapse.

The "battery tray" that you have is apparently a bodged attempt at replaing the original tray. I would look carefully at the areas you have rust or have apparent "rust repair". You might be looking at a rustoration down the road.

-Josh2

The suspension mounting points are all solid.. i took off the rear trailing arms this weekend, so i know this, this seems to be a flap of steel to meet up with the cooling tin on the engine. i dont know how else to describe it.

the trailing arm mounting area is further out and both sides were very solid.

If it's just the sheet metal shelf that surrounds the engine tin, you should be okay. But look very carefully, rust is an insideous creature, and you should never turn your back on it... :-)

-Josh2

Part of the metal below where the stock battery tray goes (yes, the circled location in your second photo) is just the "engine shelf", there to keep the warm air below the motor from getting sucked in again by the cooling fan. Part of it is structural. Take a close look and you should be able to tell where the difference is.

The battery tray is not structural. What you have there is likely just fine, as long as the structural part of what's below it is sound.

The door sill does, I believe, contribute somewhat to chassis stiffness. At the very least I'd get that cut out and new metal welded in.

--DD

Mark, we have lots of 914 donor chassis, so drop me an email if your interested in body parts.

Dave, you might want to take a closer look at the circled picture, isn't that just the right rear inner front wheel well, the part that the battery nessels up against? The sheet metal shelf looks to be good.

Thanks, Don.

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my post.

The circled part is where the stock tray mounts. There is also a "support" under it.

The engine shelf is below that. It is non-structural. However, a structural part of the longitudinal is right next to the engine shelf, also below the battery.

--DD