I am working on disassembling my 73 Maverick for restoration. Last night, I was finally able to fight the bolts off the front bumper mounts and get them off the car. I already knew the fender apron and battery tray were in need of replacement but I was a bit dismayed to find that the frame area that the bumper mount bolts to has rusted away as well. The damage is only on the passenger side. The driver side frame is in good condition. Aside from a couple small areas on the driver side floor pan, this is the only rusted area on the whole car. The cowl vents are even in very good shape. My question is, what is the advisable course of action? Is this repairable? If so, what's an acceptable method of repair? I think I've seen some pictures on the forum of these frame rails removed from cars. How are they removed/replaced?
I believe the quarters are in decent shape. The car was painted back around 99 or 2000 and has been mostly garage kept ever since. I know that some areas of the quarter panel(s) were repaired/replaced at that time. There is no rust coming through the paint and the view from inside the trunk looks good too. I started tearing the car down a couple months ago and have been casually working on it as time and budget permit. I'm not concerned about making a race car or anything like that. My only real objective is to repair/replace any rusted areas, attempt to slow or prevent future rusting, and make the car safe and reliable to drive for years to come. The car is a 73 model and my grandfather bought it in 75 and became the second owner. It has been in the family ever since. My son thinks it's the coolest thing and is dying to see it finished and ride in it. My real question here is: Is it safe or advisable to cut/weld/patch the frame? I have a second Maverick that I've been using as a parts car. The parts car has almost no floor left due to rust but the front frame area is in nearly perfect condition. Can I cut off the last 12-18" of the frame on it and use it to replace the bad area of mine?
The rails are made from multiple layers/pieces of metal spot-welded together. Either find a donor, drill out the spots on both cars and plug-weld back into place, OR as Jeff recommended, cut your old piece out and make a new patch piece out of 16-ga metal and plug/butt weld it into place, paying close attention to the placement of your threaded bumper mount holes. There was a company called 3PG who had reproduced outer frame rails. I'm not sure if there are any left, or how to get any. You can see the spot welds along the top of the outer frame rail here:
Looks like you are knee deep in it now. I would say the bumper area should be simple to fix. It is not really too "structural".....so I don't see it as a safety issue.
cut it out and weld in a piece and youre done the rest of your car looks pretty solid from the pics we got ot see keep on building stuff will come up with these cars just dont give up just fix one thing at a time and before you know it your to do list will be down to one last thing DRIVE IT
Hi Scott: You might want to consider relocating the battery to the Passenger Side Trunk Area in a battery box . It would give you a little more room up front . We've done several with success. Cometized (Chip)
My car has very similar issues. I am getting some sheet metal this weekend and I hope to be a novice welder by the time it is done.
This has got to be the best Car forum out there, Just pulled my 71 apart this weekend and found the exact same issue going on with mine. Feeling hopeless and helpless wondering how or what to use i come across this post from last year...... I can do this it just about finding a place to buy the steel to make patches. Anyone have suggestions on what to or not to do when cutting and welding?? as you can see in the pics, drivers side looks pretty good, its just the passenger side that is
I have the same issue with a battery apron myself, and that is the next task on the car. Fortunately, my frame is OK, but it ate a bit of the radiator support. Make sure you get the cut made all the way back to clean metal. I learned to MIG weld on my car, and trying to do small patches on the front passenger floor was tough. Most of it had surface rust that I ground down and tried to patch to. Very easy to blow through it, which makes more work in the end. I should have taken larger cuts.