Frame rail transplant on Steve's LX...

[Stangman]

While making some changes to his suspension last week we discovered that the drivers front rail was beyond patching... and beyond repair. I was very hessitant to just "box it in". Leaving the rotten rail to continue to sit inside and just get worse. So my friend Rick had some frame rails we cut out of Deckers old 'vert a while back.

We were going to put them in Rick's '79 Capri but he came across a front clip. So now that I've located a good drivers rail, I'm now going to perform emergency surgery on the patient, a certain black '89 LX with flames. Steve and I made a great amount of progress tonight however its too late to boot up the PC and upload the pics to photobucket, so im just typing this up on my droid. I'm hoping to have the surgery finished by the end of next week.

I will post some pics either tomorrow or saturday, until then i'll let you all marinate in wonderment, lol

[Stangman]

Finally!! Pictures!!

I had issues with photobucket mobile. So, here we are, I'm sure a lot of you on here know Steve Schmitt's (aka "Jack") '89 347-powered LX. If not, here's a few reminder pics...
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/IMG_5893.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/IMG_6304.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/steveslx.jpg

Anyway, we started removing the fenders/nose and hood at the end of last week, and got that out of the way.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_20-56-37_775.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_20-56-49_413.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_21-43-23_176.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_21-43-33_897.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_21-43-52_222.jpg

Once we removed the bodywork, we had to remove all the brakes on the front end to get to the rust affected areas, Which at first we didnt think were that bad. Here is the "patch" that someone did for him a few years ago. Which, by any means wasnt a good patch, more of a band-aid so you couldnt see the nastyness underneath. The patch was only welded on the ends, and then covered in seam sealer... and that wouldnt support the weight of a car if the rest of the rail went south in a hurry!! Here is the "patch"
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_21-58-12_482.jpg

[SATURNV]

I had to do something similar with mine, tho I did cut out the bad and made a patch, welded, then made a larger overlapping patch to double up.

[Stangman]

Well, We knew we were dropping the K member to install a tubular K member, so we went ahead and got that out of the way:

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_22-53-16_246.jpg


And that gave us a pretty good look at how bad the rust had gotten to this car's frame rail...

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_22-52-44_581.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_22-52-52_751.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_22-53-03_995.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_22-58-07_100.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_22-58-38_593.jpg

This car supposedly had a 351W in it before Steve got it, and was a wheelie machine, evident by the next picture...

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_22-58-15_809.jpg

IF you look closely in this picture at the first K member bolt hole, the frame rail is actually pulled DOWN, like it was pulling the nut thru the frame rail. And so the previous owners put a large washer and cut the clip off the nut in order to keep it all from pulling thru the frame. Horrible.

So now, no K member, no suspension, and not much of a frame rail on the drivers side...

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-22_22-59-02_249.jpg

I thought about it for a few days whether we should just box it in, or perform surgery and extract the bad rail, and replace it with a good one... Well, since the bottom of the frame rail was "blown out" with rust, Boxing it in would make the k member sit off the bottom of the frame rail a little bit, and we'd have to space the passenger side down, so I elected to just replace the rail...

So that left us with another problem... where are we going to get another frame rail????

Well, luckily, a few years earlier, Decker was parting out a convertible that he could not get a title for, and at that time, my friend Rick (ricks_85_gt) had just bought a '79 rusty-ass capri that needs a new front clip... and we got the frame rails from Keith. As luck would turn out, Rick came across a whole front clip, making my job of clipping it easier, and in turn, no longer needed the frame rails we got from Keith. Rick and I did a little trading, and now we had new frame rails for Steve's car.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_21-59-17_577.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_21-59-28_498.jpg

[Stangman]

I had to do something similar with mine, tho I did cut out the bad and made a patch, welded, then made a larger overlapping patch to double up.

That's a pretty good idea, we didnt want to add a lot of weight to this car, since we were trying to take out weight... I love the progress your car is making BTW...

[Stangman]

With our direction chosen, we decided to get to work and try to detach the frame rail the least destructive way possible as to save as much of the inner fender aprons as we could...

Enter the spot weld drill bit... I love these things... Helped me thru swapping roof-skins on my '88 hatchback... cant go wrong with a good spot weld drill bit.

Steve has a fascination for power tools so I let him fulfill himself and do the drilling and the dirty work, I pointed, he clicked, lol

We started by getting as many spot welds cut thru as we could...

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_21-57-20_201.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_21-57-47_6.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-00-02_984.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-01-01_709.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-01-07_948.jpg

Unfortunately with years of battery acid dripping on this inner fender, the sheet metal is weak, rusty, and very brittle... We werent able to remove the frame rail very neatly from this apron, but I've got a plan for that once the new rail is in place.

More spot welds...

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-20-11_728.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-20-18_37.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-20-23_850.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-25-32_868.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-25-40_530.jpg

[Stangman]

Frame rail removal... by sections!

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-55-08_136.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-57-48_640.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_22-58-01_213.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_23-05-13_129.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_23-06-23_416.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-27_23-06-31_798.jpg


Finally got the rest of the frame rail out...

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-29_23-19-27_939.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-29_23-19-39_628.jpg

[SATURNV]

Wow... Came out "cleaner" then I expected.

Good luck with fitting the replacement.. (The real "fun" begins here) :lol:

Thanks, mine has been quite the project.

[Walter]

Nice work fellas.

[Stangman]

Thanks guys, it's always fun to try new things like this... never done it befor in my life, lol, did a front clip, and a roof skin before... this isnt much different I guess...

Anyway, We did some trimming to the new frame rail to get a good flat surface on where the strut tower will meet the partial strut tower on the frame rail...

And with a bit of test fitting, and trimming, we got ourselves a frame rail!

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-29_23-41-01_140.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-29_23-41-15_23.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_00-08-12_542.jpg

Test fitted the K member just to make sure... not that he doubted me! LOL

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_00-08-18_334.jpg

This thing mates up really nice. I'm pretty impressed with it, we tore up the inner fender a little bit behind the strut tower, it didnt wanna let go, and so I'll have to do some patch work back there, no biggie.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_00-08-26_268.jpg

Everything looks pretty square, we did some measurements on each side to make sure the distance from the bottom of the rail to the top of the strut tower was in line with a car that hasnt been cut on, and so far, we're spot on!!

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_00-08-51_746.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_00-09-17_120.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_00-09-23_158.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_00-30-46_505.jpg

I'm off to go back to Steves to try and finish this bad boy today...

More pics later!

Enjoy! :bigthumb

[chris91]

Damn, you guys arent messing around none are ya!!?? He going to go ahead and respray the bay while everything is out too?

[KB1]

Great Job Jesse!!!

[93hulk]

nice work.

[mustangboy]

Nice work guys!!

[94tchikinv8]

You need an air drill Jesse. Those things are amazing for drilling out spot welds, way faster than the electric ones. Good work though!

-Rob

[RIXXX93GT]

Nice project thread guys!

[Steves LX]

Damn, you guys arent messing around none are ya!!?? He going to go ahead and respray the bay while everything is out too?

No but you are!!! I will PM you my address.:lol: I've seen your engine bays and they look wonderful.

On a serious note, yes i'm going to chassis saver the whole bay and down thru the trans tunnel. The outside of the innerfenders is getting done as well. The bay should be all spiffied up in about 2 weeks or so.

[chris91]

No but you are!!! I will PM you my address.:lol: I've seen your engine bays and they look wonderful.

On a serious note, yes i'm going to chassis saver the whole bay and down thru the trans tunnel. The outside of the innerfenders is getting done as well. The bay should be all spiffied up in about 2 weeks or so.

HAHA!! Thanks man.

Wouldnt be too bad. Black is easy to do. My white one wasnt too bad. Just SUCKED doing it with the engine and everything in the bay. Believe it or not, my white one was done with all aerosol cans. Still looks good 2 years and a engine build later. Never used chassis saver on anything. Is it glossy when dry?

[Steves LX]

Its not to glossy. I did my wife's coupe the same way back last summer.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w174/steveslx/103_3753.jpg

[Stangman]

You need an air drill Jesse. Those things are amazing for drilling out spot welds, way faster than the electric ones. Good work though!

-Rob

I actually have one, but it's kind of a cheapy, and the torque just isnt as much as an electric, plus, with electric, the power is always there... no waiting on a compressor. But in a tight space, the air drills are nice.


Is it glossy when dry?

You can get it in a glossy finish, a flat finish, and a semi gloss finish which is what Steve did to his wife's car, and what he'll prolly do to his car.

Heck, I think the brand is called Rust-Seal, and it took the place of chassis saver at KOI, and I'm pretty sure you can even get it in colors now too!

[Stangman]

Got a little bit accomplished tonight, got the rail cleaned up and ready to go in...

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_16-41-06_404.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_16-41-21_701.jpg

Anyone looking for a gently used frame rail? It's just in 3 pieces!

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_17-08-49_769.jpg

So, my first order of business today was to fix the inner fender apron that was damaged by rust, battery acid, and eventually... me.

I made some preliminary measurements and Steve cut me out a piece of 20"x1.5" from a piece he picked up from the hardware store. It was 22ga. but it worked out, I would liiked to have had 18-20ga but they must have been out.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_17-51-26_800.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_17-51-38_413.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_18-53-44_874.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_18-53-52_124.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_19-32-38_363.jpg

[Stangman]

Action shots ftw! lol

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_19-33-55_241.jpg


http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_19-47-14_730-1.jpg

I didnt mention, or show it, but I did cut out the rusted mangled steel underneath my new patche before welding it on.

We hosed down the inside of the rail with some sort of galvanizing spray paint that Steve had, hopefully it fends off the rust for a long time to come.


http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_19-50-35_122.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_20-00-30_967.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_20-00-38_874.jpg

I also drilled holes in the new patch so I could plug weld them and attach it to the frame rail once we got it in place.
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_21-06-48_617.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_21-06-53_991.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_21-06-58_736.jpg

Finally, we got everything mocked up where we wanted it, bolted the K member on, made some final measurements, and started to tack it in place.

I used U-POL copper weld-thru primer on the spots where I was going to be welding.

Once I got Steve to stop hitting the damn thing with a hammer I was able to weld a few spots!

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_22-05-09_921.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-01-30_22-12-40_119.jpg

I wasnt impressed by my welds tonight, my argon tank was very low when I started tonight... I'll get it refilled hopefully in the next few days.

All we really have left is to make some small patches to cover gaps, plug weld old spot weld holes, and grind all the welds down and it's done!

[chris91]

Its not to glossy. I did my wife's coupe the same way back last summer.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w174/steveslx/103_3753.jpg

Hey that stuff looks pretty good. Im sure its about as durable as they come so thats definitely a positive. Good luck with the reassembly guys!

[5.0calypso93lx]

Turned out great!

[93Turbo4v]

looks good guys.

[kennebellcobra]

Very nice!

[mystichris@MD]

Nice work guys!

[331TwistedWedge]

good job guys ... i heard new frame rails are worth a tenth :bigthumb

[Stangman]

Shoot I think the old one was worth more than that... it was lighter! Lol

[RyanR]

Looks good guys.

[inferno50]

looks familiar. its nice to see how everyone does things differently. nice guys.

[NXcoupe]

Jesse, you are doing a fantastic job, that is no easy task to replace a frame rail. I will try to get down that way this week, but with it being a kids weekend, it's going to be tough.

[Stangman]

Jesse, you are doing a fantastic job, that is no easy task to replace a frame rail. I will try to get down that way this week, but with it being a kids weekend, it's going to be tough.

thanks Mike!

I can meet you, you dont have to come all the way down here, I work in Blue Ash during the week, that is, if you can manage to escape the shop for any amount of time. Just let me know.

[egbertnr]

How many that is some amazing work. I commend you for the drive to do work of that nature! Have to stop by sometime, we have way too many Mustang guys out around where we live to not get together more

[Steves LX]

How many that is some amazing work. I commend you for the drive to do work of that nature! Have to stop by sometime, we have way too many Mustang guys out around where we live to not get together more

Everyone use to get together on Wednesday nights but that sorta faded away over time. This site just isn't the same anymore and people have sorta went their own seperate ways on meeting up. But yes I agree with you on meeting up and hanging out. There is a bunch of bangerz on the east side. A few years ago we use to get 10 or so cars to all ride together to the Milford cruise in on Friday nights. That came to an abrupt end though. Once the economy took a downward spiral that was all she wrote. I know things aren't much better this year for a lot of people but maybe people will start hanging out together more again.

[egbertnr]

I know what you mean, a group of guys I ran around with pretty much fell apart too, but that was with a different car...now that I have a mustang again, I just need to get it in a cruise worthy state, or at least something thats a little more fun to drive on the street and I will be the first to head to Milford after work.

[DeckerEnt]

I remember doing the frame rails on my coupe. Don't want to ever do it again! I am glad the rails from the vert were put to good use. The work you do with metal and a welder Jesse is amazing!!

[SCHMUCKINGHAM]

I have seen that K member before

[Stangman]

I have seen that K member before

Lmao!! Yep! I couldnt use stock control arms with it and Steve needed one bad, and I just figured I'd help him out.

[firestang70]

Nice work Jesse.

[Stangman]

Just finished this up tonight. Im letting steve finish up grinding it down and maybe he'll post up some pics

[KB1]

Very nice work guys, looks very strong!!!

[Stangman]

Almost done:

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-06_12-45-25_346.jpg

Okay, Since we were done after that last pic, and looking at the bare inner fenders, we decided to give the sheet metal a little love. I didnt plan on doing this originally, but we started welding up a few of the holes, and it went soo quickly that we decided to do all of them.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_20-00-07_852.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_20-00-16_241.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_20-00-25_937.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_20-00-36_481.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_20-45-23_756.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_20-45-54_612.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_20-53-06_547.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_21-33-14_719.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_21-33-22_564.jpg

[Stangman]

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_21-38-06_224.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_21-38-12_777.jpg

We are leaving some holes open currently so we can use them for the wiring. Since Steve has hidden his wiring, he needs some of the holes to bring it back thru to things like the master cylinder... right Shannon? :D :lol:

So, until Steve was done grinding the welds down, I did some other small tasks, he had spots on the inner fenders where the metal that holds the fender speednuts were broken off, leaving him with only 2 bolts on each side, so I welded those up

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-06_12-45-34_836.jpg

Also, his low oil sending unit leaked quite badly, and he never could get it to stop, so I made a small plate to cover the hole, and eliminate the sensor. Double beaded the weld to make sure we wont have any leaks.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-12_15-58-15_642.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-12_15-58-28_374.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/stangman_77/Steves%20LX%202011/2011-02-13_19-59-23_102.jpg

[Steves LX]

So now you need to get back over tonight so we can start on the other side and I can get this thing chasis savered this weekend!!!!

[egbertnr]

I would love to patch up the swiss cheese under my hood...

[Stangman]

Strip it down under the hood like we did and take the doghouse off and I'll think about it! :lol:

[SATURNV]

Something I'll never do again.... Not without Scott's panels anyway...

[Stangman]

I'd think about it lol

[Steves LX]

Something I'll never do again.... Not without Scott's panels anyway...

Scott's panels, are you kidding me!!! That isn't work using those. That takes all the fun out of it!!:lol:

[Stangman]

Scott's panels, are you kidding me!!! That isn't work for Jesse using those. That takes all the fun out of me watching Jesse burn holes in himself!!:lol:

Fixed it! :bigthumb