Help,Quick serious rust issue.

[ricko1966]

Got to head to Kansas City in 4 hours was changing the left rear tire on fireball and as I was tightening the last lug I noticed the wheel move towards the back of the car. WTF! It turns out the rust where the rear axle beam attaches to the car is worse than I thought. I gotta cobble up something Quick! Anyone done any quick temporary repair in this area?Anyone know the Diameter and thread pitch of the bolts that bolt the beam to the body?I am going out to examine and brainstorm I will keep checking in.I am thinking about bolting A piece of angle iron to the floor and another piece to the rear pivot bolt bracket as a temporary brace. Who makes where can I get rust repair panels for this thing?

[ryanprins13]

People usually replace the shell when this happens.
Your lucky it happened when changing a tire rather than at 70mph around a corner.
Try the angle iron, it may throw your alignment out.
4green is the only place i know with new panels. I had a shopping cart full there and i thi k i had that frame rail in there but cant remember my login or anything about the site, it was a year ago...


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[w4rkry]

If the rear beam has come out from its mounts, it's time for a shell swap. That's too far gone to put back on the road safely.

[ricko1966]

If the rear beam has come out from its mounts, it's time for a shell swap. That's too far gone to put back on the road safely.

Pic of a rusty bug I rebuilt, notice I removed everything from the bottom of the door down front wheel to back wheel and center hump to outside edge. The car was solid as a rock when finished.Compare left side to right side. You can see the angle iron I welded to the door jams to keep the car from breaking in 1/2 while I cut away and replaced everything. Did a 914 that way too the rear suspension mounting points rust out on them all the time. I am going to save this car,it is to straight and clean,it is weird because it isn't really rusty other than in front of the rear wheels. Darn it the pic is too big I can't upload,I was so proud of it too, How do I resize images to post? And thanks for commenting it reminded me of how I dealt with this stuff in the past. My blue car is solid but hit in the rear,tree landed on the roof and no title I will cut everything I need out of it. You really need to see the bug pics and the 914 pics they turned out awesome.

[w4rkry]

Pic of a rusty bug I rebuilt, notice I removed everything from the bottom of the door down front wheel to back wheel and center hump to outside edge. The car was solid as a rock when finished.Compare left side to right side. You can see the angle iron I welded to the door jams to keep the car from breaking in 1/2. Did a 914 that way too the rear suspension mounting points rust out on them all the time. I am going to save this car,it is to straight and clean,it is weird because it isn't really rusty other than in front of the rear wheels.

No picture attached there, lol.

If you have the ability to save the bottom with a patch, then I wish you luck. You will need to pay attention to the alignment to try and keep it straight.

[ricko1966]

No picture attached there, lol.

If you have the ability to save the bottom with a patch, then I wish you luck. You will need to pay attention to the alignment to try and keep it straight.

yep, please reread my edited post I really want to put these pics up, I have no rush on this thing now already threw another car together for a DD. Heading to K.C. now so TTYL wanted to build a cheap turbo car this might just be the excuse. Build a tube chassis, or put a taurus front stub under the back . Nah I'd rather fix it or tube chassis it Have a greatday and if I can email theese pics to anyone that can put them up that would be awesome..The sweet thing about the 914 and the bug is I was able to buy all new metal,for anything on them

[bhazard]

RIP ricko

[ryanprins13]

In post #36 in this thread is a photo of my 4green shopping cart. It will give you part numbers and diagrams and stuff to look at and see if you can order oanels you need. https://fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58782

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[ricko1966]

Has anyone grafted in a FWD Civic,Corolla whatever front subframe into the rear of a festy? Just thought of it today Graft in a whole front sub and control arms, use coilovers,make brackets to hold the inner tie rod ends in a fixed position.So in one whack I get true irs,4 wheel toe adjustment,4 wheel camber adjustment,rear discs,and I get to pick my spring rate. If anyone has already started on this and can share any of their research I would appreciate it.

[ryanprins13]

Just to be controversial our rear beam is more independent than the front of a civic or corolla- youve seen the video
Rear toe and camber is very adjustable, its just not as easy.
With cheap coilovers you can pick any spring rate and ride hight already
and rear discs are just for looks.

But i understand why you want to do it.
So, i havent seen a writeup done of a civic or corolla but a guy on facebook had a k20 in the rear with the subframe of whatever it came out of. No details though. Taurus is common. Ill see if i can find a thread back that had good details.
Edit- here: 100photos in this thread of a taurus rear drive. https://fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60927

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[ricko1966]

I knew people had done taurus but I want to keep the same or similiar width as stock festy. Actually for some reason the shogun started rattling around in my head and then the thought hit me, the right front subframe should be a quick easy fix for my rear suspension issue.I was planning a trip to the junk yard with a camera and a tape measure soon and thought heck maybe someone has already done this and can save me some time.You know I still can't get my head around rear discs being just for looks,maybe with what you are doing they wouldn't be a benefit,but I've owned 4 911's I don't remember how many 914's,GTI's GLIs,and Audis and they all had rear discs, factory as well as all Corvettes since the mid 60's even my Volvo had rear discs. they have to have some kind of benefit.

[ryanprins13]

I see.
Well sure, just not for our cars in particular. You hardly need brskes at all back there. There is nearly no weight to begin with (the weight is in my build thread but i cant remember the number right now) and when you brake hard all that weight transferrs to the front. Optimal brake setup and slicks on the front can lift the rear tires.
If vented the discs cool better than drums, but keep in mind that discs are still used on all trailers big or small for good reason. They work well and have a few benefits over discs. Also our drums would never get hot in the rear, neither woukd discs unless you have weight back there from a rear engine.
More braking power in the rear would help me more than anyone else i think since i will have a lot of weight back there but still shouldnt be needed.
Anyhow, this is all i saved of the prelude swap:

The photos of the taurus stuff should still give you some ideas though of how to attach the prelude or whatever you use
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[chrisofna]

I saw that car in person. I can tell you that car probably doesn't handle very well, the rear end looked really stiff just going over the dirt road at the Uconn Car Show meet.

[ryanprins13]

Well to fix your beam mounts- in my build thread it was post #58 where i weighed what was going to the ground on the back tires and what of that was going to the rear beam mounts and what was going through the top of the spring to the body.https://fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59836 It was 15-20 pounds of weight going through the rear beam mounts to the frame on each side with a heavy back end, full interior and 1/4 tank of gas. So almost nothing. What rips these off is the lateral forces from hard cornering, pulling straight back from hard braking or tightening lug nuts without the park brake on and potholes. If you try and fix it and avoid all those things it might be fine. You could plug off your rear brakes and just brake harder with the fronts keep the handbrake.
My rear frame rails werent too bad yet, but i wanted to tow with the car so my original idea to make my red car last longer was to take a flat piece of metal (i had the dimensions but thats long gone) that could wrap around the frame rail. Bend it into a U that would fit around the frame rail, then cut the uprights where the bottom would need to bend to go around all those curves. Bend that to fit, drill out holes for the rear beam bolts and then weld and bolt it on to the frame rails on each side. You could do that, then once thats on the car weld another flange on each side that would support it more against the floorboards. Then put your flatbar or angle iron inside the car and bolt straight through.
As long as you get the alignment ok again, dont take corners real hard or hit massive potholes it shoukd be ok like that.

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[ricko1966]

Thanks for your concern
Keeping the alignment is NBD I also don't think the frame repair will be either. This is a common 914 problem you weld tubing angle iron ,whatever to the control arm to hold it where it belongs. Then you cut away your bad metal weld in all your repair panels and your control arm has never moved, When you are done you cut away your braces.I'll take pics of the 914 when I get a chance,it is stripped to nothing but a bare chassis 90% of the metal work is done it's sitting on a rolling cart buried behind the chevelle and a bunch of other crap waiting on me to finish it.Too many projects, the festy frame is going to have to wait till at least spring