Series 3 Advice for welding of front bump stop plate

[Software-and-Swarfega]

Hi

I'm after some advice about how to go about welding/replacing the bump stop plates on my wife’s S3 ‘77; these are the plates which have slightly curved ends, sit in the underside of the front member and are flanked by brackets on either side of the front member (onto which the bump stops themselves bolt). One of these brackets also has a tab onto which the brake pipe goes.

I’ll attach a picture, but it looks like someone has had a go in the past and welded the plate (or multiple thin plates - it looks like it has rusted in layers) at an upwards angle, such that one end is actually sitting within the front member rather than on it.

I don’t know what thickness of plate to use, but it looks around 6mm, does this sound right? I was thinking of replacing the bottom part of the front member itself, extending some way past where the bump stop plate will end up sitting and then weld the replacement plates on afterwards- so they sit proud of the underside. If anyone has repaired this section themselves in the past I’d be glad of any advice.

Thanks

 

[Kev12]

There may be a repair section available which would make it a lot easier, these guys do some I'm sure there are other places too https://www.sp-4x4.com/category_s/303.htm

 

[Software-and-Swarfega]

Thanks Kev12, I had taken a look around and had seen the various replacement cross members and extensions but not seen any specific to that part of the chassis around the bump stop plates. The short "extension cap" https://www.sp-4x4.com/product_p/lr29-3.htm might be something I could use to weld along the underside perhaps but I'd still need the thick(er) bump stop plate itself.

 

[tottot]

When repairing mine in that I just used a single section of thick plate along the bottom and new tabs on the repaired side plates to hold the bump stop. No gap between plates for water to get in. Rot did not extend as far as yours.

 

[Software-and-Swarfega]

When repairing mine in that I just used a single section of thick plate along the bottom and new tabs on the repaired side plates to hold the bump stop. No gap between plates for water to get in. Rot did not extend as far as yours.

Can I ask what guage of plate you used?

 

[tottot]

6mm I think it was, I was able to get a strip the right width from a local blacksmith so all I had to do was cut to the right length.