Hole in Chassis....how long to leave it

Had the drivers front whel off last night, took the opportunity to have a poke at the parts that are harder to reach. After some scraping with my srewdriver I found that there is a 5p sized hole rusted through the chassis on the vertical face just rear of where the front suspension brace attaches to the chassis (the suspension turret sits on top of this brace).

I assume that to fix this will require the removal of the suspension brace in order to get a plate welded into the chassis so it is a bigger job then just a normal hole in the chassis.

My question is whether peeps would be driving around with this hole? It must have been there for a while, its just I know about it now. The 90 actually passed its MOTa few weeks back (!!) so I did a better job than the MOT guy. Can I drive around with this for a while whilst I save up the cash to get it fixed??

It should be ok mate , clean it up and ream out the rust until you get good metal then weld up the hole if it aint too big, 5p sized hole shouldnt need a plate.

its likely to last a while as you say as its not just occurred but removing spring braclet is the best way to repair chassis if keeping the vehicle, as most likely be some more rot to cut out

bigsi13 said:

It should be ok mate , clean it up and ream out the rust until you get good metal then weld up the hole if it aint too big, 5p sized hole shouldnt need a plate.

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Bigsi, thanks - the issue is that it is right up against the weld for the suspension bracket so cleaning it up will probably require going behind the suspension bracket....I dont know this for sure....buts its my assumption! I will dig around some more and see what the damage is.

Hammer and screwdriver all round mount , if its worse on further inspection then i'd get it done asap just to be safe.

If its only a little one rather than going to a garage I'd say clean it up at home then take it to the local metal workers. It'll cost you a bit less for them to plug the weld up than it will at a garage!