Rear body crossmember replacement

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jonny mac

Active Member
Posts
239
Location
north wales
Im gonna be replacing my boot floor hopefully in about 3 weeks and would like some info on replacing the rear crossmember please... How easy is it to do? (i currently have no welding exp but will practise over the next few weekends) how is it fixed? I can see some spotwelds i think on each end, then the obvious two body mounts and boot floor lip is it fixed anywhere else? Also does a new crossmember come with two new bodymounts welded on? Truthful answers plz guys is it a **** of a job, Will i be out of my depth? Thanks in advance
 
In the middle of doing my dads floor this week.
we drilled all the spot welds out of the floor to get to the cross members.
Well what was left of them. I'm lucky I have a mate who's a welder by trade and he says it's going to take him about 2 days to do with replacing the whole floor. I know he's not taking the **** with the labour cos it's a freebie lol.
 
Sorry mate i didnt mean them ones i meant the big bugger at the back that is directly under the rear door when it is shut
 
I'd recommend if you have no welding experience you do not undertake this on your own.
You would be much better asking for help or finding someone local to help you.
 
i'll give you a run through on this one mate.

its not actually that difficult, just take your time.

buy a crossmember from YRM metal solutions. comes with body mounts welded.

then take out your rear interior, remove tailgate. remove rear bumper. remove fuel tank if possible.

you SHOULD remove your rear quarter panels to do the job properly, it is the only way to get fully around it. these are held on by various bolts and screws all around, expect about an hour per side to remove - there is lots of sealant that has to be heated and cut with hot knife too. push side windows out first btw.

once those are off you have a basic body.

before you start, support the chassis so it cannot move on the suspension, then pass a long piece of 4x2 through the side window apertures and support the body on ACRO struts or similar. this then keep the relation of body anc chassis the same.

next, grind the paint off an area on the rear door aperture, near the hinges and the lock thingy on the other side, and weld a piece of decent box section across the aperture. this stops the rear body spreading when you chop the arse out of later :D

it is worth noting that this piece of box section forms a handy shelf for tools, and also a useful area to bury your head in your hands on when you realise what a big job youve started.

undo your body mount bolts and recover the rubbers.

start to cut out your crossmember. when i did mine i couldnt get my fuel tank out so had to start cutting the crossmember with the tank in place. as soon as i had made room i removed the tank, be careful as the tank is very close to your work.

basically cut the crossmember away from the floor, or remove floor first if you are doing floor aswell. cut crossmeber off bottom of pillars. try to save as much original metal on pillars/inner quarter panels etc as possible.

once its out you can paint your chassis if you choose.

then stick your new crossmember straight in and weigh up your task. it took us a large amount of heavy levering before we could get it sitting nicely, then we tacked up any contact points.

then you simply have to get as much of the car connected to the crossmember as possible, and if it has rotted away then cut back and make up new section.

replace your floor panels as necessary, you'll get the hang of it.

if you are happy you can weld pretty well with a few weeks practice i say thats all you need. thats all i had.

ok i had got a mate to do the front end and the sills and i had simply cut sections, done grinding etc so i had practice of car repair, but the crossmember job i bought my own welder for.

here's some pics and a great link too:

16cba8b2.jpg


8a1e5ec1.jpg


62c2e00d.jpg




https://picasaweb.google.com/117840...authkey=Gv1sRgCLeUoKqc0rD3nwE&feat=directlink


cheers & good luck :)
 
thanks, Mr Noisy, for this invaluable contribution !

I'll have to do mine shortly and after a lot of search through this and other sites I still wondered how to organize

from my first investigations I'm afraid the real problem will be in getting "as much of the car connected to the crossmember as possible" :( :( :(
 
Ye thanks mr noisy for such an in depth response, thats a good plan. I'll practise as much a poss over the next few weeks then when im ready to do the floor i'll decide if im confident enough to attempt it. An indoor workshop/garage would be handy aswell which i dont have at the moment.
 
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