Damaged Chassis Rails - What now?

watoga

watoga

Member
Hello everyone,

Damaged chassis rails have been discussed many times on the GTiROC, so I thought it would be my time to post up some pictures of what I'm faced with................................

The sills are remarkably smooth and buckle-free. The chassis rails, on the other hand, look terrible. No doubt the previous owner(s) used them for jacking purposes, but now I'm faced with the repairs :doh:

What would people recommend? Should I buy new rails and get them welded in? Or construct a monstrosity using box-section steel and get that welded in for a little more strength and support? I don't particularly care what the finished job looks like, so long as it is functional and strong. If I go for the latter option of box-section steel, does anyone have the necessary measurements or recommendations? For example, what is the angle (to the vertical) that the anti-roll bar is attached at the front of the chassis rails?

Anyway, here are the pictures. Please feel free to point and laugh. But if you do, try and offer some constructive advice also :-D


DRIVER'S CHASSIS RAIL:





PASSENGER'S CHASSIS RAIL:





Thanks a lot guys,
Dave
 
watoga

watoga

Member
I hope it is that simple.......................... But PobodY (George???) thinks that because they are a structural component, it may cause the car to fail an MOT???

I'd love it to be as simple as waxoyling and forgetting!! :)

Dave
 
PobodY

PobodY

Moderators
Staff member
I failed the MOT for ones that didn't look as crushed as that, yes.

I think it's related to corrosion within so many inches of a suspension mounting point (and I can see the ARB mounts in one shot there). - It's not so bad to get them cut-out and get new bits welded in; I think Nissan still sell them, but failing that it's just a bit of box-section.

The carpets will have to come out to weld it on though... and in my case the floor had to be hammered-out too because someone had used that as a jacking-point too.

I'd go the box section again, but I don't think they're going anywhere for a while yet. - I don't have the dimensions because I had a mechanic do it.
 
bob the builder

bob the builder

New Member
hi mate, i had my drivers side which was just as bad if not worse and passed no probs at a vosa test station.
anyway, if money is tight then a quick,cheap and easy way of making them look ok for the mot is to clean them up and then check how rusty they are.
if they are not too bad then reprofile them with good old filler,sand them square and finish off with plenty of undersill.
i know some people will gasp at the thought, but i know what its like to be skint .
quick cheap and easy, and will do untill you can do it properly.
 
S

sharpygti

Member
mine are the same. dont no wot im guna do yet but as im a welder and have unlimited amount of steel i should do it right. or i might try and straighten them first with a dent puller slide hammer.
 
ollydj

ollydj

Member
sharpygti said:
mine are the same. dont no wot im guna do yet but as im a welder and have unlimited amount of steel i should do it right. or i might try and straighten them first with a dent puller slide hammer.
Click to expand...
alan welded new rails onto his ben ask him where he got them from???:roll:
 
S

sharpygti

Member
i think he made them him self. i could cut some box down in work to the right shape but thats the last thing to do init. i thought we could get it on the ramp when we put the engine back in and get the slide hammer on it, would probably get most of it out.
 
stevepudney

stevepudney

GTiROC CHAIRMAN
Staff member
chrisniss91 said:
What's involved with replacing the chassis rails? How much from nissan?
Click to expand...
The short section of rail from about the middle of the cabin up to the anti roll bar is available from Nissan but in short supply, or at least thats what I was told when I ordered mine a few years ago. They were on back order for about 3 months which isn't to bad I suppose. From memory I think they were about £30 - 40 each.

The job to replace them is a long winded pig of a job. The OEM ones are spot welded onto the shell, so getting to old ones off isn't to bad, you just need to drill out the old spot welds and rip off the old mangled rails.
To get the new ones on is the tricky bit, unless you have a spot welder with deep arms about 2ft long.
Under the carpets and stuck to the floor are bitumen sound deadening panels, which need to chipped off and the underseal on the underside the underseal needs to be stripped off before any welding. Thats the messy bit. The tricky bit is aligning the new rails and tacking them into position. The positioning is critical, because the anti roll bar bolts up onto them, so if you get the position wrong you wont be able to bolt up the ARB. I used panel pins to hold them in position and bolted the ARB to them, then tacked them on, then removed the pins before seam welding the new rails on to the shell.
Safety first though, one of the most important things is to be able to get proper access to the underside of the car so make sure that once the car is up off the ground that it stable and secure.
 
PobodY

PobodY

Moderators
Staff member
That's a good point - I had all that bitumen taken out for the welding, and Dynamat went back in (for my wife who doesn't like a noisy Pulsar). Definitely not a quick job, and it does look a bit industrial now... but I have confidence in those rails.
 
watoga

watoga

Member
Cheers for the help guys.

My MOT isn't until September so I have a little bit of time remaining to get them sorted. I'll maybe take it down to a local bodyshop and see what they could do with box-section. Failing that, I'll see if a local welder wants a few quid and a crate of beer for the help! 8) I don't mind doing the pain-in-the-arse bits of removing the sound deadening and carpet, but since I've never welded before I'll probably leave that to the experts!!!

Bit disappointing really.........

Dave
 
shroom

shroom

Active Member
mine did not fail,

if it isnt rusty just bent up just wire brush it back, and give it a spray, and cover it in waxoyl, if your that bothered then get some fibreglass or filler and filler it up if you want it to look square i mean might be a bodge but having bits of box section looks worse, then if you do decide you want to you can smack the filler out the way and get it re done,

maybe go replacing things if it is shockingly bent right up and rusting but if its not why bother, spend it on something more exiting, if it aint rusty just leave it and protect it,
 
watoga

watoga

Member
I'm tempted to use a bit of filler to make it look "standard" (ie, so it can pass an MOT) until I can save the money to get it done right. My main worry is safety though. Surely if the anti-roll bar is connected to it, and it's bent and buckled, could this potentially cause a safety concern????

Unknowingly,
Dave
 
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