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Whell Well Rust!

6K views 44 replies 11 participants last post by  theinscrutablefufy 
#1 ·
I have a '94 J-body, non-convertible. The rear wheel wells are pretty rusted: One is rotted through, the other is showing rot, but not as severe. I doubt I will see any of these cars at the junk yard I'm at. Central NY is also known for it's car rust. What cars could I pull a well from and weld into place? All help is appreciated!
 
#3 ·
cahilj said:
Nothing will fit up without work. The J body was one of a kind.
Awe, damn. What's the closest I may be able to get? I was told by a mechanic to see if I could as closely as I can, match up the shape from the gastank of a motorcycle. He said it's pretty thich metal and it may be able to work. I will first see if they have any of these at my local junk yard.
 
#8 ·
ahhh.........duhhhh. When u said wheel well I thought your 1/4's instantly. I think others did to. Yeah ur right.......that's your wheel wells alright haha

That is pretty bad. Not the worse I have seen but its in the top 5. Wow where do I start. Im not even sure about patching that because if you have holes that large in there.......I highly doubt the surrounding metal is anything of any substance you are going to want to be welding to.
You are most likely going to be looking for a donor parts car and spot out the well from one of those.
Honestly tho how sound is the rest of your car? Id be scared to look other places you may not be thinking of

I think the main thing tho would be getting the top of the shock tower area beefed up enough because that's the next thing that's gonna happen. Your shock top will bust the rest of that area out and then be flopping around.
 
#10 ·
90zcar said:
ahhh.........duhhhh. When u said wheel well I thought your 1/4's instantly. I think others did to. Yeah ur right.......that's your wheel wells alright haha

That is pretty bad. Not the worse I have seen but its in the top 5. Wow where do I start. Im not even sure about patching that because if you have holes that large in there.......I highly doubt the surrounding metal is anything of any substance you are going to want to be welding to.
You are most likely going to be looking for a donor parts car and spot out the well from one of those.
Honestly tho how sound is the rest of your car? Id be scared to look other places you may not be thinking of

I think the main thing tho would be getting the top of the shock tower area beefed up enough because that's the next thing that's gonna happen. Your shock top will bust the rest of that area out and then be flopping around.
The plan was to see if I can find a J-body like this one, and cut out the wells and my buddy and I can weld them in. I'm not a huge enthusiast on cars, but I'm learning. Can you tell me about the shock tower area?
 
#12 ·
theinscrutablefufy said:
Can you tell me about the shock tower area?
Well, I believe the braces (see picture bellow) have been welded in there since the car left the factory. I don't recall seeing them before, but maybe I just didn't pay any attention to them before :-?

Here is a picture of the 1992-93 Parts and Illustration Catalog. It may give you an idea of how things go together. You'll need more than just the well to really fix it, but hopefully any car you can get good wells from will also have good metal around it too.

Good luck and keep us updated on how it is going :)
 

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#14 ·
90zcar said:
looks like somebody already knew there was an issue and tried putting a bandaid on it.
Yeah, I think it is the only thing still holding the upper damper mount plate in place. Without those braces, it quite probably would have torn out.

It of course is fixable, but you should find a car that has none to minimal rust for the pieces you'll need. http://www.car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi will give a nice list of cars throughout the country. You can call them and in most cases they will cut out the parts you need and ship them to you. Maybe try some of the snow free states first.

Good luck :)
 
#15 ·
butch_n said:
90zcar said:
looks like somebody already knew there was an issue and tried putting a bandaid on it.
Yeah, I think it is the only thing still holding the upper damper mount plate in place. Without those braces, it quite probably would have torn out.

It of course is fixable, but you should find a car that has none to minimal rust for the pieces you'll need. http://www.car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi will give a nice list of cars throughout the country. You can call them and in most cases they will cut out the parts you need and ship them to you. Maybe try some of the snow free states first.

Good luck :)
Thank you! That must be the piece of metal that the person from whom I bought this car form's son welded in. She told me he did that, but I didn't know it was that piece. Thank you guys so much for your help. I hope this process won't be too hard. It's going to be hard to find this car without rusted wells. That's upstate New York for you!
 
#16 ·
butch_n said:
90zcar said:
looks like somebody already knew there was an issue and tried putting a bandaid on it.
Yeah, I think it is the only thing still holding the upper damper mount plate in place. Without those braces, it quite probably would have torn out.

It of course is fixable, but you should find a car that has none to minimal rust for the pieces you'll need. http://www.car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi will give a nice list of cars throughout the country. You can call them and in most cases they will cut out the parts you need and ship them to you. Maybe try some of the snow free states first.

Good luck :)
I can't seem to locate the part on the list on the website. What would it be called?
 
#17 ·
It's not going to be listed as a part. Your going to have to call and see if they are willing to cut it out for you.

Honestly tho as much as you don't want to hear it...I highly doubt that is your only concern on that car. If that rears that bad....I can only imagine what other areas on that car are like. Have you ever pulled up the carpet and looked at your floor pan, rocker panels, lower firewall , rear trunk corners below tailights and lower a pillar/front door frame area behind fender. These are all common areas on these cars that rot out.
 
#18 ·
I would think you may want to look for another one. Thats in bad shape. Someone already welded some angle irons in there to keep the stock mount from breaking off. I don't think even that will last too long. You'd have to cut a new one from a junk yard if you have any chance of saving that.
 
#19 ·
90zcar said:
It's not going to be listed as a part. Your going to have to call and see if they are willing to cut it out for you.

Honestly tho as much as you don't want to hear it...I highly doubt that is your only concern on that car. If that rears that bad....I can only imagine what other areas on that car are like. Have you ever pulled up the carpet and looked at your floor pan, rocker panels, lower firewall , rear trunk corners below tailights and lower a pillar/front door frame area behind fender. These are all common areas on these cars that rot out.
I can check these. I will make sure to soon.
 
#20 ·
heartbeat1991 said:
I would think you may want to look for another one. Thats in bad shape. Someone already welded some angle irons in there to keep the stock mount from breaking off. I don't think even that will last too long. You'd have to cut a new one from a junk yard if you have any chance of saving that.
My plan was to cut out newer ones. And there are no J-bodies being sold near me at all.
 
#21 ·
90zcar said:
It's not going to be listed as a part. Your going to have to call and see if they are willing to cut it out for you.

Honestly tho as much as you don't want to hear it...I highly doubt that is your only concern on that car. If that rears that bad....I can only imagine what other areas on that car are like. Have you ever pulled up the carpet and looked at your floor pan, rocker panels, lower firewall , rear trunk corners below tailights and lower a pillar/front door frame area behind fender. These are all common areas on these cars that rot out.
Rot below left rear light, pan looks fine right now. Rocker panels aren't bad either.
 

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#22 ·
90zcar said:
It's not going to be listed as a part. Your going to have to call and see if they are willing to cut it out for you.

Honestly tho as much as you don't want to hear it...I highly doubt that is your only concern on that car. If that rears that bad....I can only imagine what other areas on that car are like. Have you ever pulled up the carpet and looked at your floor pan, rocker panels, lower firewall , rear trunk corners below tailights and lower a pillar/front door frame area behind fender. These are all common areas on these cars that rot out.
 

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#23 ·
I think ur looking for obvious "holes" which there's more to it than that. Just by looking at your pictures(which aren't very clear) I can see your driverside wheel well is rotting away. Anywhere u think there might be rot....take a screwdriver and stab it with some force...
 
#24 ·
90zcar said:
I think ur looking for obvious "holes" which there's more to it than that. Just by looking at your pictures(which aren't very clear) I can see your driverside wheel well is rotting away. Anywhere u think there might be rot....take a screwdriver and stab it with some force...
Sorry about the bad pictures. But yes, I know it is. But there isn't a gaping hole in it like the passenger well.
 
#26 ·
rude_ideas said:
I should be picking up a vert parts car tomorrow. Not sure if they altered the vert wells when they converted them but if not and it's not rusted you could come cut them out before I scrap the car. Just would have to wait a couple months for me to finish stripping it.
That would be awesome... IF you were in NY. Any way you can ship 'em?
 
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