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Fri Feb 05, 2010 6:49 pm

Hey i was wondering if you guys could give me some insight on how hard of an area this is to fix and how long do they normally last once they begin to rust. It isn’t rusted through anywhere, more of just bulging a bit with rust (so I know there’s more hiding behind it. Please excuse the fact that there is undercoating covering up most of it, I can get better pictures once the camera charges!

It’s along the bottom part of the frame rail that goes under the torsion tube and also on the side of the frame rail where the torsion tube meets it. If anyone has come across a thread of this repair please post it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

(please ignore the shitty emergency brake cable lol, however the rust is mostly to the left of it underneath the undercoating)

Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:46 pm

That's one foot into the junkyard. The reaar torsion tube is not safely repairable. And WTF is the deal with the zip ties on the e-brake cables?? Hackalicious.

Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:16 pm

VDubTech wrote: That's one foot into the junkyard.

I agree. Rust around the torsion tube area of the frame is not a good thing. I'd get a screwdriver and start poking to see how bad it really is and check the front beam while you're under there. If you own a welder and have plenty of free time then no problem. If you have to pay someone to do it..... $$$ CHA-CHING $$$

Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:43 pm

That's tame, keep watching, I'm doing a semi quickie on a 68 right now and remembered to take pics, thread coming soon :wink:

Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:04 pm

Joey wrote: VDubTech wrote: That's one foot into the junkyard.

I agree.

you guys would shit if you saw the plate job on my single cab. if it wasn't dark and 10* outside, i would take some pictures for you.

i would fix that, it's a mild case of the crusties compared to my bus, which was plated by the PO. i have no issues with the job done to the bus, and the repair is good enough to hold 1600 pounds in the back of it

if that is caught and fixed now, i wouldn't have a problem. but thats me

Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:38 pm

I had a 75 westy come in one time for a pre buyers and the whole lower torsion tube on the front end was swinging loose. :shock: I guy drove it to my shop that way. :shock: :shock:

Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:43 pm

busdaddy wrote: That's tame, keep watching, I'm doing a semi quickie on a 68 right now and remembered to take pics, thread coming soon :wink:

Oh nice! that will sure help me tackle this. I have to wait until spring to fix it anyways. A friend of mind just informed that he would be willing to fix it for free! So we'll see how that pays off.

Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:17 am

Make sure you have it blasted,I see cracks,very bad.If this goes you are ?":+@ ed.Anything can be fixed.

Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:53 am

what they said. My bay quite nearly completely rotted out there, I plated it but it's still not good enough for me, so I am decommissioning the car this year to feed a new one. But yours is in good enough shape, a pit of POR inside and out, maybe add a drain hole at the bottom of that curve, and plate er up!

skills, take pics please, I need ideas to make mine stronger and to feel if mine is good enough. I know you don't do the best work on really rusty cars, but I figure a second opinon is better than nothing :wink:

Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:29 pm

Be Afraid.

I'd say that's toast. Corrosion along the frame rail is one (bad) thing, but it looks like the tube itself is, shall we say, 'compromised'

Get pokin with a screwdriver, I hope your Pals weld has a lot of amps!

Ant

Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:37 pm

I am out on a limb here because photos lie sometimes. I have seen metal that is rolled during construction flake like pastry does. When this happens the outermost layer is junk but below it is good. I have also seen metal on the outside held together by paint and mud. If it were me, I would poke the areas with a screw driver or lightly tap with a hammer. If they seem solid I would have the area media blasted and see what is really going on. Those cracks etc can be the end of that buses life or simply one layer coming off with solid under it. You really need to probe more.

Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:14 pm

keep this in perspective. consider the load rating of the bus and ask yourself if that will ever amount to a failure. :roll:

last time i patched that area on a bus, the damage was so much worse, and yet i found that the rust on the inside of the rail only extended out a few inches in each direction. very localized and totally weldable. while you must not ever try to weld near the front torsion tubes, welding near the rear tubes works well. what you need is 13 guage mild steel and an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel

Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:24 pm

I went with 13 myself, simply because thast all the shop had on the shelf at the time. yes yes, i didn't have any scrap, I was living at school at the time. they frown on such collections there.

its a easy patch piece to make, I actaully still have two more left, the shop I had make em for me said same price for 1 or 12, so I had extras made. gotta beef it up for offroading of course.

Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:48 pm

Hey fusername do you have any pictures of the patches you had made?

Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:33 pm

me and taking pictures of things is a running joke on most any forum I frequent, so I would say yeah ill take em, but itll be three months before you see em. Runing gag number 2, coming up:

thats it, as you can see it is a perfectly round half circle, I forget the radius cause it has bee n a while, however the hieght and length turned out to be perfectly even imperial measurements. I had the plate stop about a quarter inch from the edges of the frame memeber, so that parts of the weld would bite into the doubled up thickness of the frame there. I extended as far as I could. one side I bent the plate about a few inches back from the half circle, to clear the raised reiforcment on the frame, what someone has mistaken for a crack here, I think, its hard to tell in the pic

Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:04 am

fusername wrote: me and taking pictures of things is a running joke on most any forum I frequent, so I would say yeah ill take em, but itll be three months before you see em. Runing gag number 2, coming up:

thats it, as you can see it is a perfectly round half circle, I forget the radius cause it has bee n a while, however the hieght and length turned out to be perfectly even imperial measurements. I had the plate stop about a quarter inch from the edges of the frame memeber, so that parts of the weld would bite into the doubled up thickness of the frame there. I extended as far as I could. one side I bent the plate about a few inches back from the half circle, to clear the raised reiforcment on the frame, what someone has mistaken for a crack here, I think, its hard to tell in the pic

Yes, that is no crack. Im thinking i will plate it and see how it goes. Did you do anything on the bottom side of the frame or just the sides, because i figure that getting some reinforcement metal in the bottom cant hurt it.

Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:06 am

skills@eurocarsplus wrote: Joey wrote: VDubTech wrote: That's one foot into the junkyard.

I agree.

you guys would shit if you saw the plate job on my single cab. if it wasn't dark and 10* outside, i would take some pictures for you.

i would fix that, it's a mild case of the crusties compared to my bus, which was plated by the PO. i have no issues with the job done to the bus, and the repair is good enough to hold 1600 pounds in the back of it

if that is caught and fixed now, i wouldn't have a problem. but thats me

Would you mind taking a few pictures now? If its still 10 degrees out feel free to say no haha (same reason my pictures arent the best.)

Sun Feb 07, 2010 3:35 pm

This is from the split forum. Anything can be repaired.

Here's the whole thread. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=375041&start=60

I have a 70 Westfalia that's rusted worse than yours around the torsion tube and I'm going to try to fix it.

Sun Feb 07, 2010 5:04 pm

Dubbin68 wrote: Would you mind taking a few pictures now? If its still 10 degrees out feel free to say no haha (same reason my pictures arent the best.)

here you go:

sorry for the crappy pix, its cold and dark and parked outside

sadly, this is a pretty low mileage single. unfortunately, it spent too much time on cape cod, on a beach (to this day, sand still falls out of it) i did not do any of the welding on this thing!!!! the p/o had this hackery done. as i said, its good enough and will last me a long time. i probably put about 800 miles a month on it, doing various chores, but the heater tube is g-o-n-e, so i only drive it if needed in the winter

Sun Feb 07, 2010 7:41 pm

skills@eurocarsplus wrote: Dubbin68 wrote: Would you mind taking a few pictures now? If its still 10 degrees out feel free to say no haha (same reason my pictures arent the best.)

here you go:

sorry for the crappy pix, its cold and dark and parked outside

sadly, this is a pretty low mileage single. unfortunately, it spent too much time on cape cod, on a beach (to this day, sand still falls out of it) i did not do any of the welding on this thing!!!! the p/o had this hackery done. as i said, its good enough and will last me a long time. i probably put about 800 miles a month on it, doing various chores, but the heater tube is g-o-n-e, so i only drive it if needed in the winter

Nice, those pictures give me the confidence that i need!

i'll be sure to check the thread out bvolks thanks!