Uh-oh (cracks in front crossmember)...

[cwass99@rogers.com (cwass99@rogers.com)]

     Something else you might think about as a very short term, extremely
temporary, measure is stop drilling the cracks.  Actually, you should do that
regardless, but you want to weld and get the plate in as quickly as possible. 
Stop drilling is basically using a small ( about twice the thickness of the
crack) drill bit and putting a nice round hole right at the end of the crack. 
This spreads the forces over a larger area (the inside circumference of the
hole) and will (usually) stop the crack from spreading.  This is a very common
technique in aircraft repair (and it's kept the Canadian CC-130 Hercules' flying
since the '60s ;))

Cheers,
Colin


On 06-May-2002 Richard Deede wrote:
> Josh, Sorry to hear about this. I know the feeling. I parted out my last 
> rocco due to a very badly ripped cross member. As far as fixing it, contact 
> Potterman cause he has been working with Ron Wood on getting those front 
> braces made specifically to prevent this from happening. I have no idea how 
> close they are to being ready but this should be what you need to get back 
> on the road. I'm gonna get one of these myself once they are ready.
> 
> Good Luck,
> Rich
> 
> 
>>From: Josh Hignight <Josh.Hignight@phoenix.edu>
>>To: 'scirocco' <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
>>Subject: Uh-oh (cracks in front crossmember)...
>>Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 09:22:37 -0700
>>
>>My weekend ended on a sad note. My front motor mount (the cup part) broke
>>Saturday evening. Actually, I'll pretty sure it broke a while back but it
>>didn't make any noises until Saturday evening. After crawling under there
>>Sunday morning and moving the broken bracket out of the way, I see that the
>>bolt on the left side was pulled so hard after the right side of the 
>>bracket
>>broke off, that it pulled the spot where it bolts through the cross-member
>>out about 5mm. There are several small (10-15mm long at most) cracks
>>originating from this pulled area.
>>
>>After much fishing and mumbling under my breath I managed to get the
>>threaded nob/whatchamacallit lined up behind the hole and get the
>>replacement bracket bolted back on. But now I have a dilemma.
>>
>>My car already needs quite a bit of minor body work before it gets painted
>>(lots of dings and a few minor dents). But the shell is rust free.
>>
>>Would I be better off trying to fix and reinforce the cross-member and 
>>still
>>get my bodywork done this summer? Or should I just find a good shell,
>>reinforce it, and swap all my stuff over to it?
>>
>>As far as reinforcing, it will all have to be done by myself or a friend, 
>>as
>>there is no way I will be able to spend the $1K+ spent by other listers to
>>correct/prevent this. Any tips on doing this?
>>
>>Thanks.
>>
>>
>>
>>Joshua Hignight
>>Student Services/IT Services Coordinator
>>(505) 821-4800 ext. 2116
>>
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Scirocco-l mailing list
>>Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
>>http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
> 
> 
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-- 
Cheers,
Colin

If you can read this line, you're probably not illiterate.