Not a Beretta, frame rail repair

[ifixalot]

My wife's 85 T-Type is solid except for the rear frame rails. I got some sent from AZ. in 2005.
Now that I'm out of work, I finally put em on. Using a machine to duplicate the random shape sawcut,
insured the rails would get pretty close to where they should be. While under there, I used POR-15 and Rust
bullet to treat the surface rust. I hope that stuff works. We don't drive this car in bad weather anymore so
it'll probably be OK.
This is the first time I've tried posting pics so they are out of order from the way I wanted to display them.
But you probably get the idea.

[ifixalot]

More photos as the work progressed

[ifixalot]

more photos

[ifixalot]

I had to make new bushing pads too.

[ifixalot]

final three pictures
I happen to find the high pressure fuel line had rusted through.
It was a good thing I found this just in time before it sprouted a leak
and started a fire.

[95BerettaBase]

Looks like you did a really good job. Very nice choice of vehicle too. If I'm not mistaken, the T-Type had the same powerplant as the Grand National didn't it? I had an '84 Skyhawk T-Type as my first car and loved it to death.

Nice way to prevent the spread of rust though. Any photos of the car in the daylight?

[3X00-Modified]

My father inlaw did a similar thing on his 96 Ford F150 step side... Except it was rotted clean through just above the rear end on the drivers side... He had to source an entire rear frame section from another truck and cut just behind the cab and weld the two together. Insane amount of work but saved the truck.

[ifixalot]

Here is a photo of both our turbo Regals in daylight. As you can see
I also have an 87 Grand National.
The T-Type in 85 had the same drive line as a Grand National but in 86-87 they
added inter cooling which made the car even faster.

[GTU89]

Sweet rides. I love those cars.

That T-type must be a hell of a sleeper!

[Alpinestar10]

Shouldn't the frame rails be nothched in favor of butting them together and welding im sorry but i can forsee that cracking quite easy, Ill give you this though its nice seeing someone do work on a older car instead of scrapping it.

[bonecrrusher]

I would have grinded down the welds, and if you worried about strength you can add diamond shape pieces of metal to go over the joint and reinforce it that way.

You could add reinforcement strips on the top and bottom - but I think just adding the pieced on the side would reinforce it enough.

[ifixalot]

A couple good points raised but I thought butt welds would be okay.
The welds are obscured by the tires so you'd have to look for them. So I decided not to grind them down.
I can do it later if I choose. I can also add reinforcements later if needed. The rear frame rails basically hold
the rear bumper and add some support the sheet metal above.
After the bumper pads rotted away, I saw no problems with the sheet metal so I don't think they do very much supporting.
Perhaps if you towed, they get stressed by the weight of what you are towing but I won't tow with this car.
I should mention also that I welded a small portion at a time on each corner of the box of the frame. I started on one corner,
went to the opposite side and welded some there, then up to the top and back to the opposite side of that. I figured
this would help keep it straight as well as prevent a lot of stress building up in the weld.
I'm not sure what one poster meant by notching. I suppose a male protrusion inserted into a female cut out?
I'm not sure how that would stop cracking.
Thanks for the feedback, I'll keep an eye out for cracks.