Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hey team,

Friend of mine has a '95 Pathfinder with a hole in the chassis the size of your fist.

I think the guy who owned it before him must have loved the beach

Friend wants to sell it now but we need to know how to fix it. I am pretty handy with the welder but want to know if there are any laws on welding the chassis etc.

I imagine plating over the top of the hole and welding it would fix it but would that pass road worthy?

Hole can be seen between front wheel and wheel arch. Haven't had the chance to see if there is any other damage.

Thanks.

chassis rust can be repaired by plating it, but you need to you the same gauge steel or thicker, just cut the old rust out seal it with rust converter or paint then weld the new plate over top of the hole

if you have a hole the size of a fist - i'd be very surprised if the whole thing hasn't got cancer. Time to start tapping with a hammer. Don't sell it to anyone you know.

Ok,

I went over a got some pics this time.

Not as big as i thought. There is a couple in the same area though. Would imagine it's from water coming off the wheel. (...but maybe not)

Fixable?

It is rusting inside out, i would say the chassis is terminal, probably launched too many boats.

I'd have to question whether you could just patch it up and sell it. It looks a lot like the chassis is cactus, and one day it's going to snap and cause an accident.

If ya gunna sell it any i would use some of that Metal Bog. Not normal painting bog but a metal filler bog. Just grind it out a bit so it has something to stick to, Bog it up and then File/grind/sand it smooth and then paint it with some sound deadner paint then drive some mud to blend it all in.

Not worth mucking round with plating,etc

umm.. if you bought a car and found that this had been done to it, wouldn't you be incredibly pissed ? so why sell a POS to somebody else letting them think the chassis is fine ?

strip it and sell it for parts or something... dont risk killing somebody so you can make a few extra bucks.

trade it in. some dealers dont look that hard when they trade a car in. my mate traded his lpg ef falcon for 6k on a 7k landcruiser. The ford had its front winscreen held in with silastic and the intake manifold held together with liquid nails after it backfired. it was also in limp home mode .

if it's dangerous, don't cover it up.. ur better to sell it with the buyer knowing what's wrong - that way it won't come back and bite you

as mikmav said imagine if you had bought it
or even worse that car hit a friend or family member

might even pay to ring the insurance company and question them in a ''hypatheticle '' situation what the solution would be

or put a claim in on it and get a new set of rails or even a right off done

lets be relistic lads..... assess in depth the damage and cut it out as best as is possible and use your welding skill and do the job properly or if concerned get somewon from engineering mobs to fit and therefore their name is on it..... then paint oil and hit some dirst roads and you would never pic the difference for a good few years and wait for rust in other spots... this is the safe cheap and best method in my opinion....
"sell for parts"- easy to say but i cant see anyone doing this in reall life and throughing money away that is not needed.....

at the end of the day it's buyer beware. living in qld particularly me and mates are very warey of such issues and always get detailed mechanical checks before buying which will usually eliminate this prob for ya mate in future......

yeah i love to be able to fix it.

Checked out the rest of chassis and all seems ok.

Would hate to sell someone a dodgey vehical so if i could fix it so there is no future problems (in that area) that would be great. Would a chassis rail that has been plated over, and been done right, pass a road worthy or would they say "Hang on, whats this here for!"

chimpboy wrote:I'd have to question whether you could just patch it up and sell it. It looks a lot like the chassis is cactus, and one day it's going to snap and cause an accident.

auction or wreck is all i would do but hey thats me i don't wanna piss anyone off for various reasons.

Yeah that's cool, i just wanna know if this sort of work usually gets fixed and if it does how do i do it so it passes roadworthy.
The 4x4 is in great condition and is worth a lot more than if i was to sell it to a wrecker.

Find a new chassis at a wreckers and transfer the whole lot over.. ?

Looks kinda.. rooted...

Or, make a tube buggy out of it.



Man, im a bit intoximicatered atm

derelict_frog wrote:Find a new chassis at a wreckers and transfer the whole lot over.. ?

Looks kinda.. rooted...

Hmmm, thats a different approach on the issue.

I reckon it would be a bit of a job. What major issues would i have in doing that?

explaining why the chassis has been changed when you sell it - apart from that - nothing. I know of at least one Landy that has had it done without issue - big job though

Tom

Cranker wrote:

derelict_frog wrote:Find a new chassis at a wreckers and transfer the whole lot over.. ?

Looks kinda.. rooted...

Hmmm, thats a different approach on the issue.

I reckon it would be a bit of a job. What major issues would i have in doing that?

You would have a crapload more problems doing this, apart from the fact its a mammoth job, you will be changing the vehicles identity because the new chassis will have a different number to the compliance plate. The rego boys will have e feild day with this.

If the rust is mainly localised to that area, I would cut and plate. Make sure you cut all the flakey bits out first & then as mentiond by people earlier do some preventitive work & the plate. Use the same gauge or thicker as long as the welds are good then the strength will be there. The general rule for welding rust repair is that a minimum of 50% of the plate must be welded. The reason behind this is sometimes the welding can add stress to areas which need to flex. It is up to you to assess if 50% will be enough or you need to go the whole way around.

If the job is good the rego boys will look at it & assess weather the repair is good & usually pass it. Worst comes to worst they will ask for an engineers certificate to ensure strength. It is definately not the end of the world for this vehcle just yet. Yes rust will come again but thats life.

If your mate is concerned, trade it in or discount the price a little & tell the buyer it has had major rust repair in the chassis. That way you cover yourself because it is up to him to now go looking & you don't lose too much money then. The next owner might want something to bash up & down the beach on & if it already has a bit of rust he might not care.

I have done this on a HQ monaro front subframe, It just needed a blueslip (Identity check) and a reciept from the source of the replacement chasis.

To make life simpler try and get a replacement unit from the same year if possible. This will avoid motor/brake & side intrusion bar issues if one year has a certain combo and another has a different combo.

Bingham wrote:lets be relistic lads..... assess in depth the damage and cut it out as best as is possible and use your welding skill and do the job properly or if concerned get somewon from engineering mobs to fit and therefore their name is on it..... then paint oil and hit some dirst roads and you would never pic the difference for a good few years and wait for rust in other spots... this is the safe cheap and best method in my opinion....
"sell for parts"- easy to say but i cant see anyone doing this in reall life and throughing money away that is not needed.....

at the end of the day it's buyer beware. living in qld particularly me and mates are very warey of such issues and always get detailed mechanical checks before buying which will usually eliminate this prob for ya mate in future......

Mate remind me to NEVER buy anything from you.
Seriously just bodging it over is downright dishonest.
There's some bloody good suggestions in this thread - personally:
1. If I was just wanting to sell it - I'd just tell the buyer as someone said abouve sometime people might want a rig to just drive up & down beach.
2. If I was to kep the rig I'd go to the extent of exchanging chassis....a fair bit of work but not really THAT difficult to do.
3. To fix & sell - cut it out, plate it and get it propery inspected.

To just sell it to me would be unaccepable, you don't who how many friends-in-low-places the buy might have if they rightly feel ripped off.....

Wooders wrote:

Bingham wrote:lets be relistic lads..... assess in depth the damage and cut it out as best as is possible and use your welding skill and do the job properly or if concerned get somewon from engineering mobs to fit and therefore their name is on it..... then paint oil and hit some dirst roads and you would never pic the difference for a good few years and wait for rust in other spots... this is the safe cheap and best method in my opinion....
"sell for parts"- easy to say but i cant see anyone doing this in reall life and throughing money away that is not needed.....

at the end of the day it's buyer beware. living in qld particularly me and mates are very warey of such issues and always get detailed mechanical checks before buying which will usually eliminate this prob for ya mate in future......

Mate remind me to NEVER buy anything from you.
Seriously just bodging it over is downright dishonest.
There's some bloody good suggestions in this thread - personally:
1. If I was just wanting to sell it - I'd just tell the buyer as someone said abouve sometime people might want a rig to just drive up & down beach.
2. If I was to kep the rig I'd go to the extent of exchanging chassis....a fair bit of work but not really THAT difficult to do.
3. To fix & sell - cut it out, plate it and get it propery inspected.

To just sell it to me would be unaccepable, you don't who how many friends-in-low-places the buy might have if they rightly feel ripped off.....

Yeah well, i thought his suggestions were not bad.
I think he covered the issue well. Pretty much said what u did in your suggestion 3.

Chill dude!

Sorry was proably a bit too early on a Sundy morning to post....I golssed over the get a proper inspection.....
But I suppose it's an issue I find a bit touchy.... On one hand these day we can barely scratch ourselves without a licence/permit/etc.....And some of the bodgy stuff you see day in & out makes you realise why......

Properly repaired - no probs......
Oh yeah in some cases "Sell for parts" can net more $$

What you'll probably find is that you can buy a decent chassis from a wrecker relatively cheap if you're prepared to swap the bits over.


Dont bodge it up and sell it... you'll be wondering every time you hear someone got killed in a Pathfinder if it was your fault.

Beastmavster wrote:What you'll probably find is that you can buy a decent chassis from a wrecker relatively cheap if you're prepared to swap the bits over.


Dont bodge it up and sell it... you'll be wondering every time you hear someone got killed in a Pathfinder if it was your fault.

yeah, last thing i want to do is put someone in a risk situation.

just needed to know if this could be fixed and if so 'how'.

I am a boilermaker and i could chop the whole section out and fit a new section if i wanted to, but would it be legal and is that the way it usually gets done.

I'll run everyones ideas past the owner of this 4x4 and let him know all the pros and cons.
Might also have a word to the road worthy dude at the local Mechnec shop and see want his opinion is.
Keep the ideas coming in and i'll let you know what we end up doing.

Biggest problem with welding stuff to the frame or welding sections into the frame is you're creating stress points due to the heat of the weld. Thus the metal has been tempered differently than the rest of the chassis.

There are rules for chassis welding but they're really strict. You'd have to speak to an engineer about it, or QLD Dept Of Transport.

There's some information about it in the QLD Light Motorvehicle code of practice, but there is going to be a new version of that soon and my old copt is probably out of date.

copies of the proposed draft are in links off this thread. you'd need to look at the chassis modification section. You would need to be able to meet the standards for wheelbase extension (eg limoseine, torsional testing, beam testing etc).

If you can do all of that then all is good. But I suspect there will be about 10 x as much cancer in there as you've shown in the pics.


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Beastmavster wrote:Biggest problem with welding stuff to the frame or welding sections into the frame is you're creating stress points due to the heat of the weld. Thus the metal has been tempered differently than the rest of the chassis.

There are rules for chassis welding but they're really strict. You'd have to speak to an engineer about it, or QLD Dept Of Transport.

There's some information about it in the QLD Light Motorvehicle code of practice, but there is going to be a new version of that soon and my old copt is probably out of date.

Sweet! Your a champion mate. Will have a read now.

Yeah there prolly is more cancer but a quick check has revealed nuffin' so here's to hoping. Will do the hammer test when we can get it up on a hoist.

Ta,

it can be fixed

trucks and busses are fixed all the time.

needs to be cut out and platedf, but really, if i saw a chassis that had been plated i would run a mile.

best option would be swap the chasis,

I dont think registration has anythiung to do with chassis numbers.

All the want is the VIN number (firewall) and in queensland the engine number (dont think NSW and vic even bother with engine numbers now as most new cars the engine number is the same/a part of the VIN)


swapping everything onto another chassis wouldnt really be that much of a job if you have a few weeks. It is more of alot of small jobs really. Especially if you can get a chassis with the loom etc still attached (likely)