dj paul

to me the best choice looks like that blockoff flange. and also, how well does that thing flow? ive been looking for flow rates and pricing and i cannot find it.

use rustoleum stops rust paint. Acrylic enamel Flat black or semi gloss. I used 2 coats with some good prep work (not the best) lightly sanded over the first coat with a mild sanding sponge type thing. and applied second coat and it looks awesome. semi gloss will get you the stock look but i like the way flat black looks, and its easier to keep looking clean. dont even prime it, its made with primer properties in it. i did half engine bay primed first and half not primed, both prepared equally well (get friends over to do help sand, its much quicker) and the non primed side was wayyy quicker drying and even looked better. and took less time to apply only need a quart and you can have like half a thing left over to paint your floors over your por-15 or zero rust or rust encapsulator and your rear deck and you still will have some left!

from what i can tell the frame does not look bent. take some more pics if you can of the right rail in the engine bay by looking at it from the cowl, and then in front looking into the firewall. this looks to be like mostly cosmetic damage, the only thing you will have to be careful with is the front crossmember where the radiator support is, you just need to make sure thats nice and straight. if you wanted to go as far as cuttin out and welding in and entire new rad suppor you could, that would prob be easiest, because it would be hard to form that sloping metal that meets the other side. it could be done but it would look crappy unless done just right.

you have the same grinder as me! =). anyways, this is an easy fix man, take either a piece of cardboard or a large peice of paper and make a few templates of the peices that make that area up. on some 18 gauge metal transfer these templates and cut them out. heat the edges up A LITTLE and beat them out with a body hammer to get your flange type edges that gives it a little more strength. keep that upper frame/vent intake area in take since it doesnt look that bad and straighten it out and measure on the other side how far from the top/bottom it is and just tack it back on there. crashed240z was correct in that this is not a structural important part of the car. no need for great welding skills here, or lots of planning. just get out there and do it!

J fantastic advice man. that made it sooo easy. i would have definately bent the tie rod with the kind of force needed to seperate those.

cool, thanks for the tip man ill try it!

thats the only explanation that makes sense terry. hopefully this is the case because if not, all us solid diff guys are screwed. but, i cant think of why this was not thought of before it was done. of course you cant have mixed mounts, the torsion allowed by the bushing mounts, even if they were really stiff like polyurethane, WILL cause cracking as you see. even if you solid mounted the back, but left the front stock you will see this as well. as terry said, metal can only tolerate a certain amount of flexing cycles before this happens. you know when you cut a peice of metal, but theres just that little peice left, and you can twist it off by moving it back and forth? same thing.

id say go for it! lol. but your number 2 drawing makes more sense to me. are you assuming thats the correct way just because that was how they were in there before?

thanks again guys, i went and bought some Generic ones at napa for $4. now back to how the hell do i get the end off? like i said, i took the lock nut and pin out, there are no other fastners holding this thing on here (i think) anyone know? oh and i hope someone can benefit from the ends being at napa for 34 bucks.

cool thanks guys, this is exactly what i was looking for. hope i can find some in stock around here because shipping is more than the item itself! oh and i found tie rod ends at NAPA for $34!! way better than $134!!

oh, and that bellow wasn't what i was talking about. i do however appreciate that your trying to help. im talking about the one thats right at the end of the tie rod. know that little mushy ball? VB doesnt sell this piece by itself, they only sell the tie rod assembly for about 150.

ya, i took em off. its like the just wont budge at all, im beginning to wonder why they even needed to put fastners on there in the first place.

alright, now one more question, how the hell do you get those things apart?? the ends before the ball joint. know what im talking about? ive done everything i can think of (unbolt and proceed to beat with hammer)

which designations are they, there were a few different engines in those cars. both rb26?

do it! who cares how horrible it is comparatively. it would be fun. lol

cool thats what i needed to hear! thanks.

well mine seems to be ok, i just need a new rubber cover thing. any suggestions?

you are so damn lucky to have a car without much rust at all. dont paint over undercoating wont work well and might promote rust. besides that, looks good. a good product will work even if the surface isnt perfect. but just to be safe, clean it as best you can. i suggest a good degreaser like mineral spirits.

hey guys, i just ran a search on this crap and found some good stuff. but the only thing i couldnt find is where to get the replacement rubber for these things. im at work so i dont have my victoria british catologue but you know the rubber things around the pivot points (grease in, dirt out?) one of mine fell apart. and from what i hear, i shouldnt mess with the rest of em. where can i find an equivelent of this rubber? that i could seam seal on there or something?

alright thanks guys, now i remember reading about that. saved me bent control arms!

Hey, does that steel sleeve come out? im putting in new poly bushings and got the rubber out but the new polys are the exact diameter of the steel sleeve thats stuc in there. whats a good way to get this out? heat it up and pull with vicegrips? ive tried beating it as hard as i can with no luck =(

if your going to end up just treating it, use seam sealer and smooth it out on the small holes after you have coated it. that doesnt look too bad, are you able to poke through the spots with a screwdriver? if so it definately needs replacing, if not you can treat it if you want, just take a grinder to the spots first.

i dont like using a primer with this stuff, it does run a little bit on your first coat but you sand it down a little and then put on another coat and it looks great! i even did it with a $2.35 brush (some paint brissles were a PITA tho). i did half my engine bay with primer and half just regular sanded and the regular sanded side dried way faster, (about 30 minutes) and looked better, the primer side took all night with my 500 watt lamps on it and it was still a little bit damp this morning. so IMHO just give it a good sanding.

i lap welded but i think you will be happier with taking the time to properly butt weld it in place. spotfitz that piece looks good but if i were going to the trouble to do what you did i would have redone the whole floor (which i did) because it just looks kinda rusty. but if you didnt, thats ok too. the metal looks ok and you can seal it up with por15 or rust encapsulator. bartman, when you get a pic of what it looks like after youve beat the tar out of it .. let me see it. thanks paul