On my donor Fiero chassic or frame that I had, I had someone ask for the rear frame rails, his were rusted out, heard it was a common problem. He was to far away so it was a no go. I guess there the part of the subframe thats all welded in place above the wheel wheels and not part of the cradle, am I wrong. How would you replace these anyway and keep subframe straight or even remove them from a donor car. I learn alot from this forum, thought I would throw it out there, could not find anything with a search.

You have to cut them off and weld them back on. I could use a full set if anyone has them...

There are two rear frame rails per side: an upper and a lower rail. They are each made from a pair of stamped steel "Z" or "C" shaped channels that are welded together to make rectangular cross-section tubes. The tubes or rails are the main structural part of the chassis upon which all the other sheet metal is welded on and main chassis components are bolted to. To get a better idea of what I mean, here's a picture of an upper rear frame rail being repaired... it's the unpainted part:



In this picture, you can see how the two upper frame rails wrap around to the rear of the car behind the rear trunk wall:



The lower frame rails are a little harder to picture because of the way the car is constructed, but they are the main rectangular tubes that the cradle is bolted to. Here's a picture taken from under the car, looking backwards. The bolt sticking down is the rear cradle mount bolt.



From these pics, you can probably imagine that it's not something that can easily be removed and transferred to another car. They form the backbone of the car and as I mentioned before, many pieces are welded between the upper and lower frame rails to stiffen them and attach other hardware to. Once they're rusted out, the car isn't necessarily totalled, but it takes some skilled metal fabrication work to rebuild them. There are several methods too. One involves replacing the tubes with thick walled rectangular tubing that's been cut and welded to follow the original shape. The other method is to do as I did here by hammer forming new C and Z channels and welding them together like the original car was made. Here's an idea of how that's done:



Starting from the bottom of the picture, a paper template of the part that needs replacing is traced out, from which a wooden buck is cut out. Then the rusted part is sectioned from the rest of the car. Lastly, a flat steel sheet is sandwiched between the two layers of the wooden buck and slowly formed over the buck with a series of hammer blows.

Rubyredfiero makes 'em.

His price is reasonable and they are built strong. Send him a PM.

Arn

Hey Bloozberry your naked, put something on that. Thanks for the info and pictures though, pictures are always good.

quote Originally posted by shortbowen: Hey Bloozberry your naked, put something on that. Thanks for the info and pictures though, pictures are always good.

I bet you didn't know that he had a bright orange @&&

Just How "Bad "was that car ?! It looks like you didn't leave much "original" metal there ! Did this car start as " I want to see just how bad a car CAN "Be Fixed" ? Alot of work ! you've surely got more Patience than me ! Nice going.

I live in MN and have restored a couple of fieros that were rusty - but not this rusty... I hate rust more and more the older I get....

Bet the folks in the southern states are laughing at us....

Next time I do a fiero, I swear I am going to start with a rusty mn car with a good interior and a non rusty southern state car with a BAKED interior. Put the two together and you would have a good car....

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87 NB, 3800SC, 4T65E-HD, HP Tuners, 13.10 at 102.5 1/4 mile, Custom Dash.

quote Originally posted by Lou6t4gto: Just How "Bad "was that car ?!

It was pretty bad... but then I had bought it as a parts car, so the rust didn't really bother me. The problem is that from the back corner of my workshop it kept calling out "Restore me! Restore me!" So I took it on as a challenge as you suggested, and yes... it was a lot of work, but I'm retired and have time on my side. I've posted these pics before on PFF, but here's an idea of what it started out looking like:



Here's the lower frame rail on the LH side... and yes... that thing hanging down is the rear cradle mount (if you could call it that).



In all, I made six or seven wooden bucks to hammer form new pieces like the original frame had been fabricated, except in shorter lengths. Here's the lower frame rail from the pic above:



It's really not that hard to do, but as you said, it takes a bit of patience. The result is that it looks closer to the original frame than a piece of thick wall tubing that's been sliced and bent.

Did anybody but me notice it looks like Bloozberry has his cars inside the house. I see a sliding glass door and wood floors.

Bloozberry. "You Da Man"

Ha! There's no way my wife would let me work on cars in the house. Who'd want to anyways? The honey-do list already steals enough of my quality car-time, I can't imagine how little I'd get done if the shop were in the house. This is my shop... an old poultry farm. Need some eggs?

quote Originally posted by Bloozberry: it was a lot of work, but I'm retired and have time on my side.

Wait, your retired?
Didn't I see your pic in your N* thread (w/ sun glasses on)? You look 45ish, did you hit the loto or something!

[This message has been edited by ALJR (edited 10-04-2011).]

Something like that... Canadian military lets you retire after 20 years of service... heh heh. The wife and I both.

Besides, they're not sunglasses. It's a VISOR (Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement)... you know... an optical prosthetic. Geesh... somebody obviously didn't watch Star Trek when he was growing up.

[This message has been edited by Bloozberry (edited 10-04-2011).]