[A.W.Dille]

I just saw that the rear frame rail on the drivers side of my 85 Grand Prix is about gone. Since this is my daily driver (listed in my signature) I'm now faced with whether to fix it or hunt another body for the engine and trans. I have been driving this car for over ten years and just completely rebuilt the entire front end last year and just removed the landau top on it and was planning on new paint and putting the 400 back in it. Now I'm torn about if it's worth saving or not.

[Mr Twister]

There is a guy that advertises on maliburacing dot com that sells replacment frame sections. Here is the address: http://www3.sympatico.ca/conradlozier/

[A.W.Dille]

Mr Twister, thanks for the link. I'll get in contact with them and check on pricing. I really like my GP and don't want to junk it on account of the rusted frame rail. In fact future plans are for the 400 to go back in with a tri-power or a 400stroker (428) with tri-power and overdrive and still be my daily driver.

[stevep]

I had a 79 4 speed Grand Am 15 years ago that had a rotted right rear frame rail. I bought a good used rail and had a local welding shop replace it. You could not tell that anything as ever wrong after he was done.

[Sirrotica]

AW, This is a very common problem that showed up years ago in the cars in the rust belt. When I lived in Erie PA I replaced or repaired probably 10 or so on G body cars. Anyone that has good fabricating skills can replace one from a donor car and as has been said already, the repair would not even be evident. If the rest of the car is sound I would just replace the frame rail. The problem is caused by the way the rail was designed, it picks up mud and salt kicked up from the rear wheels and it just lays there damp and eventually the bottom of the rail falls apart. Most times the sides are still intact which is why sometimes I just replaced the metal on the bottom of the rail. Good luck on the repair........................

[A.W.Dille]

Thanks Brad, but this is a southern car bought new here in North Carolina. The rest of the car is in really good shape so I'll likely get a rail out of a car in one of the local yards here. I'm experienced in body and frame work so likely I'll weld in the replacement myself. Thanks again guys.

[Sirrotica]

My point was in a southern car it just takes longer for it to become evident that it was a poor design and will eventually rot with that southern clay too, it just takes longer to rust from the inside out without the chemical assistance from our calcium chloride we use so abundantly for ice control. In the day we had wreckers up north that would buy southern rails and ship them and sell rust free rails to us to repair our rotted out rust belt brethren. I'm betting if you examine your cars frame you'll find some mud caked inside. I have an 86 GP that spent it's whole life in Ohio and it's not rotted out because evidently someone kept the mud and salt out of the frame. It could be due to bad recycled metal too, but all the ones I have worked on were filled with mud too. In fairness it's also fairly thin metal in that area, also another reason it is predisposed to rusting. Just my observations over the years.............

[Hammertime Mike]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

My point was in a southern car it just takes longer for it to become evident that it was a poor design and will eventually rot with that southern clay too, it just takes longer to rust from the inside out without the chemical assistance from our calcium chloride we use so abundantly for ice control. In the day we had wreckers up north that would buy southern rails and ship them and sell rust free rails to us to repair our rotted out rust belt brethren. I'm betting if you examine your cars frame you'll find some mud caked inside. I have an 86 GP that spent it's whole life in Ohio and it's not rotted out because evidently someone kept the mud and salt out of the frame. It could be due to bad recycled metal too, but all the ones I have worked on were filled with mud too. In fairness it's also fairly thin metal in that area, also another reason it is predisposed to rusting. Just my observations over the years.............

Your right, coming from upstate NY, we were replacing those rear rails within five years. Fortunately it's not a bad fix. We had a guy who made his yearly trip to the Talladaga races. He had hooked up with a bone yard down there and would bring back a pile of those rear rails.

[A.W.Dille]

Brad I know all about the salt and other stuff used on the roads in Ohio and the toll that is taken on vehicles in the north. I brought my GTO south with me when I moved down here from Ohio in 95, still fixing rust in the body and the original frame is long gone. Five years ago when I took the GP apart to paint it and do the conversion from the V6 to the Pontiac engine I went through and cleaned every inch of frame I could get to, drivers side was packed full but the frame itself was solid. Even though I do my best to keep the unside clean I guess that things can get overlooked at times. Just bothers me that this isn't a good time for me to contend with this when I getting ready to tear into the engine to try to locate a miss and put in another transmission. Looks as though the GTO is going to get more than normal use the next few weeks.