Anyone know where to get new frame rails?

The new owner of my 5.0 called today and said he found that the rear frame rails are rotted out. This is very bad for me, because either the shop that does my safeties goes down, or I have to buy my car back. I don't want either to happen. I need replacement rear frame rails. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
 
  • Sponsors (?)


First: The rear frame rails are part of the uni body for the car. You must get another used pair from a Mustang in a junkyard. Now....this is labor intensive because it has to be cut out. If they will do it.....well,....we only sell frame rails with a body section because that is the way it goes. Then, you must cut your rusty ones out. Hopefull your floor isn't rusty, because you can't weld metal to rust. Good luck man this is a lot of metal work and it takes experience.

Second: Buyer beware. How can he check out your car...buy it...then check it out "better" at home and want you to be responsible...it's an old car!!
 
First: The rear frame rails are part of the uni body for the car. You must get another used pair from a Mustang in a junkyard. Now....this is labor intensive because it has to be cut out. If they will do it.....well,....we only sell frame rails with a body section because that is the way it goes. Then, you must cut your rusty ones out. Hopefull your floor isn't rusty, because you can't weld metal to rust. Good luck man this is a lot of metal work and it takes experience.

Second: Buyer beware. How can he check out your car...buy it...then check it out "better" at home and want you to be responsible...it's an old car!!

It's a delicate issue, really. We have a LOT of work done at the shop that the safety was done at. If we decide to let them sink for missing the rust, we need to find another shop that does everything they do, at the price they do. It's not a warranty; I'd take the hit and buy the car back and not burn a bridge.

I know the labor intensive part. I was hoping they were reproduced so I could immediately knock 1/3 of the workload off. My dad CAN do it, but he says his time is worth more than what this problem is all about, and I agree. Basically my options here are getting the parts, and getting the shop that the owner works at to R+R the rails and crossmember, or buy my piece of **** back. If I get it back, it gets parted out. Either way I'm out a lot of money.
 
Sold it in September. The guy really likes the car, so I'm trying to get it fixed. I don't have $4500 to refund for the car, so that's last ditch effort. Another option is a white 1987-1993 hatchback that has a 4 cylinder and no rust, then go on a week-long thrash to make a frankenstein. That's a needle in a haystack, though.
 
I don't understand why you are responsible for it.

Did you even know they were rotted??

I'm taking the fall for the shop.

I went to see the car tonight, and the rust turns out to be on the back of the rails, by the crash bar. There were some other holes in the floor that should not have passed a safety inspection, so I will be definitely talking to the shop I'm defending. Everything is fixable, and the cost shouldn't be too bad. Since the new owner is a bodyman, I wanted to keep him happy with the car since he will be doing bodywork on our projects, too. I dodged a bullet on this one.

Thanks for your help, all.
 
Look, if the shop failed to notice something that they should have, that's on them. Screwing yourself over for someone else's error is just plain silly, no matter how much work you've had done through them. In fact, if their inspection work is that shoddy, you're better off finding a different shop, anyhow.

Secondly ... was the car sold-as is? If so, the BUYER is screwed, not you. You're not a dealership, are you? And even if you were, you're past the usual 30 or 90 days allotted in most areas for people to report car issues, unless the "warranty period" extends to a full year or there was a written warranty or agreement signed and given at the time of purchase.

I guess I'm missing something of the background story here, because this really all just doesn't make sense to me why a car sold on September should be your responsibility in January of the following year... :shrug:
 
Look, if the shop failed to notice something that they should have, that's on them. Screwing yourself over for someone else's error is just plain silly, no matter how much work you've had done through them. In fact, if their inspection work is that shoddy, you're better off finding a different shop, anyhow.

Secondly ... was the car sold-as is? If so, the BUYER is screwed, not you. You're not a dealership, are you? And even if you were, you're past the usual 30 or 90 days allotted in most areas for people to report car issues, unless the "warranty period" extends to a full year or there was a written warranty or agreement signed and given at the time of purchase.

I guess I'm missing something of the background story here, because this really all just doesn't make sense to me why a car sold on September should be your responsibility in January of the following year... :shrug:


His dealership uses this shop for all their work. He doesn't want to shoot himself in the foot and lose them over this.
 
Ah. But again, if the shop's doing shoddy inspection work, do you REALLY want to keep them on hand? You'll just wind up with something like this again later on ... maybe something worse, like someone getting seriously hurt/killed because of a structural integrity issue during a wreck. It's THEIR responsibility to do a proper job and not skimp on details; it's NOT your responsibility to keep some business on contract or first-call status just for the sake of being friendly and good-ol-boy with 'em. :nono: