Rear suspension outer mountings

The rear suspension outer mountings had started to look a little tatty and had a hole in the bottom (the chassis is upside down in these photos).

Careful grinding out of various bits of structure inside the mounting revealed that the sides of the chassis member were still in very good condition, though the top of the mounting still needed to be cut back to remove a rotten section.

There are two reinforcements inside the rear suspension mounting. The first one acts as a rear closing section and also doubles up on the thickness in the area of the mounting. My home made replacement part is photographed beside the original.

The chassis jig was used to position the reinforcing section and the suspension mounting holes accurately prior to welding. Welding was carried out in short sections allowing plenty of time for the mounting to cool to reduce the chance of distortion.

The overhang at the top has been removed completely - it's only used to mount fuel and brake pipes, but creates a great platform for mud to sit so it had to go.

Here the replacement section is in place. The reinforcement carries the upper mounting bolt spacer tube which I've seam welded in place. The little round dark marks on the inside of the section that look like spot welds are evidence of the plug welds made with a MIG welder from the outside of the panel.

The second reinforcement holds the other two spacer tubes. Originally these tubes were fitted on the outside face of the reinforcement, and provided handy ledges to collect mud. As far as I can see this was only so the flanges were accessible for spot welding during manufacture. I'm planning to seam weld mine so I've fitted the spacers on the inside of the reinforcement.

Once again the chassis jig holds the mounting points in the right place for welding. I've used a slightly thicker section than the original just on the off-chance it'll last a little longer before it rusts through again.

The section was welded in position, and I went over every other seam in the area with a welder too just to seal the area from water.

The rear suspension mountings only fail because they tend to be covered in wet mud all the time. Sealing everything up and getting rid of the rust traps will help, though I'm also planning to fit some sort of wheel arch liner in this area.

But all this seam welding did make the mounting look ugly, so I ground off the excess weld. Should be lovely with a little paint, waxy, and a cover on top to keep the mud out.

Talking a lot about mud here, I should explain I live at the end of a farm track which can fill this area with mud after a single trip. Though for normal road cars mud is still an issue, and these parts do need regular cleaning to clear the drain holes.