I have a 76 Spitfire, body and interior are in mint condition. This year I
am having the suspension refurbished and engine area restored. The car has
been in my family since new, but saw New England winters for the first 10
years as a commuting car.
One of the reasons for the undercarriage work was that I noticed the right
frame rail/was rusted, cracked behind the right rear tire. After getting
it up on the lift, we have found pretty moderate corrosion damage on right
frame rail, unfortunately in critical rear weight bearing areas and some
minor corrosion on the left rail. The Bottom line is that they both need
work.
I used to live in NH, and my mechanic was great. I have since moved to
Houston, and have found a really nice guy, but he primarily works on MGs.
The question is what to do about the frame rails? My new mechanic has had
a metal fabricator see the car and they recommend custom work on rebuilding
the damaged areas, and attaching it to the remaining frame. Cost would be
$500-$1000. This seems like a bizarre solution to me, but I am not a car
repair expert. Looking in the Victoria BL catalog indicates they do not
sell the frame rails-I am not sure if they are available elsewhere.
What should I do?
-Is this a common problem for the spitfire?
-Do these fabrication ideas make sense (I hate the idea of having a car in
such otherwise great shape have something jury rigged as a solution)
-Are replacing the frame rails a realistic option, if so where do you get
them?
Thanks for any advice...
Jim Lang
jlang@sdg.com
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