Hello from New Mexico, US

[AriK]

RLphys,
Congratulation on the purchase of the car. It's the '79, same year as mine. If you have any more questions as you learn about its innards and outards, don't hesitate to ask. Lots of helpful folks on here. I apologize for hijacking this thread

Azruss.
Yea i noticed they chose a bad spot for a weep hole. I realize it's a tricky fix to do, especially since the rail is no longer square anymore. What concerns me more is that i don't want the paint to bubble from the heat. When you performed the repair was the car already painted? We may have to omit welding along the top or using an L-plate that doesn't reach high up toward the "ceiling".
My welder is the same guy who welded the plate on the frame rail and i was really happy with his work, considering the fact that the crossmember intersected that repair. I fully trust his saviness that he'll do a good job.
I do have the splash shield behind the tire as you cannot see the door hinge brackets nor the speaker leading to the map pocket. There is an unplugged access hole big enough for me to stick my finger in and feel a flexible backing bucket i installed from inside the car in order to protect the speaker. I guess now's the time to install a grommet in that hole.
The wheel well covers must have been an after-thought for this car.
Russ if you have any other thoughts/tips, now's the time, i'm all ears.

Thanks,
Ari

[azruss]

I have welded those stress cracks on a couple of cars and did not blister the paint except on the tube itself next to the weld. That paint should already be gone in cleaning the surface around the crack. The area that is most vulnerable to heat would be under the hood on the inner fender. Your welder should have the ability to protect that area from too much heat. If you are worried about the top of the fender, a wet towel on the fender above the welding should take care of the problem. You could also use the wet towels under the hood as well. I assume your welder will use a wire welder with a CO2/argon gas shielding (MIG).

[RRoller123]

Thanks for all this great info AzRuss! I just inspected my car and there does appear to be a very small crack, passenger side, that is showing through the undercoating, in the area you marked on your picture. This would have gone in-noticed and uncorrected without your post!

Pete

[AriK]

Ditto, great info there Azruss. I also have a tiny hairline starting from the weephole on the other side of the car, invisible until the grease got scraped off. Would never have investigated it without RLphys' s famous New Mexico thread
It's going to be complicated because the tube that holds the top portion of the shock tower is crumpled a bit, so i don't know how a plate will fit squarely over the area. Cant see that being pulled out. It definetely took a hit at one point. In any case it's not severe, as i said earlier the tire wear is dean-on equal since i got the car. It's evident that somebody at one time packed on the grease and perhaps added w/w covers as a cover-up.
Azruss, you're recommending to leave the covers off, most likely because the screws that tap into the lip of the fender cause corrosion. This leaves the whole area exposed to the elements including the headlight bucket, its wiring and the "ceiling" which has a painted surface on the opposite side. That doesn't seem right either. For all those who have no w/w covers it cant be better when the tires fling road crap onto these area?

[RRoller123]

I drilled out the holes for the inner skirts to allow for larger mounting screws (#14 PPH-3/4), 5 years ago, and there is no corrosion evident at all, at the screw holes, or in the protected area. They provide a really good level of protection under there. I also used large fender washers (~1") to distribute the forces; found some of the mounting points starting to crack.

[azruss]

In all the 23 years I used my 70 as a daily driver, i never picked up a ding from flinging rocks with the front tire, other than the front of the rocker panels. This was a car I took everywhere. When I took the plastic liner off my 80, I not only had corrosion around the bolt holes, but extensive rust on the area to the left of the clutch pedal. There were also areas where crud had built up between the fender and plastic and starting the rust process. I agree the plastic fenders offer the best rock protection but probably need to be removed once a year for cleaning and metal conditioning.

[RRoller123]

Sounds like they were allowing rainwater, mud, etc to get behind them. I haven't seen that on mine, but it almost never is driven in the rain so I can't really say! What I can say is that the entire area behind the shields is very clean and has zero rust , all the way forward and aft, and way up to the fender underside up top. The shields have been on there since the car was new, they are clearly original.

Maybe they don't do much if we only use these cars in good weather?

[RLphys]

It didn’t take long for the ‘79 to show me who’s boss. After about 30 miles a crack formed on just behind the collector on the down pipe. I tried to limp it home, but before I could make it, the crack widened and the pipe sheared. The problem stems from the exhaust system being routed incorrectly. I noticed this pre-purchase but was hoping to have a bit more time to fix it. I am going to have it welded up for the time being and will fix properly as soon as I can get parts. I could use some advice from the Gurus on replacement. I want to replace the entire system and swap the manifold with a header. I will comb through the forums tomorrow and post any questions that I don’t find answered in the engine and tuning section.