You need to show pics. This could be an easy repair, not needing replacement. But it futile with no pics.

 

will do..gonna take some today!

 

cut out the area with cracks and replace with good metal. I just cut out the rust area in my frame and made a patch will burn it in and boom done.

 

here is the pic. You can see a hole there and then the crack runs upwards..

 

ya I would draw out a template and transfer to metal cut it out and clean it up and weld the patch in, looks like you may have to drill out the spot welds on that bracket to do a proper patch.

 

so you dont think i need to replace it.

 

Take your grinder to it to be sure what's really there and not .

 

I was planning on grinding down all the areas myself first before handing it over to any welder...is it safe to grind that close to gas tank?

 

AS long as you have no leaks. I would put a cover or divider up to keep the sparks from directly hitting the tank area.
Is this the crack that the little tyrant inspector is failing you on? Shoot, I had a 1986 Suburban that was literaly held together by the rust. If I poked the rust, something would fall off. Though I would get this fixed, I doubt it is a critical failure that will cause your car to spill its occupants all over the road!

 

I believe, from that pic, there may be more damage than just that. But you won't know until you strip it to bare metal. That is what you need to do.

 

you want to weld to good metal anyway so grinding it out goes without saying, I would not replace the entire piece, would require a lot of extra unneeded steps unless you uncover some major rot. +1 on keeping sparks off the tank that would be bad lol

 

then why say it?

 

Definitely need to clean that up. Looks like there is lots of goop/undercoating of some kind on there. Extent of damage is unknown. When you say "crack" it could actually be a crack in the coating which is indicative of extensive rust underneath swelling outward to crack the coating. Even if you have to replace the whole rail, it shouldn't be terrible unless you find you need to replace trunk floors, tail light panel, drop offs, etc. etc. These things can escalate, but yeah, start with a grinder and see what you got!

 

someone who sees what I see . . and like Bart mentioned . . when you see these signs ( I've worked on a bunch of them ) it usually means there is more hidden below the slop.

 

Not only is this a fail on the inspection but the frame crack and my brakes were considered a "Major defect"... which means I couldnt drive my car home from the inspection centre. They were forcing me to tow it back home and wouldn't let me drive it. They revoked my registration right there and then. Thats when i went from a 5/10 to at least a 8/10 pissed off..So i grabbed my keys off their counter and said yeah try and stop me, and drove it home. lol Without saying laws here are ridiculous.

 

is this the only issue with the frame? Front to back this is the only bad spot? if so I would consider yourself lucky, "should" be an easy fix

 

The first 6" or so of my front frame rails had a few bubbles and some corrosion - probably would have lasted another 40 years but I decided to make some reinforcements out of 11ga. and weld them on over what was existing. I'll be welding along the perimeter seams and also using some plug welds in the center area. The pieces that you see on the side of frame were bent at a 90 so they also cover the lower/bottom section of the frame area. I think will be much more solid than original when done. This could be an option for those who have intact frame sections that just need some help w/o having to replace the whole thing. The pieces on the lower core support are more cosmetic as some PO hammered up the lower corner area and ruptered the metal but they won't hurt in helping to make for a more rigid system. I'm also working on a gusset to tie the 2 angled beams together so they don't have to rely on the core support for stability. I should probably be stopped before this gets out of control.

 

I should probably be stopped before this gets out of control.

Agreed. Not sure I would ever buy a car with Frankenstein looking patches all over the frame rails. It's not much more difficult to just replace the rails in whole or in part. It's one thing to cut out the bad metal and butt weld a patch in, grinding the welds down to make it "disappear". But lap welding reinforcing patches all over the place is unnecessary. For the sake of the next guy/gal, just do it right!

 

I think What im gonna do is grind off at least 6inches around all the bad spots. But yes as for frame rails this is the only bad spot. I do have rust holes in other areas of the flooring. My undercarriage is covered in rust and crap... most of it is covered up by thick goop and bedliner. one day id love to really do the entire thing properly but Id like to eventually learn how to weld and do it myself.

 

My undercarriage is covered in rust and crap... most of it is covered up by thick goop and bedliner.

This is the statement that makes me wonder if the inspector got it right. In Massachusetts you won't pass with floor pan rust. Surface rust yes, but not rust through.

 

I think you'll find that area is paper thin and swiss-cheesed.

 

After recently patching a 6x6" section of my floor (fortunately the only bad spot and was right below the passeger seat so I think could have been caused by a Gramma's bladder control problem). Through this I fully realized how thin that floor panel material actually is. Now I understand why these cars where so much lighter than the others at that time.

 

If there's frame damage, the car will NEVER drive the same as it did before the accident. Frame damage = do everything in your power to get it totaled and get a new car. Sure it can be fixed, but it won't be "right".

 

Im not sure how to take this comment. Ill assume you're just making a general statement about frame damage because I certainly wont be scraping my car because of a 5 inch crack in my frame rail. lol

 

You may want to pull your rear seat and look at if from above. You may see the damage better. If your rear window is leaking and water is pooling under the seat it runs down right through that part of the frame rail. Doesn't take long to rot it all out. If you need to replace the area they make a patch panel that welds in there. Most Mustang suppliers sell them. Depending on the amount of the damage you can do this without replacing the whole rail. Mine were gone far enough that I just replace the whole rail.

 

other then the few holes I know of I dont think there is much more under the goop. Surface rust im sure, but as for big holes I dont think so.. For now ill uncover the areas I need too, but one day ill do the entire thing and do it right.

 

Well you are going against experience in this area . . good luck.

 

Be sure to remove the rear seat, pull up the carpet and place some metal spark shields around at minimum. As far as the not right after comment, I would guarantee some of my welding and unibody repairs have resulted in cars within a tighter spec. than that which they left the factory with!