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A Hole Found on the B

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J

JoshP

Jedi Trainee
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I was under my B today admiring the oily scenery when lo and behold, I saw a gash hole on the undercarriage. To be more specific, it's roughly the size of 1 and a half quarters sat end to end. It's located on the right castle rail, just before (but not touching) where the rail turns up into the body proper. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wall.gif

Missed that one in the initial inspection. I went back over poking the rest of the castle rail, the sill and the frame rail with a screwdriver to check for other surprises. Thankfully, none found; the left side looks to be fully intact as well.

I couldn't see much inside the hole area, though the area surrounding it seems to be relatively solid. I think I should be okay to make a little patch for it and tack it on, put some undercoat on to seal it and call it done.

Any thoughts, advice or opinions would be appreciated; this would be my first foray into working on a unibody structure.
 
To quote a movie line: "What is behind me is un-important!"

...but some pix would be helpful.

Remember: "Rust never sleeps." !!!
 
Josh, is it a rust hole, or a cut??
Either way, if the surrounding metal is solid, I'd feel confident in patching it.
<u>I'd</u> probably let the patch in flush, weld completley around it, grind, paint and sealcoat. Then it becomes invisible.
But, a properly overlapped patch will probably work just as well. I can get carried away sometimes.
Jeff
 
If that's the only place, its not a hard patch job...clean it up real good so you can also suck everything out of the interior of the sill with a vacuum before you repair.
 
It doesn't appear to be a cut hole; in shape, it resembles a gash, so that makes me think a rust hole. The area surrounding the hole and the rest of the castle rail, sill and frame rail passed the screwdriver poke test, that makes me think that the problem is isolated to that one spot.

The rest of the undercarriage is undercoated; I'm not sure what the stuff is, but it's tougher than two dollar steak. I'd thought about trying to chip a piece off to see the underlying metal; however, upon seeing how solid that stuff was, I don't imagine the elements have had much luck getting in there.

I'll try to get a pic of the spot uploaded tomorrow; need to get a memory card for the camera on my phone to do it. The digital cam is currently on loan. To me, it looks like someone took 1 and a half quarters (coins), sat them end to end and made a very jagged cut around 'em.
 
"tougher than two dollar steak"

I love the expressions people use in this forum!
 
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