How big of a structural problem is this? Still safe to wheel?

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Tbay LX

Tbay LX

10 Year
Joined
May 26, 2013
Threads
18
Messages
89
Location
Thunder Bay, ON
Website
www.aarontatorphotography.com
While crawling around under the LX, to try to diagnose the chirping sound I posted about earlier today, I found a rather large hole. I noticed it last year, and at the time I thought it was just a bit of panel. After knocking out a bunch of rust today it seems much larger than I remember, I'm worried it is a lot more serious than just cosmetic. Is this a structural issue at this point? This photo is on the front the drivers side.
File 2015-06-02, 21 33 43.webp
 
That is some pretty bad rust. I would say that it is still safe to drive/wheel based on what you have there, but it is most likely in other places too. Cancer like that is a long term problem, not easily fixed. Even if it is patched, it will likely return eventually.
 
Odyseuss said:
That is some pretty bad rust. I would say that it is still safe to drive/wheel based on what you have there, but it is most likely in other places too. Cancer like that is a long term problem, not easily fixed. Even if it is patched, it will likely return eventually.
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So, the rust being so near those welds doesn't seem like too much of a safety concern?
 
I'd honestly have this checked out by someone local to you - hard to really tell in the pic but it looks pretty bad, and what's NOT seen could be worse from a structural standpoint.
 
The structural integrity of the body is important of course to protect the occupants in case of a crash, but if it's around the wheel wells and just sheet metal, I would not worry too much about the particular hole unless it looks like swiss cheese everywhere. Perhaps more importantly, though, that one hole may be an indicator of more serious problems elsewhere and maybe not as easily seen, so a good looks seems to be a good idea here. Having said that, I could not stomach that kind of rust on my truck, and would fix it. Yours is not going to get any better now that water can get in there either...
 
Hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like it is around a body mount. That appears to be pretty bad, and will only get much worse quickly unless addressed right away. Looks like a difficult area as we well to patch even with a donor piece. I would get something on there to stop the rust, seal up the holes somehow, and assess your options.
 
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It's body. That area is prone to salt spray and road grime. The front fender design allows junk to get inside the body/fender pocket. Peek inside the fender, you probably won't like what you see.

You'll want to cut that all out and repair with metal or a less desirable option would be to fiberglass epoxy it. Guessing you might need a new fender too. How's the other side look?
 
Thanks guys, I feel a bit better knowing I'm not about to drop a wheel or something. There's lots of surface rust under the truck, but that seems to be the only hole (other than one in the muffler). So basically, I need to cut out the cancer, and seal the exposed metal?
 
well, if you see surface rust that's anything but clearly only a thin top layer you should at least poke at it hard to make sure it's not deeper than just surface. Sometimes it looks not too bad and then when you go at it it begins to exfoliate deeper and deeper.

And it would not be a bad idea to spray some lube on rusty bolts so they don't get worse.
 
Pull your fender liner and look inside. Also, there are rocker panel body plugs that go all along the rocker panel ( on the bottom and inside towards the frame). You'll want to pull these and liberally spray fluid film or something similar inside the rocker cavity.
 
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