1995 850t5 2.3automatic estate for sale?

[bournricha]

Got the bumper off and cut off the knackered end of the chassis,which leaves you a nice flat double thickness plate to weld to .
It just happens that a piece of three inch deep box section is just a nice fit up inside of the chassis member.
Now ,the space inside the chassis member turns out to taper and anyway is much wider than the two inch width of the box section , so I cut away the centre of the top and bottom of the section to leave two pieces three inches deep ,with enough of the edge left to keep them very stiff.
These pieces I inserted into the chassis on either side ,inside,and tapped them in until they project the required two and a quarter inches ,which was the rotten bit I cut off.
These pieces were then tacked together,with connecting strip of metal, to hold the correct tapering shape of the side member.
Next ,I will fill in the pieces in the inserts to make them a complete insert which will pick up the two bolt holes in the bottom of the side member ,which will connect to the tow bar.
Will try to post some pictures later as I think this repair might be of general interest
bournricha

[Paffel]

I'm always interested in stuff like that - pop up some photos when you can.

[bournricha]

Would like to post pictures but a picture file is 3 mb and the forum reply maximum size is 3 kb i.e too small by a factor of 1,000!
Can any body tell me simply how to post pictures.
bournricha

[Paffel]

There's several sites that offer to host pictures on your behalf.

I've used photobucket before.

Go to photobucket.com, register an account.

Upload a photo on there.

It should give you what it calls an IMG link - simply a web address that links back to your photograph, surrounded by the word IMG and square brackets.

An example;

picture address:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/d5...s=w411-h548-no

image format:
[IMG]Picture Address[/IMG]

gives a good thumbs up from me.

[bournricha]

[bournricha]

There you go!
Picture shows the pieces of cut box section in position in the chassis member ,also shows the degree of taper inside the chassis .
Enough technology for today,I am off to my perch
bournricha

[bournricha]

Here is the first insert welded up.
It doesn t have to be pretty!

[bournricha]

T he job progresses but it is very time consuming because ,unlike simply fitting new parts, you have to design,make ,and fit each part .This why getting someone to do this sort of work is so expensive and often does for many cars which could be repaired.
In the picture you see the insert in place.It is held by a long bolt right through,M10 which is as large as I can drill,with its head through the ready made hole under a grommet in the boot.It passes through the insert and the the bottom of the side member,and also through a tapered reinforcing shoe under the bottom of the member.(Remember the side member widens at the back,hence the taper ).This was made like the rest from cut up box section.
All the holes need to be quite sloppy to get through every thing.Drill the holes oversize if you can,I hit on an easy way .Turn up the amps on your welder and just blow abit of metal away round the edge of the holes to make them sloppy.
The welding rod sticking out is attached to the head of the second bolt which just goes through the bottom parts.The rod makes it dead easy to insert the second bolt behind first.
The last two bolts you can see attach the shoe to good side member.They were fixed"blind" using a helicoil kit I happened to have around ,they pulled up as tight as they could go and really pulled the shoe up.
So, forces pass from the side member to th e shoe ,then the insert,and finally to the towbar .
This arrangement I am sure is stronger than the original
bournricha

[bournricha]

Made a blt more dust and Sh.....te today and cut off the rubbish from the off side . Tip here ,wear a dust mask as the dust from cutting off rusty stuff is very unpleasant and quite unhealthy.Also eye protection if you don t wear glasses already.This side should be a lot quicker as I know the dimensions and what to do.
bournricha

[bournricha]

Most local stockists will only be stocking 2.4 mm rods ,which are just about ok for this sort of job,they burn a .bit hot for metal of car thickness.
Much better are 1.6 rods ,but, if you ask your local stockist, they will pound to a penny say ,"don t know about rods that small ,never heard of them ,"or such baloney.
Look em up on line ,from Sealy,£13 quid for 2.5 kilos ,which is a lot of little rods !
Dont be fobbed off ,thank God for tinternet!
bournricha