Rust through at rear leaf spring mounts - beware

[Nightpath]

I found some rusties on my wagon which are in need of repair. I had already suspected and feared that the mounts for the rear leaf springs would have rot around them, and I was 100% right. After cleaning up the area, it appears that it will be a fairly simple fix. Just weld some thick metal to the current mount and frame and close off the hole.

This has been posted before ( http://forums.amceaglesden.com/index.php?topic=34726.0 ), but the worst thing was that the rot was actually UNDER metal When the Eagle came from the factory, the rear hatch and the rear leaf spring mounts were tacked together with weld. There are round holes in the leaf spring mounts which allowed water to work it's way in and get trapped, thus rotting out the rear a bit.The only reason I noticed it was because I was cleaning the factory protection from the rear hatch where it had some surface rust and noticed that it had a few small holes.

I suggest to everyone who hasn't to take a small flat head screw driver, crawl under your eagle at the rear and poke around beside the floor where it meets the side of the car. If it's rotted repair it ASAP or your leafs have a pretty good chance of seeing inside your car.

Now, on another note, will 1/8" steel be fine to weld into place here? I'm also debating taking 2 lengths (square tubing maybe) of metal and going inside the car from one end to the other, drilling through to the block that the leaf springs are mounted to and welding them along the floor to reinforce this for the future.

Right now since my car is a project, I'm thinking of ways to have that rear hatch metal permanently removed so that area isn't closed off all the time. Once I get the floor done I'm going to prime it and rockguard the whole thing. I'm seriously debating sound deadener there and then some thick carpet which I can cut to fit the area and go up the sides in the back. The back hatch area is a poor design, with openings to the ground here and there which should never have been, and that shelf made to hide the rear tire takes away a tonne of space in the rear (I'd rather just have a full sized spare sitting in a tire bag there than that shelf).

[macdude443]

Maybe I'm confused.  Are we talking the mounts behind the back doors and in front of the tires, or all the way in the back near the tail lights?

I know I have surface rust on mine in the first area.  It's a boxed in section that's hard as heck to get to without removing the spring.  My wagon is fine there and I've soaked the interior of that area with an oil type undercoating.  My SX/4 has a small hole in the inner-rocker area thats under the boxed in section.  I plan to break the welds and pull that metal apart, fix it and weld it all back together.

[Nightpath]

At the very rear, where the rear tires would kick up crap onto the rear of the leafspring mounts.

I could see the ground once I got some of that old black stuff off....made me a sad panda.

[macdude443]

I'll check that out.  I had no idea that area got that bad.

[Nightpath]

It does, and it's a pretty easy fix. If you can weld I'd say 2-3 hours and it can be cleaned up, rewelded and reinforced easily.

[macdude443]

I can't weld (done a bead or two but don't have the equipment).  I have a good guy local to me.

[AMCLOVER258]

Ironically i was slapping some spring helpers on the other day and noticed on my Sedan that area if pretty rusted. I am thinking of cutting it all out, welding square tube piping across and then fabbing some spring mounts to the tubing,

[Nightpath]

The good thing is that the plates that the leaf spring mount is part of is pretty hardy and welded to the frame. Just reinforcing this and welding the area closed after removing the bad stuff will fix it and make it better.