pictures of rusted metal. dont know if its a safty hazard or not.

[james828]

sorry they are on photobucket i dont know how to put them directly onto this post.

http://s1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd514/jameshigh88/

[priya]

This is a unibody car so the integrity of the structure is all in the sheet metal and yes, inner rockers are part of the safety structure.  When they're rusted like this it will allow the passenger compartment to crush in farther than it otherwise would in an impact and potentially be dangerous.  Having said that, many people drive cars as rusty or rustier than this (including myself in the past) but if you were to take it in for a safety inspection it would fail.

[milliard431]

Even the top seam looks gone where it is supposed to attach to the floor which = no structure. 1 good hit and you are done. Your body and roof line are holding you up. Yes those two little pillars on each side of your windshield and not much else. Is the windshield cracked?

[milliard431]

Let me try

[milliard431]

Well it is only one side and the center looks good. How are the fromt frame rails?

[james828]

thanks for putting those pictures on. and yes the windshield is cracked and i dont know what the  front frame rails are. care to explain?

[vangremlin]

Those look to be in pretty bad shape but it isn't a death sentence for the car.  Other members have repaired such damage and the cars are working fine.

[priya]

Those look to be in pretty bad shape but it isn't a death sentence for the car.  Other members have repaired such damage and the cars are working fine.

Yes, I replaced those components on my SX/4.

[priya]

thanks for putting those pictures on. and yes the windshield is cracked and i dont know what the  front frame rails are. care to explain?

You can see one of the "frame" rails in the third picture posted there.  It is the long channel about a foot inwards from the side of the car that travels from the front to rear of the car.  There is another one on the other side of the car.  From what I can see of the "frame" rail in the third picture it loosk solid.

[shanebo]

Is that a native colorado car?

[james828]

yes the car has been sitting on a farm for 17 some years and i know i could look it up but just a quick question. are the parts cheap to replace? ill look it up now

[james828]

the car also was 100% exposed so it is in great shape. and i lied its been about 9 sorry about that

[vangremlin]

the car also was 100% exposed so it is in great shape. and i lied its been about 9 sorry about that

It looks a lot like my Colorado car did that sat for 16 years.  Some repairs necessary, but overall in pretty good shape.

[captspillane]

Those rocker panels are important, but your car is in no danger of sagging into a taco. The shape of the floor pan makes a ridgid structure in the same way that sea containers with corrogated sides are more ridgid with less material than they would be with smooth sides. This is why a continuous frame rail isn't necessary. Technically we don't have a frame, but we have subframes in the front and rear. Many of us write frames when we mean subframe assembly. Its as sinful as writing trans to mean both transmission and transaxle.

Your car looks in much better shape than most of my rescue efforts. The rocker panels are a common rust issue on all sorts of cars, so it does have aftermarket support. JC Whitney has sold weld in rocker panels for Eagles. They cost about 75 dollars and I would expect a shop to charge several hundred dollars to restore your rocker panels to new condition. Most cars need them to be totally restored because they're externally visible, but we as Eagle owners are blessed to have strategic plastic molding that covers them all up. You have the option of making a crude repair with angle iron and then slopping a piece of pipe and bondo together for the rest. As long as the metal retaining strip ends up near where it started, the plastic will hide your dirty little secret.

Your rockers look to have too much gone to get away with it, but most people with several holes still have the option of filling the cavity with spray foam and then applying fiberglass hair (it stretches and is waterproof, so its highly superior to regular bondo) over the rough foam surface. That is all it takes to pass a safety inspection in PA. My Jeep Cherokee failed for a hole in the rocker panel and passed before we even bothered to cover the exposed foam. Most of us have heavily abused Eagles without intact rocker panels and suggesting that a car will break in half without them is just assuming the worst. Its up to you how conservative you want to be and how much time and money you want to spend.

[AMCKen]

I've driven cars like this too, but in my first SX4, the rust was so bad around the outer seatbelt anchor that the belt would have been useless in an accident. I stopped driving it after I found this out.