Chassis legs to cross member connection

[GavinL]

Having finished the sills and A posts on both sides of Vanessa it’s time to replace the heavily patched cross member. My plan was to try and preserve the flanges on the ends of the chassis legs, but having cleaned them up I think by the time I’ve drilled out the spot welds there will be virtually nothing left.

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What have others done in this situation? All suggestions welcomed.

[MattsGPOvan]

Sent it to me at Precision Panel Craft or replace the lip....

No seriously here to help.

[philthehill]

Dissect the cross member from the chassis legs by cutting from the rear side of the cross member side. I would not try and cut out the welds from the flange side.
Do it slowly and it will all come right in the end.

Good luck

[GavinL]

Thanks Phil, good idea, although having pushed an endoscope down the inside of the chassis leg I do wonder how thick the leg walls are at the cross member end. I'll give it a go and see how I get on. Worst case is I have to make right angle patches.

[philthehill]

That's the spirit - cross one bridge at a time.

When I replaced the cross member on my Minor (not for the reason of rust I might add) I had a similar problem and it worked out ok in the end.

Use a stepped washer (the one that locates the rear of the torsion bar in the cross member) either side of the cross member/flange to hold it together and help get the alignment right whilst you weld.

Phil

[GavinL]

Just had another look and the grinding from the back might be easier than I thought - I’ve cut the flange off and the cross member has delaminated so much I can see daylight, so I will only have one thickness of metal to deal with.

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[philthehill]

As regards the de-lamination of the cross member - When I fitted the cross member to my Minor the single piece cross member was not available therefore I had to fit the same original type BMC cross member. To reduce the possibility of de-lamination I welded the cross member all along the outer edges and made sure that the central holes were well sealed. I did not fit the jacking points as any crap trapped between the jacking point and floor pan leads to it being a rust trap. Unless you are looking for originality I would leave them out of any restoration plans.

[GavinL]

Agreed, I intend leaving the jacking points off as I always jack under chassis members. I am also intending to seal the flanges and gaps on the cross member with seam sealer.

[GavinL]

So having followed Phil’s excellent advice I cut out the cross member either side and in between the chassis legs, split the remaining sections of the cross member behind the chassis legs, leaving the section welded to the chassis leg.

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I'll leave this as the flange and weld the cross member to it, using the torsion bar stepped washers bolts to hold it in place for welding

[philthehill]

Well done.

I would give that remaining rust a good coat of 'Fertan' rust converter before proceeding further.

https://fertan.com/product/derusting/rustconverter/

It is what I use when dealing with rusty metal and it does an excellent job.

Phil