Front crossmember rot

Word of warning on this because I'm seeing it more and more and it's only a matter of time before someone somewhere runs out of luck .....
It won't be picked up at MOT time along with many other areas but this one is more critical than most .
Inspection is fairly straightforward but does involve stripping out the area as seen here.I can do this for members at a good rate if required but it does run the risk of a few snapped fixings and general ballaches if certain bits fight along the way .
Whatever I would suggest that everybody at least has a look as best they can
Sleep tight dearies

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Thanks for that Lee,do you have a price for a job like that

Yep ! £100 cash pound notes innit to inspect ......special price,plenty cheapness, BOGOFF

See it's easy

Have been saying it for a while the cars are over 30 years old they are all suffering from it, just how bad. Get it checked out as its the whole front suspension and the steering rack are bolted to it if it goes wrong use your own imagination. Especially if you love driving them in a spirited way, or you might have one of these moments

It amazes me that even with the boot liner out, these rotten cross members still look good from above. From underneath it's hard to see anything as the rack is in the way. An MOT is no help and they rot from the inside out because they aren't painted inside (well to any degree that qualifies as protection anyway). We'd had mine up on a lift for inspection and thought there were a couple of patches for repair, in the end most of the cross member was replaced.
As the cars are plastic people assume they don't rot, but the structure is still metal, French, poor quality and badly protected metal.
I don't know if this one is better or worse than mine, but it still looks dangerous. The brakes, steering and front suspension hang off the cross member and it joins all that to the backbone.
I'm very glad that I asked Rats to strip off the fibreglass and look at mine. The repair costs when its already apart aren't that huge but it's good to know its sound now, not only is it sound but the inside of the box section is painted like never before and rustproofing accessible.
Now all I need is paint and reassembly ....

[The Saint]

This is another reason why we need to help keep the few Alpine specialists going... Most so called back street garages don't have a clue and just think its a Reno and common... OL
Well all I will say, is " You get what you pay for!!" so don't botch when your quote is larger than you expected... most specialist don't charge as much as a main dealer, and we all need to survive.
Once these specialist are gone.... so to will our cars..
Keep are Alpine Specialists alive.... don't take the cheap option, it wont pay in the long run...

Keep safe and know your car is too!!



Vince...

[The Saint]

Just to back up what I said.. I was looking on the web at labour charges and found this....

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/c ... 5-per-hour

Now that is ..

HOW MUCH ?!!!!!

We are very much less than that ....Anyway ....Mr Metters before and after

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crossmember repaired.jpg

Is this a problem on the 610 as well as the GTA?? I had a look up there when I was doing the clutch master cylinder. A tiny bit of rust was evident, but it did look pretty sound on my 610.

Custard fella will be here in a bit to enlighten but .......YES !! they all rot and 610 is likely to be worse given it has more to rot + a botch to get at as A/C/blower ,rack etc is far more involved to remove.

Custard fella hear, unfortunately it is a lot harder to do as lee says, apart from the heater the rack seems to be harder to get out and on top of that the brake servo is on the opposite side and has a shaft running from the right hand side to the left which is bolted to the box section as well those will be rotted on. Apart from the suspension mounts and the steering rack area you cannot see the rest of the box section as it is totally enclosed. It has more dividers inside which are sealed boxes which makes the front box section far stronger and rigid, thay sweat like mad and there are no drainholes to get rid of the water it sits on top of the tunnel and rots the tunnel out from above, there is no rust prevention in this area. The only way is to drill some holes in the top box section and put a camera in to have a look if it's not too bad you can then fill it with wax oil And peace of mind. If there is rust don't put rust prevention in to stop it going any further because if you then want to do it later the car will burn out as you have to cut the box out with a plasma cutter or a Grindr and it will catch fire.
When I did my GTA two years ago I didn't think it was that bad a job so when I did the 610 I thought it would be easy, but it just went on and on so I did it in stainless steel as it's not a job you ever wanna do a second time. The 610 is a much heavier car on the front end so the box section is carrying a lot more hence why it is beefier wouldn't want that to fail.

[The Saint]

When my A610 was at Lee's (RATS) for it's restoration, it had to have a new steering rack. The rack can only be removed from up above... Absolutely everything has to come out... All respect to lee for sorting this...
Take a look at the links below. Not a simple job!!

http://s1218.photobucket.com/user/cleer ... 7.jpg.html
search.php?keywords=K701&fid%5B0%5D=8

In these pictures you can see the cross member that is mentioned in this thread...
Now you know just how much time it will take to sort.... Just another thing to think about when purchasing one of these cars..
Just glad mine is sorted!!

Vince..

Are those joyful memories come flooding back. When I did the GTA I made a template when I finished it unfortunately I decided I won't need it any more so I scrapped it. The way forward is to make a template especially for the 610 with all the mounting holes for the rack and the Break transfer bar as this has to be exact otherwise it will bind when you put your foot on the footbrake, than get some plates laser cut for stock. Strip it all out offer up the template draw a line around and then plasma cut The old box section out just back from the line, clean it up with the angle grinder and then weld the new pre made box sections in place, put it all back together just like that job done Time allowed for this process 4 hours 50 minutes. I think you will start to see prices for the cars that have had this sorted fetching a bit more the premium.

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[The Saint]

Stop it!!!


*****Shudders when I think I was driving that at high speeds*****