Front Frame & Rotisserie Support

Readers of earlier posts will know that I had some serious rust damage in the front frame directly beneath where the battery used to sit. I had been avoiding this fix as it was always going to be awkward unpicking the various spot welds that the standard Mustang has in this area (with so many suspension brackets), not to mention the custom metal-work needed for fit a new repair piece.

However, I eventually received my repair panels, so I cut out the old rusted section until I had a solid foundation and then trimmed the repair pieces back to match the "gap". As can be seen here - it's all fixed now! The lower edge of the fender apron is yet to welded back on when this photo was taken.

The shot above is a much better sight than the equivalent photo in an earlier post (taken when I was dismantling the car).

The photo's above and below show how the repair pieces are a superb fit (once you trim them back to match your requirement).

One nice surprise was that the rust caused by the battery leaks over the years only affected the area under the battery. I found "full thickness metal" in the old frame from just beyond the sway-bar mount. I made sure the patch grafted to the old frame at a diagonal angle for a strong bond. Needless to say, the old and new frame were "rust converted" and "rust protected" inside and out.

I needed to repair the front frame (specifically the mounting points for the front bumper-bar) so that I could remove the remaining section of the space-frame and re-mount the rotisserie to these bumper mounting points.

The space-frame needed to go so I can complete the fixes needed to be done to the cowl & firewall, plus clear room for new front suspension bracing I will be fabricating. So..... the front of the car went back up on blocks, the front space-frame was cut out, new mounts were created on the rotisserie, and then bolted to where the front bumper normally mounts.

You can see the setup in the shots below.


Note the huge "air gap" above the front rails with the firewall, rear fender aprons & outer cowl/kick-panels removed. I've put in the temporary upper piece of box-tube just so this gap doesn't shift as the body is rotated during work.

And here you can start to see the rust in the area where the cowl, dash & firewall all join along a spot welded seam that runs right across the engine bay. This seam will be cut out and replaced with a curved length of box-tube. Once the seam is cut out I can fix any rust problems as well as using the box-tube as a more solid foundation for the firewall & (under) dash panels as well as a platform for stabilising the front shock-towers.

But that will be shown in the next post!