Torsion Bar Woes... or Woahs

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TheGrateRonzini

TheGrateRonzini

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Got the barracuda in the barn today and started work on the torsion bar crossmember. I got half way through making a torsion bar removal tool before the wife went to work and I went on kid duty. Anyway, I thought I would share the mess a p.o. left for me. I’ve got a x member coming, so I’m not too concerned. I can’t figure out if this repair actually worked, or if it was a shot in the dark flux core kinda thing. They also had the adjuster maxed out on same side, which I’m sure didn’t help the situation. Looks like I’m going to be removing quite a bit of undercoating there too
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Uh, that’s not good.......

Jake
 
Yeah, over the years you'll see a badly cobbled cross member or two. It does look like you have more than average undercoating.
 
Unbelievable. Looks like another a-hole with hack welding skills has been doing his a-hole attempt of a repair in the past.
I take it there are no yearly safety checks done on older cars in the State?
 
Holy crap!

So many things wrong with that I don’t even know where to start. The welding is terrible, but even great welding wouldn’t have made that a viable repair.

So yeah, looks to me like you need to replace the entire crossmember at least, probably some of th floor too. You’ll have a better chance to look at that without the crossmember in place though, obviously you want to weld the new crossmember to solid metal.
 
I’m in Buffalo, I got the car from PA. Was titled in Maryland before that circa 1980. And besides that and the quarters that were also replaced haphazardly it’s pretty solid underneath, firewall, inner fenders(front and read) and trunk. Someone started the project with good intentions... I think. 74 318 with a 1980 4bbl manifold and 4spd in /6 auto car, solid doors, and fenders and a respray, but I think it has sat since the 90’s.

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Oh boy. You’ve got some work to do on those quarters too. I bet there’s some really ugly stuff under all that bondo and checked paint.

My Challenger had someone do really bad quarter patches on it, I’m skipping the whole mess and doing full quarters. Not even worth trying to address what the last guy did.
 
TheGrateRonzini said:
I’m in Buffalo, I got the car from PA. Was titled in Maryland before that circa 1980. And besides that and the quarters that were also replaced haphazardly it’s pretty solid underneath, firewall, inner fenders(front and read) and trunk. Someone started the project with good intentions... I think. 74 318 with a 1980 4bbl manifold and 4spd in /6 auto car, solid doors, and fenders and a respray, but I think it has sat since the 90’s.

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No way that ‘repair’ passed annual inspection in PA. Did it have a window sticker? If so they paid for the sticker, not the inspection. My understanding of MD is they inspect when a car changes hands. After that you can do what you want, but a trooper can bust you for not keeping it up to inspection standards.
 
zkx14 said:
No way that ‘repair’ passed annual inspection in PA. Did it have a window sticker? If so they paid for the sticker, not the inspection. My understanding of MD is they inspect when a car changes hands. After that you can do what you want, but a trooper can bust you for not keeping it up to inspection standards.
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Yup, Maryland only requires vehicle safety inspection to title it, unless you are cited for a safety violation. And in those cases an inspection of the repairs is all that's required. That said that's some scary sh- t on that t-bar!
 
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