89S's Official Rear Tailpan Crossmember Replacement Thread

[Manbearpig]

 

[89Suburban]

JoeA and Beatdown, I have been searching my ass of for threads like that, I really appreciate the posts,links and info. That helped my big time. I now I know I need to cut out the left corner of the rocker panel out to get this under the body, which is fine because I want to replace that panel anyway. There is now way I can lift the body up far enough to get enough clearance to stick that under there.

I am also noticing the additional bolt locations hidden in those corners in each side, so I have a lot more investigating, and prep work to do locating them and spraying them up and trying to get them loose without snapping anything. I will be picking away at these fasteners over the next few weeks. I am also working the bumper bolts out slowly, they are rusted up pretty good too. Get it to the point I got 2 bolts holding it on so I can remove it and replace it easy during this project as it is my daily driver.

Thanks again.

 

[89Suburban]

Seems like my dumb ass has two threads on this topic, one was meant to be a talk thread for info, and this is supposed to be my work thread, I posted the pics in the wrong one, I am adding them here now.

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[89Suburban]

I got the bumper off, had to cut 4 bolts, PB Blaster and a thread die didn't help in getting the nuts off. Got it temp mounted back on with 2 regular hex head bolts. My tag light took a **** too, must have been from all the vibration, and the lens screws are ******, so I got to find a factory or aftermarket plate light before I get a ticket.

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[89Suburban]

Oh, and I smashed a finger and I can't find my needle scaler tool.

 

[Old77]

You JUST took a pic of that thing not too long ago

 

[89Suburban]

You JUST took a pic of that thing not too long ago

A pic of what?

 

[Old77]

The needle scalar tool!

 

[89Suburban]

The needle scalar tool!

That was off the internet. Not mine. I think a guy here at work who runs the shop might know where it is, I got to get a hold of him and find out. I used to have all my tools here when I was the equipment mechanic for a few years, then they shut it down and it took me a while to move my **** home and some of it got scattered along the way.

 

[Old77]

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[89Suburban]

The deeper I dig into this thing, the worse it gets, fukin ugly **** here. Body mount bolts rusted down to a 1/4" thick, just snapped right off. Frame is ******. I'm just going to throw on some plate washers and tack weld them when I get access to the welder at work. Very depressing ****.

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[bucket]

Does the tail pan come with the body mount nuts already in it?

 

[HotRodPC]

Be careful and don't uncover to damn much. Can't you fail inspection in PA for to much rust???

 

[89Suburban]

Does the tail pan come with the body mount nuts already in it?

FOr the body to tail ban bolts, yes, but not for the body mount to frame, they are bolts and nuts, I just picked some up at Home Depot today. Factory looked like 1/2", upgrading to 7/8". Got a few cans of Rust Reformer and also got a half dozen cutting discs for the dremel to cut through the welds on the old body mount bolt heads.

Be careful and don't uncover to damn much. Can't you fail inspection in PA for to much rust???

Yes, you can fail. My mechanic knows I have been busting my ass trying to fix it all and sees I am making progress. He said to absolutely not bring it back next time without replacing this part.

I am going to knock all the loose **** out and reform paint it, plate the holes for the body mounts on the frame. One rivet is rusted out on the left of the rear frame cross member too holding the fuel tank, I got to knock that out and throw a bolt in it.

Once i get this new cross member installed and a lot of stuff cleaned up I will feel better. ***** brutal, mentally and physically. I got too much time into it now and come too far to give up now. I hope to get this in over this weekend and have happy pics next week.

Like you said earlier HR, it is amazing how bad that rust gets, taking a solid 1/2" bolt and rusting it away to almost nothing. Also seemed like when rust expands when it grows, that **** was really packed in those body mount bushings, but they are salvageable.

I got to pay more attention to washing the road salt off the undercarriage after storms.

 

[HotRodPC]

Yeah brah, you need to get that road salt out best you can. You're not likely to get it all, but you can come real close. I learned this trick a long time ago in a Popular Mechanics magazine. Best way to get the **** out, is buy your one of those rain bird water sprinklers that wave one direction sit for a second, then come back and go the other dirction and wait a second, then come back again over and over. Park your truck over the center of one of those type water sprinklers and let it run for 30 minutes or so. I prefer to put it in the front 1/3 of the truck for 15 minutes, then put in the rear 1/3 for 15 minutes, that way you're getting more pressure to more areas. But it does seem to work pretty good and what salt it doesn't get, it will at least dilute the hell out of it.