Frame rail splitting on S13

[slipnfall]

Hi there, I thought my '92 coupe was it pretty darn good structural shape, untill today. While changing the oil, I noticed that the passenger side frame rail was split! I sketched a quick drawing to illustrate(below). The side of the frame that is pulled away is the flat piece that has the tow hook attached. It seems the spot welds just broke loose, and it is pulled about 1.5" away from the box frame. It is seperated all the way back untill the two mating surfaces go from being vertical, to a horizontal 'lip' down tthe rest of the rail. WTF should I do now, if anything?

Two incidents come to mind:

I just autox my car last night and spun out in a corner... the car didn't leave the pavement. This was just a one-time ordeal, never had it on the track before.

Also this car was just transported on an open trailer across country. Maybe the movers pulled the tow hook too far to the side(strapping it down)

I thought about just pulling the two back together and putting two bolts in to keep them together(with support bracket/washers), maybe some JB weld also. I didn't *see* anything structural that attached: just the bumper and fender support, maybe battery tray.

Does this pose any serious problems? It doesn't look like it will continue to split.

Thanks,-Jamie

[Hijacker]

If it's the usual thing I've seen on just about every S13 I've worked on, the frame is not split. What it is, is the sheetmetal that is used to form the engine bay is spotwelded to the frame, but is not structurally part of the frame.

[slipnfall]

Ok, well like I said it's exactly where the front tow hook attaches: is this where you'v seen it pulled apart before? That piece of metal does box in the frame rail, so I would imagine it's only that much weaker now with the spot welds broken.

Thx,-Slip

[slipnfall]

Oh so in other words the critical structural part of the frame is a 'C' beam, not boxed?

[Hijacker]

What I"m saying is that the towhook does not attach to the boxframe. It's attached to a piece of sheetmetal which is spotwelded to the boxframe. The frame wouldn't be very strong if it were just spotwelded together.

[240marcuSX]

did you make that in paint? if so, very nice ms paint skills btw. lol.

every s13 ive seen has messed up frame rails. but i havent seen the problem that your haveing, but its probably what he he said ^^
Modified by 240marcuSX at 12:45 PM 8/1/2005

[slipnfall]

haha, yah MS paint. I do electronic/mech CAD work so paint was quick 'n easy.

Since the car was insured from the auto transport company, I had an estimate done at a dedicated uni-body repair shop. They quoted me $150(incl tax) to mig-weld and undercoat that section of frame. Not bad IMO.

It's amazing what frame/body people can tell you about your car just by looking at it. He told me that that problem was 'fixed' before, because he could tell the original spot welds were drilled out. Also said that my top rad support/cross brace looked like it had been replaced, so the car must have been in a minor accident at some point.

Thanks for the info everyone.-Slip