Hey, I have pretty bad rust on my drivers side strut tower, and i was just wondering how easy it would be to fix that. Would you just grind off the rust and weld in new metal? Its pretty bad, but it hasn't spread to the whole tower yet, but I can see through it enough to worry me. Thanks

I wouldnt just grind off hte rusty part..You ned to get enough around the rust so you get into "healthy" steel or else it will spread again. Cut it out so you get all fresh steel andthen weld...Buthat might have been what yameant?

I had the same problem, however, mine was rusting on both sides and was really bad. My dad helped me out since it was my first time welding.
What we did was cut out absolutely every piece of rusty metal we saw, after we hit it with a few hammers to relieve frustration as well as find week spots.
Next we cut patches out of some new metal welded them in place and it looks better than before, not perfect, but at least it is all together. It was so bad that the patches we cut out were at least 8"x5"... practically had to replace the whole top of the tower.
Good luck and ask if you have any other questions.

most of it depends on if the rust is through or not.
if its mostly surface rust then its nothing to fix.

make shure all the rust is off or it will come back

Yea, its rusted all the way through on both sides, just like you said Pinder. Thanks alot for your help guys, Pinder, I'll PM you if I run into any problems welding new steel on it. Thanks again!

Is there a Chrysler recall? I've read here some owner have had the problem repaired by Chrysler. Is there a repair kit other than welding in new metal? Have there been structural failures? Mine are bubbled on one side and I have a hole on the drivers side.

My car has 111K miles and Chrysler says there corrosion warranty is over at 100K

you need to get a whole new piece welded in, not just part of it. unless you want to die which is up to you. your warranty is screwed. find a body shop that will do it before your shock pops thru your tower and into your car/hood

I have some strut tower rust on my 2g as a lot of people do. It has gotten fairly bad, its rusted from the bottom right through to the top and there is a hole on one side now. I am thinking its probably not going to be practical to try and cut out the rusted part and weld a new piece in, so im thinking of replacing the whole sheet metal part. Here is what the replacement sheet metal part looks like (61815L/R):

http://www.2gnt.com/CAPS/main42/main42sub180.html

There is a 2g being parted out that I was thinking of taking the strut tower sheet metal from if its rust free. How is that sheet metal attached to the body? Is it spot welds that can just be drilled out, or something more permanent?

Do you have pics of the rust hole?

TOTalon said:

I have some strut tower rust on my 2g as a lot of people do. It has gotten fairly bad, its rusted from the bottom right through to the top and there is a hole on one side now. I am thinking its probably not going to be practical to try and cut out the rusted part and weld a new piece in, so im thinking of replacing the whole sheet metal part. Here is what the replacement sheet metal part looks like (61815L/R):

http://www.2gnt.com/CAPS/main42/main42sub180.html

There is a 2g being parted out that I was thinking of taking the strut tower sheet metal from if its rust free. How is that sheet metal attached to the body? Is it spot welds that can just be drilled out, or something more permanent?

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Do a search on DSMtalk for rust aroud shock towers. They have been bitching about this for ever as well as talking about the best ways to fix it.

im thinking its spot welds and glue. (sealer)

im looking at a car its a 95 tsi awd 5spd. i has some strut tower rust. has anyone had this fixed b/c i know everybody has it.


also is the car a good deal. its got 104k miles but 5k on the rebuild. new wheel bearings in the front, new alternator. body is in really good shape. interior is almost perfect(air bag cover). almost stock except a 1g bov. and some 18 inch chrome rims :thumbdown
anyway the car has a spot of rust on the drivers door. a spot of rust on the drivers strut just surface, and a hole through the other tower on the passenger side. thats all the things i found. he wants 5700. so i was thinking about saying 5200 minus the bling bling rims. what do ya think

Yea, I have that exact same problem too. Mine is on the drivers side and its so bad I can see the tire through the hold

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125717

Heres my thread awhile ago, Pinder91 welded new metal on it, so he would probably know best how to do it. I ground off all the rusty parts, but never got around to welding new metal cause my engine broke.

thanks matt. that helped. i am going to talk to tunedsportcustoms about fixing it. maybe you should too. they are out of portage.

Had really bad rust on the passenger side of my Talon... ended up spreading. I cut a good chunk out and fiberglassed over the whole... no more rust and looks good. Bought a can of touch up paint from my local Chrysler Dealer and sanded the crap out of the fiber glass resin. If you look at my gallery pics, you cant tell that its fibreglasses.

Can't say I'd want to just fiberglass over a hole in my strut tower... Have fun when you're whole front end is laying on the ground, and you're spring is poking through the hood.
Oh well, good luck for those of you that have "cancer". It's really not so bad if you decide to tackle it yourself.

Its a bad thing.
Seems to usually start from the inside out so by the time you see it the rust is much worse then it looks. You can probaly poke a screwdriver through it quite easy if you see much at all, and it cost some serious dough to fix. There was a post on another michigan board about it. You have to weld in a new piece of metal. Usually a $600-1200 fix at a shop YMMV

I would suggest avoiding the fiberglass method when possible. Yes it will work but it is not something that will last in the long run. It is ideal for a car that needs to be sold fast and longevity is not a concern and money is at a minimum. I deal with rust every day and the best way to fix it is to cut every last bit of it out and weld in new metal. You might see the guys on pimp my ride cut out aluminum and rivet it in place and then slather it with filler but this method is all wrong too. Aluminum and steel are dissimilar metals and will, in time, corrode. On the otherhand if you notice rust early and it isn't too bad, you can prevent it from spreading by using a product called POR 15. POR = Paint Over Rust, this stuff removes every bit of moisture from the rusted area and then creates a air tight seal over it. Many times at work after we sand blast the outside of a frame we will spray some POR 14 through the enclosed areas to neutralize any rust that we can't physically get to.

wishihadatalon said:

thanks matt. that helped. i am going to talk to tunedsportcustoms about fixing it. maybe you should too. they are out of portage.

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Let me know what they think about it. Portage is about 10 min from me, that would be quite convenient.

blackGSX2g said:

Let me know what they think about it. Portage is about 10 min from me, that would be quite convenient.

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will do. but i know for a fact they do good work. www.tunedsportcustoms.com. also why aren't you ever one aim anymore. i

Haha, yea I'm never home anymore...I'm out in the garage puttin my motor together.

I'm suprised I haven't heard of them...they aren't that far away from me. Do you have any experience with their paintjobs? I just brought my car out of storage so I can drop in the new motor and there are marks all over from the stupid tarp hitting it. It also looks like there are some sun damage spots also. Makes me mad cause I just resprayed it last March/April and I don't really want to go through that again.

yeah i have experience. a friend of mine from holland got a paint job done by them. top notch. deffinately worth the money.

i've been searching and the strut tower rust is a disease for the dsm, right? How much is it to get the thing fixed at a local welding shop? Is it easy for me to do it myself because i have never done welding? If so where can i get the material to replace the rust and what kind of metal would be good?

Thanks.

I'm looking to get this car but has this strut tower rust.

how bad do you guys think this strut tower rust is? Is it worth getting the car?
What kind of problem am i gonna be looking for in the long run if this doesn't get fixed for the winter?

i woud like to also know if a 6bolt swapp in a 2 gen is reliable with evol 16g at 18 psi and no fuel mods? i know that problems will occur but would it be really bad without supporting fuel mods?