Who has had to fix jack tabs and under carriage on S13?

[troopiec]

Hi Guys, I noticed when i bought my s13 that there was quite a bit of knocked sections underneath the car however i didnt think too badly of it, over time while the car has been standing due to my student budget taking a hit from the high feul prices i have been stripping out the interior and giving everything a good cleaning, i took out the carpet and i see that you can infact see some of the dents bulging a tiny bit under the seat area and near the skirts inside bu not terribly bad, there is no rust atall, but im not too happy about the dents.

The jack tabs are pretty stuffed up on both sides of the car, aswell as the thick bars running on either side of the under carriage are also bent in a few places, theres no heavy accident damage on the car and the car drives straight and does not appear to be bent or messed up badly, it seems like the previous just owner hit a few speed bumps far too hard as the lowered suspension is quite low indeed.

My question is has anyone had such experience before? and how worried should i be about it? i dont have the cash now to fix it but in the future i was thinking of getting someone experienced to weld up and reinforce the whole underneath with additional bars etc.

Il try post some pics next time i get underneath the car.

[djtreble]

Every S13 has this pretty much, it's just most jack up the cars on a weak spot and dont spread the load. The rails that runs under the car aren't designed for jacking the car up on and most jack it up in the middle or on one side. The only way is to have a wide jack surface (3 tonne) over both sides at the front point where the chasis turns from down to straight or to use a piece of wood ontop of the jack surface to spread the load.

Other options for jacking are places like the rear subframe, diff, front tension roads, lower arms front and rear, front and rear tow hooks if there is no rust or weakening of the supporting parts.

As for worrying about it, there is nothing to worry about as long as it's treated to prevent rust in the future.

[troopiec]

Hi DJtreble, yea the previous owners really messed up in terms of jacking up the car and probably driving over speed bumps, im studying motor mechanics and most of the time all the RWD cars we use a nice big 3tonne jack and jack it up under the front crossmember and then on the rear we use the diff, however i think my car is too low to get to the cross member haha, il have to see wheres best next time i jack up the car, however in the future i would like to straighten out both sides and weld them stronger and then the centre bars i would like to re-inforce like how ive seen on some other builds, i personally wouldnt jack up my own car on the sides there even if it wasnt damaged.

Heres some pics so you can see the extent of what im talking about:

floor bare-


front left bulge in floor-


Front left side-


left bar-


rear left-


Front right side-


right bar-


rear right side-


this is how low my car is-


really not sure how the car was lowered but i do suspect its stock springs that were compressed, however the car does handle well and is a comfortable ride.

as you can see it looks pretty bad, but there is no signs of rust and the metal is still very strong.

What you guys think?

[rat]

That isn't bad at all. Seen a lot worse.

[Enzio]

The FSM clearly states where car should be jacked and supported. Jacking a car at any suspension arm is retarded.

Unless you are planning on cutting and welding there is not really all that much you can do. If you have trouble getting a jack under your car there are a few options:
- drive it onto a platform of some sort
- you can jack it at the points shown in the FSM where you should support it with stands, but I would still use something like a piece of wood to spread the load as these areas can easily be damaged (this is not ideal, but I have done this is I also have issues getting a jack under the car).
- make an adaptor to jack the car at the lifting points, ie something like a rubber block with a slit in it to not damage the seam (as shown in your pics) - this is how the stock scissor jack works.