crossmember damage

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Feb 20, 2020
Messages
1,043
Reaction score
292
Location
North Georgia
My Car
1972 Mach 1 dark green
While I knew the front of my crossmember had a few rust holes and I was going to have a shop address that down the line I did more damage to it today.  Had a jack slip and it dropped a couple of inches onto the jack stands causing some more damage.  This part needs to be replaced, is it a difficult thing for a shop to do?    Looks like the part alone is $300

https://www.npdlink.com/product/cross-member-front-floor/197942/202911

cross2.jpg

cross1.jpg

 
I replaced it mine. I don't consider it to be a tough job. Just make sure that front end is square and weld it. I did have the engine off which makes it a lot easier.

PS (edit): make sure that you measure its current location so you weld it in the same place. I primed and painted mine before installing it.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had mine replaced after my accident by a shop, but the engine was out. It already had some damage and I’m sure glad I had it done. I’m sure you can get a shop that knows what they are doing to replace it. 

 
Probably a blessing in disguise. That thing looks like it was starting to rot pretty good from the inside out.  It may be possible to replace with motor still in car but would be much easier with it out.  Once motor is out it’s a pretty straight forward repair. Make sure whoever welds it in knows what they are doing. That’s a very big structural member. Not difficult but pretty time consuming. 

 
I replaced mine not long ago as part of a total rebuild.  My car was stripped so there wasn't much in the way.  As others have said, double check your measurements, but it pretty much only goes in one way.  Sliding it in place, the tabs locate it quite accurately.  In my case, on one side, it didn't butt up to the frame rail as tightly as I would have liked, so I made a small patch to bridge the gap.  With the core support in place, welding the tabs on the front will be more difficult, but it should be doable.  Good luck.

 
The cross member in the picture is now in Ron's car. The two holes you see in the lower flange near my shoe toes are the tooling holes that were used by Ford to position the part in the weld fixture. One round hole and one elongated slot. Ford refers to them as 4 way locator being the round hole and the slot being 2 way locator. The slot allows for variation in the parts and to make easier to get off of the weld fixture.
So before you cut your current one out that is the best place to get your measurements to put the new one in. That is assuming they put the same holes in the repo part.  So to be safe also get measurements from other areas .
BTW you should never jack your car using the cross member it will bend easily even if not rusty.

20200823_144121.jpg

 
Back
Top