R Mackow

I went off course with my C5 at jefferson curcuit a month ago and my front aluminum chassis frame got a chunk of one of the transverse fins taken out of it while traveling through the woods and hitting ajagged rock. I want to have a piece of 1/4" aluminum flat bar TIG welded in to fill the space. The weld is away from any bushings. I would grind out the ragged edges and bevel the base metal frame and bevel the filler piece.
Any problems with doing this?

CHJ In Virginia

I would recommend against the repair. Welding causes extra stresses on the metal of an already stressed parT. Check out the parts for sale section here on the forum - there are several late model C-5 cars being parted out. You can probably find the cross member inexpensively compared to the Stealership price. You will spend a little more labor on a replacement, unless you are going to do the work yourself, but you will have a solid "new" part.

davidfarmer

are you talking about the aluminum frame, or the magnesium subframe?????

Anyway, I think it would be hard to TIG upside down on either aluminum or magnesium. However, a good TIG welder can do amazing things. Plus TIG is relatively cool, and doesn't stess the metal like MIG and stick welding.

However, I must agree with CHJ, that getting it done right is going to be difficult. Unless it is at a high stress area, I wouldn't bother.