I had a subframe tear out where the nuts were pulled through. Now, the bottom tearout is the size of a nickel, but the top is more of a jagged shape. I'm planning to use the Beaks kit and I'm wondering whether first, I should reinforce the subframe and second, how to do it.
I tried fitting the nut plate (the one that goes in the back) and it covers the hole adequately, although with less area to bear the load, I fear that I could have another tear out. Anyone have any ideas how to reinforce the subframe? I'm just thinking a piece of steel, but I'm open to any other suggestions......... TIA

 

Sorry to hear it, dude.

Your only real solution here is to do some welding. That jagged upper hole especially is just going to get worse (jagged tears tend to promote crack growth). You'll have to:

1. Cut or drill out the remaining material to make it a round hole, or at least so there are no sharp corners.

2. MIG weld some steel to repair the holes. New bolt holes for the suspension mounts can be drilled into the new material. Or, if you were getting fancy, make up some steel plate with pre-drilled holes to weld onto the area.

3. Make sure you heat-treat and paint the repair job.

I know this sounds time-consuming, but I think it's your only course. There are probably a bunch of welding shops in your area that would be willing to do this.

 

take it to a body/collision repair shop if you don't want to deal with the hassle..

 

Yeah, sure, take the easy way out.

 

If you are in the SF Bay Area, I know a guy that'll weld/reinforce it for about $250. He did mine a year ago and it is holding up very well. I've been to the road course twice and hard cornering on the streets with no signs of problems at all.

I had torn out the Skunkworks 21mm sway bar.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

Gee3 - How was yours reinforced? In particular, I'm looking for specific examples. I haven't seen nor read any posts on reinforcements on subframe tear outs. $200 is just about the most that I would spend, so I'm relying mostly on what I could do first. Thanks.

 

Integraphile - Mine tore where the brackets are mounted. They didn't tear out the bolt holes. Instead they tore around the sway bar brackets, tearing out like a squarish or rectangular shape. So the guy welded the subframe at the tears and then welded a larger ,but thin, piece of steel over that and drilled holes into the sheet metal where the bracket holes are. I wish i had pics but I wasn't there when he did the work. The extra metal helped to strenghten that area and I have had no probs with it so far. He tried to weld a thicker piece of steel but it was too thick for the bolts or something like that. I forgot his explanation. He also painted the area to protect it from rusting and to hide it from plain view. Mostly to make it look nice.

hope this helped to answer your question! Good luck!