Cracked sheet metal above radiator body bushings

Stop drilling can be more about how well the holes are drilled. Reaming them after drilling will reduce internal flaws that can create more cracks.


I agree what @Buttskevin21 said also. You need to regain strength closer to the original edges.

 

Cheers, thanks guys. Don't think there's any hope for getting a reamer in there w/out pulling the front end off. Planning on patching it up sometime this fall. Hopefully it holds up until then.

 

Good luck!

It sucks that there is no easy solution for this or that the issue isn't taken care of from the factory.

 

Yours is worse than mine, although my cracking started where yours did. I'd agree there is no hope for that one and patching is probably a band aid at best. That is going to continue cracking right past the drillings. Seems like ordering those side panels and coming up with a plan on replacing them is in order for both of us. I was thinking of running a 3/16" or 1/4" rod from the bushing area, welded along the rolled edge across the bottom side of that wing, and tying into the fender area. I think that would stiffen up the section of metal that is flexing and cracking. I don't know if it would just shift the cracking to somewhere else though. Maybe I'll try that on my existing, and if it doesn't work well then I will be replacing the core support metal anyway...

 

I wonder if one of the more flexible metal epoxy putties in the comparison below would work.

https://youtu.be/R3r0UZ7txzs

Getting the putty to bond with paint might be tricky though.

 

Maybe I'll get lucky and a deer will run out in front of me

 

Not sure about that as a stand alone repair. Maybe for some of the smaller cracks with reinforcement. I have been considering using adhesive to bond patches on instead of welding given how thin the sheet metal is. But my experience with adhesive is it’s only as good as the prep, and prepping that is going to suck.

 

Yea I tried welding on mine and it was really easy to burn a hole right through it. I sorta got it stitched up but it ain't pretty, but I'm also a dogshit welder. I'm sure someone that knows what they're doing could patch it up.

 

Linking back to my solution, which is somewhat similar to what racebug has in mind:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...or-body-bushings.636828/page-14#post-26128133

I'm not suggesting this is the best way to deal with it, cause the whole process took months of weekend work to get through (a better fabricator, which is not saying much, could surely get it done way quicker), but it has been effective in preventing things from getting any worse, even with the poly bushings still in there.

 

Wouldn’t ur bumper deflect most of the forces

 

5 year body warranty would cover that crap wouldnt it? just be sure to clean the truck before you take it in right?

 

is there a way to just replace that sheet metal?

 

You can buy new sheet metal, yeah. There's basically the two side panels and the upper tie bar that make up the core support.

I bought all 3 of those pieces, but personally, once I really started looking at what it would take to completely swap them out, that's when I decided to do all the reinforcement of the factory sheet metal instead.
1. Each of the side pieces is spot welded to the surrounding stuff in probably like 50 places, and even very sandwiched between the lower tie bar and the inner fender supports near the bottom.
2. Getting everything to line up decently after replacing all of that is gonna be near impossible, and my bet is that would result in worse resale value than just keeping the torn factory sheet metal there.
3. Probably the main thing - there's obviously no guarantees that it won't just tear again after you've gone through all that work to replace it ....unless you reinforce it anyway

 

https://www.carparts.com/radiator-support/replacement/T250120?dclid=CJGGn_Lr8e0CFa0pfgody9oH4Q

I bought a core support, similar to this one. It doesn't appear to be as good of quality as the original, so it isn't a case of the aftermarket part being the identical part from the same factory/dies with a different brand name on it. The question though, is what to do. I think that replacing both side panels that are available is significantly more work than replacing the whole thing. Even though there are still spot welds to drill, there are way fewer, and either way you still have to take the entire front of the truck apart including of course the radiator, but also the air conditioning and trans cooler, whose lines pass through the openings.

Is it worth it to put in a new aftermarket piece? The metal is thinner, not as well formed IMO. So if nothing else is done, it would tear easier than OEM. But starting with one that isn't cracked, and reinforce some with the steel rod around the perimeter/openings, as well as relocate the battery (in my case dual batteries), that might be better than trying to resurrect a stock cracked up one with patching and welding and body panel glue?

What are your thoughts?

edit: pics of mine. Mind you mine is 2005, 175k miles, and about 50k miles being heavy loaded expedition type stuff. About 100 miles with poly bushings where the majority of this damage happened, but it did start when there was a collapsed oem core support bushing:



Much less damage on passenger side, it didn’t suffer as bad of bushing damage at the 150k miles point like drivers side did. And, I don’t have cracking I can see coming down from headlight yet or on the upper tie bar across the top yet. What would you do?

 

Anybody stiffened the inner fender to support the battery? I'd appreciate any pics addressing this as my sheet metal is now hitting my UCA I do have a mig welder.

 

Is bracing the inner fender by welding a support to the frame a good solution? I could fab an arch using 1/8 angle iron and weld braces on the frame on both side of the shocks, but since the cab is mounted on the frame using bushings, I'm afraid that both moving separately will just break more stuff. Anybody here fixed this collapsing inner fender issue without building a complete cage?

 

welding the body to the frame in any way will fail. Only exception is a true full-built cage which nullifies the body mounts all together

 

Anybody work in or know how repair processes work in collision repair? Id figure these core support and related structures could be rebuilt by a skilled body repair shop if one were to try and restore back to factory. But im. Not sure of it would exceed the cost of the truck to make it not worth it.

 

look at how much that rear cab bushing moves on a rough road. Seems to me the stock bushings are the way to go with frequent replacement intervals if offroad usage is high.

 

hoooooooly crap what is that movement.