I thought this was joke for a minute. Are we talking about the strut tower, inside the engine bay, under the master cylinder toward the engine, same on the other side? How much welding are they doing? Is your car even worth $6,000?
Usually the only reason any of us pay someone to work on our cars is because
A) We don't have the skill set to do the work ourselves
B) We don't have the specialty tools to do the job
For those prices, you could buy all the metal working tools needed and more! Find a friend who welds, or give it a shot yourself, either way, that is crazy pricing.
no joke for real. Having a friend do it for 100 bucks and we are going in equals on the metal cause he wants it for a project he is working on himself. Yes its a strut tower. Typical rust you would find on any foxbody in drivers side. basically that quote is for them cutting out rust and then welding sheet metal back. same thing my buddy is doing for 100 bucks.
Lots of places won't touch frame rails and shock towers...my buddy did mine for me for 400 bux..and the were bad..but easy cuz I had motor and k member out
Lots of places won't touch frame rails and shock towers...my buddy did mine for me for 400 bux..and the were bad..but easy cuz I had motor and k member out
The problem you are fixing to butt heads with is maintaining the alignment of the repaired section with the other three wheels. The heating and cooling of the strut tower structure during the welding process will undoubtedly alter the shape and dimensions of the strut tower. Metal grows and shrinks as it is heated and cooled, and it tends to keep the shape it was in when it was heated. A frame alignment machine will be required to insure that all four wheels are in proper alignment, and that will take some expensive labor.
The steel that the strut tower is made of isn't just ordinary sheet metal. It will be a high quality, high strength alloy that may not be easy to identify or obtain. These unibody cars use the thinnest, sheet steel that they can. That enables them to make the cars lightweight, which improves performance and economy. However, it requires the steel to be much stronger that just plain sheet steel of the same thickness.
The repair process would involve cutting out the same section on a car with no rust and no front collision damage. Then rusted area gets treated to that it won't rust again, and the replacement section gets welded in place over or under the rust damaged area. If the damage is in the area of a mount point for the strut or lower control arm, this isn't going to work well at all.