1972 Cutlass Supreme convertible, sort of a weekly driver, not a trailer car. Frame is solid, some surface rust but not all rusty and rusted. Came to a stop and felt a terrific shudder from the front end. Discovered this mess. Lower control arm rear mount tore away the frame completely.
Now what am I gonna do??

 

Yes, I've seen it before. It can be repaired, you'll need a very experienced welder to fix and reinforce the area around the mount/s. I would inspect the other side also.

 

Unfortunately, these cars are half a century old. Metal does fatigue and cracks propagate over time. No one ever envisioned (or designed for) these cars being around 50 years later. Design life was probably 10 years or so.

 

Saw it often when I worked at a southern California frame and alignment shop in the 90's. Tells you it's not a rust issue like Joe said.
Techs in the shop could repair and reinforce better than new. You just need to find one of those guys.

 

Yes, finding the old timer who does magic with the welder will be a challenge.

 

Ask some local hot rodders if they know of anyone.

 

Here's a similar frame crack thread

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...e-crack-92315/

 

I was thinking that a replacement section of frame welded in place would be the most prudent repair. The challenge is to find a piece of frame for that location. My fear is that any donor frame is probably going to be junk (because no one would cut a section out of a perfectly good frame to sell).
Anyone have any ideas on potential sources for a piece of frame? Perhaps good results from a source that is on the Internet?

 

Based on your pictures sectioning is not needed or advisable. You would just add to the cost and difficulty by sectioning IMO.

 

so then what would you suggest as the solution?

 

If there is enough good metal on your existing frame, then use it. If not then I would look for a complete replacement. Have you talked to a welder?

 

Thre is a rather nice frame in northern Indiana for sale just needs a little tlc in rear corner truck area.

 

Clean , reinforce , tack weld in place with the control arm positioned in the correct spot with no load, remove components and finish welding up. Its an easy fix for an experienced body shop , or resto shop. Body shops usually have frame machines so squareness can be maintained easier. On older cars its just mild steel so repair procedures are pretty much based on how you see fit. On moder cars with high strength steels . Sectioning frames and such repairs becomes much more critical. These old cars are very forgiving.

In your case I would add some 1/8 plate inside the frame extending beyond the opening drill some holes where the plate extends into and slots and plug weld and weld the slots accross. Weld the old piece back on and add gusset where possible ( that's the reason for the inside plate ) extending them into the back plated area.

 

Wow!

That's quite a failure. Good thing nobody was hurt.

 

You can get a replacement front frame kit from AFCO...or just upgrade to a whole new modern one from Schwartz. Its only money right? YOLO.....

 

OK, so it took some time to find a place but a body shop owner looked at it, outlined his recommended course of action, and its been fixed. New steel welded in for the frame with some reinforcing. The original plate was cleaned up and reused. Needed a new control arm as the existing got bent. Everything else was intact. Had an alignment done as part of the work, the car tracks nice and straight.

Nice night for a test drive, humid and 75 degrees.

thanks to all who offered suggestions and advice.

 

Nice job, good to see fixed.

 

Glad it worked out.