2GN.ORG

Back to... Wow.... just wow.

He told me to come over and do the welding and purchase the parts for him. Thats where the me being in Iraq come into play. Thats my donation to his cause.

Keep truckin man. Better some effort than none. I still don't agree with it but it ain't my car and if you were dating my daughter I wouldn't let her ride with you. *LOL*

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2003-200 ... ccessories



to me this would have been easier...

Meh, I would have had to drill out every spot weld and that would have been annoying. The support I have now is the start to some more bracing and a skid plate from when I get my coilovers in the spring.

The important crumple zones are in the main support beams above the wheels anyways. If anything if it was hit in the front it will cause more damage to them. That has to be alot more durable than the oem parts. It will give less pulling the front beams down more. It is plenty safe. At 60 mph it really won't make a diffrence. At 15 possibly. Having collided with a full size Ford van in mine, I can honsestly say what you've done won't amount to much in a crash. Is it Ghetto? Maybe, but it really won't be visible. If it was a highly visible part, then yes it would be ghetto.

This is prolly 100 times safer than the guys that remove the crash bar to install an intercooler.

marakka your "payment" is appreciated by most/all of us here.

The discoloration is from the absence of argon.. Either not enough of it or none at all.

The welds will rust soon.

My tank of gas may be running low. So that may be the issue. But all the bare metal, including welds have been covered in rubber under coating.

On a different note, marakka thank you for your services. As a child from a 3 generation military family I give full support of our military and everyone who servers!

Mopar_Korean wrote:

supermike wrote:You got the rubber grommets from the top of the radiator

DING DING DING! We have a winner

On a different note... yay, I won! And just so you know, I'm not expecting you to give me $10

supermike wrote:

Mopar_Korean wrote:

supermike wrote:You got the rubber grommets from the top of the radiator

DING DING DING! We have a winner

On a different note... yay, I won! And just so you know, I'm not expecting you to give me $10

Good because Im broke!

The crumple zones that are in the front of that car are for deflection of pedestrian hits. Not so much for saving the car or driver.... but for saving the legs of the pedestrian you just hit. Doubling thickness on something like this could turn it from a flimsy peice of metal to a razor sharp knive that could take someones leg off.

And I think the guy above might be closer to right. Could be from poorly prepped areas but didn't think about the lack of argon. No argon to cleanse the area being welded and you invite all kinds of elements into the weld. Like he said.... if its from lack of argon your welds will most likely rust and possibly fail prematurely.

I didn't mean to come off as a dick because I'm in Iraq and rubbing it into anyones face. Just meant to point out that I can't just jump and do everything like you guys can. If this were my car I'd have bought the piece and took the time to fix it right. This material couldn't have cost much less than the core support. Granted you'd have lots more work, but in the end it would have looked 10x better.

Kudos to doing your own work man, but I'm with marakka on this one. After taking welding and metallurgy in school, I know there's a lot more that goes into the thought and design of those metal pieces than you'd think. You can rubberize coat the crap outta those welds, but as soon as there is foreign material and discontinuities in them to start with you're never gunna stop them from rusting and/or failing. I'm guessing the last thing you want is down the road for your lower rad support to fall off while you're driving, causing extensive damage to your car, and not to mention put other people on the road at risk.

People are saying 'it's just a neon, not an expensive car', well that doesn't mean that engineering for safety, stability, and overall reliability wasn't EXTENSIVELY thought out when designing those seemingly 'simple' pieces of metal.

You say practice makes perfect, I say practice on joining square pieces of metal together, or on scrap metal, not on a piece of your vehicle that was engineered.

Obviously I wish nothing bad to happen to you man, that's not what I'm meaning at all, but it's your funeral if something horrible happens when that piece falls off.

End of my 2 cents.

Well I have my doubts on it failing or being unsafe in an accident. But if it does Ill be sure to let you guys know. Ill write to you complaining how dead I am.

Silly Mopar_Korean, dead people can't write

But seriously man, like I stated in the first line of my post, more power to ya for doing your own work/trying something. It's just that I would see that becoming a problem down the road, and wouldn't be something I would be practicing my welding skills on, seems to have too many bad outcomes if it fails.

Just one more note, if you do get in a crash with this setup (and god forbid you, or someone else gets hurt because of it) and your insurance company finds out about your home-made fix of the front end, could this not be a reason for them to NOT cover you for damages and such? Knowing insurance companies, they're always looking for a way to sneak out of paying up.

Actually, one one more note , I have nothing against you or anything like that man. Obviously everything I've stated is my opinion, but it's something I would take into consideration. Take it or leave it right?

Well I feel there are more dangerous things people do (or dont do) to their cars that have a more direct link to people getting hurt. i.e. E-Bay springs, HID's in stock reflector housings, Bald or separated tires, Tinted tail lights, Cheap wheels that crack the moment you hit a curb or pot hole, blown struts, bad wheel bearings, any aftermarket part not approved by the OEM manufacture/DOT/or TUV(about 90% of aftermarket parts BTW) the list goes on and on. These are all things that can be a direct CAUSE a major accident.

But thanks for your input. If I didnt want people to give me their thoughts I would have not put my pics on a public forum.