Here is the right body mount sans splash guard (the left was just as bad).  I'm sure others have seen worse.  In addition to the carnage seen here, the body rivets had corroded away and I had to cut the bolt off.










Here are some of the stress fractures and deformations I mentioned.  Without repair, I suspect these would get worse.














I created a beveled repair surface on the inside and outside of the mount, trying not to grind away material around the bolt hole so I know how thick the repair must be.  These mounts are not conveniently accessed from the interior, and are a depressed surface of thick composition.  This made it very difficult to get a good bevel on the inside.  With a heat gun, I  reformed the material close to its original shape.  A quick fit check of the new end caps showed that the body rivet holes don't line up.  Since many of the holes were ground out due to cracks, I just ground them all out.  Here is the driver side mount ready to start repair.




I decided to do the inside first.  I cut many, many pieces of 4 oz fiberglass cloth into squares and rectangles of different sizes, and spent the next several hours crammed into the tight interior space at the back of the car.  The super slow hardener really paid off , as it's difficult working with any speed in that cramped location.  Here is the repaired driver side mount interior.









After set up, here's what I had from the outside.  As you can see, there are gaps between the original material and the repair.  This is caused by the previously mentioned problems with getting a good bevel.  Because the sides were too steep, the mat didn't make full contact at the narrowest point.  Also, it was difficult to get the mat well placed, contributing to the issue.








The only solution I saw was removing SMC until the gap was gone and the bevel slopes more gradual.  This is what I ended up with on the driver side.    












​This slide sequence shows the passenger side repair.  As you can see in the pictures, there is still some repair required on the sides.  I wanted to do the bottom first because when I checked the end cap fit, I noticed a gap between the horizontal tangs and the body.  With the bottom repaired, I could put the end cap in place and see how much I needed to build up the repair to compensate for the gap.







Here is one of the end caps.  I have had some problems in the past with parts quality and fitment.  And we all understand that the online vendors don't make the parts.  Still, it is frustrating when you pay good money for a part and it requires additional work to get a good fit.  With that said, I have no idea how well my original end caps fit, as they were far gone by the time I purchased the car.  Anyway, since the body rivets are soft, I wanted to minimize any rotational or stretching forces they may encounter.  I could either sand the mount down about 1/16", or build up the rivet mount location.  I wasn't comfortable making the mount point thinner.





​The slides show the repair and build-up of the passenger side mount, and the end cap fit check.  The work on the driver side was a little more extensive but followed the same approach.  As you can see, after sanding the built up area down, there is no gap between the end cap tangs and body structure.









Finally, I wanted to use the nut cages to secure the body mount bolts.  I know they are not necessary, but without them, it requires a second person to hold the nut from the inside.  It just seems like it would be easier to have them when it comes time to shim the body.


I used the nut cages to locate where the rivet holes belong and marked them.  Then I fashioned a tool from 3/4" wooden dowel that sanded the area away from the hole.  It was a trial and error undertaking.  The final iteration consisted of using adhesive backed cork (furniture pads) on the dowel and sand paper to provide some grip.  Otherwise the sandpaper tends to not rotate.  Also, cork seemed to withstand the heat pretty well.


SUMMARY:  The few words and pictures on this page do not convey the amount of work it took to do this.  I'm a relative noob to body work, and I ask you to consider that when I say it took over 40 hours for me to do this.  That's starting with old mount removal.  The most difficult part for me was the interior repair, which required a mirror at some points.  It's tedious, taxing, and frustrating.  I am very glad to be finished and happy with the way it turned out.  While no particular step or portion of this required exceptional skill or knowledge, I have to give this an 8 out of 10 on difficulty just for the sheer work involved.

As mentioned in the rear undercarriage walk through, the rear (#4 and #8) body mounts were in bad shape.  The body mount bracket on both sides had rusted to the point where there was little left.  This loss of support resulted in body movement which cracked and deformed the mount, especially around the nut and bolt.  This was a tough job because of the limited access to the rear mounts from the interior.  I considered removing the rear window to allow access from the top, but estimated it would not help enough to justify the effort.  The cracks were large.  After grinding away enough material to form a good bevel, I had several areas that merged into a large patch.  To facilitate both the large area to be covered and the cramped space to work in, I bought West 209 Super Slow Hardener.  It had a long work time and once it started stiffening up, I was able to make another batch and continue on.  This allowed me to make large patches with no seams or lamination.

Rear Body Mounts

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