Front crossmember

[nth]

Need to do my front crossmember soon. Has anyone used this one from this ebay seller > http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mazda-bongo-f ... SwBLlVBf8D

Was it decent quality & how was the fit ?

[Tessie]

I picked one up from them in early December with the intention of fitting it for an imminent MOT, Unfortunately an argument with a fence panel while standing on a wall resulted in a broken elbow and broken ribs and has held the job up. I have got the front of the Bongo stripped off now ready to strip out the old member, I think it will just fall out of its own accord, and fit the new one when the weather permits.

The new cross member is good quality, well made and the one I got was already painted with red lead (or something similar). A mate of mine, who is going to do the welding bit for me, is a welder/ fabricator and reckons he couldn't produce the same item for the price charged.

As I haven't fitted it yet I can't vouch for it but it looks as if it will be a good fit, I have offered it up. There may be some very minor trimming as I would have expected, even with a genuine Mazda replacement......which, I believe, are about double the price.

The two guys who make and sell these are very friendly and helpful and more than willing to give advice. They offer a fitting service if you don't fancy doing it yourself, if you are not too far away from Honley, which is near Huddersfield.

By the way, they are not in a back street workshop. They are in a reasonable unit on an estate on a main road and I think making these cross members is just a bit of a sideline to their main work.

I was going to put a post up with my opinions once I had fitted the new cross member but your post has just hastened it a bit

Just noticed you are in Scotland.......which is nowhere near Huddersfield

[nth]

Thanks for the reply. A genuine mazda one is £115 inc VAT(can probably get a little bit of discount off that too) so theres not a great deal of difference, i was kind of hoping that the pattern one might be a bit better made/thicker/stronger than the original. Just dont know how the fit will be so im torn between the two.
Doesent look too bad a job but ive not had the bumper off yet to sus it out properly, i have access to a mig ok. Is the unit bolted at all as well ? Will be a lot easier if bolts hold it in place for weilding.

[Northern Bongolow]

i did one a while ago for someone after they had an accident, i used a good one off a scrapper.
i dont recal any bolts, just a million spot welds. i drilled out the old ones on both motors then plug welded the replacement into place looked original when done, easy job really.

[maxi_77]

Looks like the one I bought, the chap who does my welding had no problems

[Tessie]

The Mazda original is not as expensive as I thought then but as I am local and was able to collect, saving the delivery charge, it cost me £43 less than a Mazda one. That's about 62% saving if I have done my sums correctly, it is a long time since I got my maths GCE

I don't know what grade of metal the Mazda one is made of but the spec for this one says it is 1.5 (I presume mm) thick and bearing in mind that it is not really a heavy load bearing part of the chassis and is only supporting the radiators it seems more than adequate to me. The old member on my Bongo has lasted 20 years so I think this one should see the old girl all the way to the scrap heap I have taken the opportunity to paint it with more rust resistant paint, Lidl's best, and will run some inside too before welding in place and then waxoyling inside and out, after painting over the welds.

As already said, there are no bolts holding the member in place but it looks to me that once the old one has been removed the new one will be a tight fit in place and hold itself there ready to be welded. The cross member from ebay came with the drilled holes in it threaded and two large holes underneath, one at each end, with bolts in them.

There was just one thing that gave me some thought and that was that there was no holes in the underside of the cross member to let any water drain out that may get caught in there The only openings that water could get inside the member are at each end where it fits inside the chassis members and this will be a tight fit and could perhaps be sealed. I studied about this a bit, wondered about condensation, etc then decided to drill three evenly spaced holes in the under surface of the member just so that any water that happened to get in there could escape. As the original member has holes in it anyway, original ones not rust holes, I reckoned it wouldn't be too much of a detriment if not needed.

Hoping to be able to get on with mine this week, as long as we don't get any more snow .

[nth]

Ok thanks, might just go with the ebay one then.
What size spot weld drill bits are needed ?

[Tessie]

I managed to remove the rusty old cross member today, the weather was finally kind enough, but it was a little bit more difficult than I had anticipated. Maybe it is just that I am getting older, more impatient, and grumpier ......and it isn't a motorbike, but having said all that it still wasn't too massive a job.

In my earlier post I had said that the member sits in the chassis members at each end which is incorrect . It actually sits inside L shaped plates that hang down from the chassis and is welded to these.

The first thing I did was pull out the rotten centre part of the old cross member, quite easily done in my case, just leaving the end bits to be dealt with. What did surprise me was that the end bits that are spot welded in are reasonable quality metal and on a par with the pattern ebay one that I have bought but the centre part that the radiators sit on is little more than bent tin and far inferior in weight and thickness to the new one, even allowing for the rust

After reading NB's post I decided to follow the advice about drilling out the spot welds and removed the tie down/ towing (not really for towing but called them that for identification purposes) hooks at each side of the chassis, each held on by four bolts, to get to two of the spot welds at each side. The welds can then be drilled out from the outside of the chassis making it easy to get to. That is six welds each side sorted. An 8mm drill bit should be ok for drilling out the spot welds, depends how good you are at hitting the centre of the weld

There are four welds at each end underneath which I found I didn't have to drill out as the original member was so rusty I could break it away from the welds fairly easily.

There are two welds each side on an upturn onto the side face of the chassis but as the new cross member does not have this upturn I decided not to drill holes through the chassis and cut across the bend of the upturn instead leaving that small piece of old metal on the chassis.

I had expected the end bits to then lift out but they were still held fast . With a bit of cutting and bending of the front plate of one of the end bits I could see inside and discovered four more spot welds hidden in there . These weld the top of the cross member to the underside of the chassis and I could not see any easy way of drilling them out. Again looking at the new cross member the maker of them has thought about this and instead of turning the brackets to be welded inside the member he has bent it the other way to the outside so it is easy to get to when fitted. Good thinking that man . So with a bit of cutting and then bending backwards and forwards I was able to break off the remaining pieces of the old cross member. This again just left some pieces of spot welded metal on the chassis but these will be inside the new cross member and unseen.

By the way nth, you asked if the new member was held in place by any bolts to keep it in place for welding. Well, while I still think it will be a tight enough fit to hold it in place, there is actually a large bolt at each end that fastens through the bottom of the L shaped plate into a threaded hole in the bottom of the cross member. I mentioned these bolts in my earlier post.

So the rotten, old member was now completely out but my ageing old bones had had enough of the cold and it was tea-time so I didn't get around to offering the new cross member up to position. I did take some photos and will attempt to upload these soon if I can in the hope that they may at least assist somebody.

I hope most of that makes sense, it might do more so when you are looking at your own Bongo with the front stripped off, the Bongo's front that is of course

[stuc]

I have had one fitted and it was a very good fit.

[Northern Bongolow]

just a million spot welds.

. told yer.

[Tessie]

I only have so many fingers and toes, I could have under-counted by a few hundred thousand......and some

[nth]

Just thought I would update this, got round to doing this today, I must say too it was a lot harder than it looks. If I was doing it again I would remove the radiator, this would have made it a lot easier, just couldn't be bothered having to bleed the system.
The ebay crossmember wasn't a perfect fit, had to do a bit of trimming as expected. making the top pieces go outwards rather than inwards like the original was a great idea. Just seem welded it all the way around, probably went a bit overkill with the welding, doesent look pretty but its not going anywhere. The brackets the A/C condenser sits in were off by about 2 cm, had to drill new holes in the slam panel to relocate the top brackets to suit. Just glad its done now.

[Northern Bongolow]

doesnt help much ,but.
http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... mgno=.html

[Tessie]

nth, I am surprised you had so much trouble, especially that the A/C brackets were so far out. My new cross member fitted without too much messing about and certainly didn't make me feel that it would have been any easier to do by removing the radiator.

Apart from the minor trimming here and there, which is to be expected as you say, the only problem I had was that one of the underneath bolt holes on the side plates didn't match up. However, this could have been my fault as I did a bit of banging and crowbarring before reading how others had done the job so I could have bent it out of shape. A little elongating of the hole soon solved the problem. The only other thing was the three small holes under the new member which the bumper is screwed through weren't threaded, soon remedied.

Maybe I was lucky and got a good cross member but from what other people have posted about these same ones it would seem that maybe you were unlucky in getting a not so good one.

Anyway the cross member is fitted now and I hope after all the frustration, and probably a few choice words, you do at least have some satisfaction in having done the job and knowing that that is one problem less to worry about for a few years to come.

[Tessie]

nth's post reminded me that I said I would try to take some photos as I did my cross member and post them on here . I forgot about taking photos part way through the job so there should have been a few more of the middle part of the job, sorry about that . They might be of some help to someone.......or they might not

Offside of old cross member



Nearside of old cross member



Old cross member in situ (only just)



Side plate hanger. The bracket returns underneath the L shaped bracket where there is another bolt that goes through into the cross member



Inside the end of old cross member (looking upwards). Note how fixing tabs turn inwards, but on the new (ebay) one they turn outwards making it easier to weld in place. The member has been cut apart as getting to drill out the spot welds is difficult.



Old cross member removed. Note holes in bottom of L shaped bracket that bolts go through into cross member. This can also be seen in the photo above.



Notches cut out to make it fit easier



New cross member in place , welded and undersealed



New cross member in place, ready for front end to be rebuilt