Strut Tower Tearing 98 GTP

[Cicchetto]

I'm in trouble I believe. I purchased this car about six months ago from a dealership "as is". I'm still making payments as well. I didn't bother looking at the strut towers, whoops... lesson learned. The rear passenger strut tower is badly rusted and looks as if it's starting to tear away. I went to an auto body shop today for an estimate which turned out to be the car's entire worth; $3500. I'm a college student attending 16 credits worth of classes and working full-time but I'm still broke as all hell. There's no way in hell I'm paying that much. I can't just dump the car either, I'm still paying the loan.

I'm not car savvy when it comes to auto body, so if someone could help me out I'd be very grateful.

What I would like to know:
- Has anyone fixed this, if you did, how so?
- Do I have options (ex. the Lemon Law) with the dealership?
- Are there any actual options other than dumping the car?

Thanks in advance folks,
A. Cicchetto

[Sushamouf]

Thats quite a pickle... maybe duct tape? (kidding) Fixing something so integral to the uni-body would be no easy task (thus the $3500 estimate). I would not be sure about going back on the dealership, you did buy it six months ago. From WIKI on the Lemon Law:

"Although each state imposes different requirements for their own consumer lemon laws, a basic condition common to virtually all jurisdictions is that in order for the lemon law to apply, the automobile or product must have been purchased with a warranty.^[2] Products purchased on an "as is" or "with all faults" basis are typically not covered by state or federal lemon laws."

Your best bet might be to ditch it and find another car if you cant fix it. Just my 2C

[Scottydoggs]

its fixable. pics from this thread, they touch over how to do it. if you can weld or have a friend who can, this can be done. http://www.grandprixforums.net/incre...d-7-66207.html

[Cicchetto]

Thank's fella's! I've contacted a welder who thinks he can do it. I'll just show him that page, hopefully he can take it from there.

[Z34Phoenix]

another thing is you can install a strut tower brace in the rear and maybe a diagonal engine brace to the tower to give it more strength.

[TheGerm]

Before


After

I did mine.

[SJAndrew]

Good lord!

I live in Denver and I cannot find a single bit of rust on my 15 year old GTP.

I guess they call it the rust belt for a reason....

[dsmuts]

My car will look like this one day in the near future.

[TheGerm]

That was on a regal I once owned.

[Erics00LS]

Lol. Sold my impala because of this.

[chenango kid]

hi did you reenforce with flat stock and then weld original tower back in thanks