Well, I hit a pothole over the weekend, and my car started making a clunking noise on the front passenger side. After jacking it up yesterday, I see that the crossmember on that side is broken away from the arm that holds it to the rest of the frame.

My neighbor is a welder, and works in a machine shop, and his brother is a mechanic, and they are offering to weld it back together. But I'm having other people tell me this is unsafe, and to replace the whole crossmember.

Any suggestions?

I would say it would be safe if it is welded properly. I've seen it done before with no ill effects. If I'm not mistaken K-cars are older car too, so it's not like your dealing with a new car either. We did have a similiar problem with a small car like an Escort or Neon where one of the cross members broke and we had to replace that section of sub frame.