FRAME STRENGTHENING

[R.T.]

I have a lot of torque and horsepower in my "67 convertible that's about done but I am a bit concerned about the strengh of the frame, although in great shape. Has any one done anything to their frames as a weld on or bolt on make them more sturdy. Thanx

 

[IH2LOSE]

I never did any frame strengthening to my 66 so I cant answer it directly, But back in the 80's I had a big block mustang ( uni body) that if i had slicks on it would get all twisted up. I made frame connectors and a monte carlo bar that used to keep things in order.

My 66 has a real strong 427 in it,but I have stock trailing arms and suspension in it and cant get enough traction for the car to get into any trouble. My weakest link in my tires they just let loose.

So unless your running slicks or oversize sticky tires i think you wont have trouble regardless of your motor.

 

[KANE]

I have a lot of torque and horsepower in my "67 convertible that's about done but I am a bit concerned about the strengh of the frame, although in great shape. Has any one done anything to their frames as a weld on or bolt on make them more sturdy. Thanx

since you are already modifying the car, you could go with this- it is a tubular frame with C4 running gear...

http://www.jamisoncustomcorvette.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductID=15

 

[R.T.]

I never intended to take this car as far as I did. The money pit if almost finally done. If I could go back I would have definately used an aftermarket frame. Someday I might, but the body is so perfect that I would be paranoid taking it off to replace the chassis.

 

[R.T.]

And we have major sticky tires. With 521 HP and 483 LBS of torque from an LS2, backed up with a Tremec TKO 600 5 speed.

 

[R.T.]

Anybody recognize these fenders,,,,Bob?

 

[richscorvettes]

One old racer trick was to weld all the seams in the frame rails. Not sure just how much you gain but we did it on our 62. On a C2 I had looked at ways to add some bracing or triangulation but ran into either space limitations with the body or ground clearance problems.

Rich Lagasse

 

[henny496]

Hello
Are you using solid body mounts?? That apparently will help as well. A roll bar /cage would help, but I don't imagine you want to cut any holes in the body!
I have seen drag cars that have braces that run from the rear frame rails to the crossmember underneath the car, but I don't know how much room is under a stock vette at the rear. You may be able to weld in some diagonal links underneath in the main floor area, but the best way to strengthen it would be a cage
I know of a guy in Texas(Jim Moore) who runs 890 hp in his 67 convt. He uses a G-force 5 speed and has no cage at all. He goes 10.0's maybe 9's now, but only on some outlaw tracks . I think it was Vette magazine that did an article on his car a while back
take care
Tom