Frame suspicion confirmed

[carrollm]

After a very long 2 years of welding, grinding measuring and explaining to the wife that the rusty colored metal "thing"in the back yard is actually a corvette frame that will live again, I assembled the rolling assembly, gathered my wife, brother, son, neighbor kids and my 8 year old Daughter to help me set the 66 cp body on the rolling chassis.
I have to go back in time a little bit to bring evryone up to speed on my project. This info may be very valuable to some of you. Some may think I'm just nuts. That's o.k as well. The body is a 1966cp. The only frame i could find (consitering time and cost) was a 1968.
I heard that this was a possible combination that may work, but still had to move body mounts and such.
I really only wanted to build this car for SCCA off-road action so I took the chance. My heart has been beating like it does when you have that troubled-worry thing going on in your mind. Not sure if all this work was for nothing....or if maybe I built this heavy-duty 1968 chassis and the only option will be to buy a 1968 body for it. Alot to think about, and a very large gamble to take!

Well, it was time to find out of all those measurements were correct. Find out if my magnets held the mounts in place long enough for the welder to tack them in.

We put a 2X4 X8 under the rear wheel wells from side to side.(dosent actually touch the wells because it lays flat under the trunk area) My son (14) and his 15 year old friend held each end.

We put a 2X4X8 through the interior with the doors open and my brother and I put it across our shoulders.

My wife and 14 year old neighbor grabbed the front fenderwells, and my 8 year old daughter supported the nose. On the count of 3, up it went and we walked it straight back to the awaiting frame and sat it down on it.
At first, the inner fenderwells in the front were bending and looked like they were going to burst into splinters at any moment, but I gave the body a twist and "boom!" it settled right into place!!. I immediately ran around the car looking at all the mounting points and they lined up! I jumped into the car and looked at the rear mounts: they lined up too (about 1/4 inch off but that should not matter).
One last worry was to see if the kick ups were different, and would they fit the contour of the midyear body?
Like a glove!!

Totally awesome!! I pulled it off. I will vouch for anyone with the doubt or with question as to "will a C3 frame work on a C2?". The front rad support and the rear bumpers should work with little modification.

This is never going to be an NCRS car, but MY CAR it will be!
64mike

 

[magicv8]

The only thing that's almost as much fun as driving an old Corvette is working on one. Enjoy yourself.

 

[Viet Nam Vett]

Concgats on the fit..!! Now .....A Picture is worth a 1000 words... How about posting some pic's. It would have been nice to see the frame before the body went on.

So get that camera out and start shooten...

 

[67HEAVEN]

The only thing that's almost as much fun as driving an old Corvette is working on one. Enjoy yourself.

Yeah. What he said.

 

[IH2LOSE]

congratulations on getting the body and the frame together.

Pretty shocking how much abuse the body will actually take when your carrying it.

I was scared to death putting my 62 on and off its frame but the more you do it the more relaxed you become at doing it.

Lastly its great when you get the family involved, hopefully they will forever remember the day the put Dads corvette back on the frame.

enjoy I guess the hard part done now and the rest can only get easy

 

[carrollm]

I took alot of pics from the start. I will try to post some today. I just noticed a big bruise on my shoulder this morning! Wonder where that came from?!
64mike

 

[Tom Bryant]

Congrats on getting the body on. Sounds like a fun project. Are you going to use it for auto cross or vintage racing?

Tom

 

[carrollm]

I would like do do scca and vintage hillclimbing with it.
I went with the VBP slolom kit, sway bars, offset t-arms and painted the frame gray.

64mike

 

[Tom Bryant]

This topic reminds me of an article in Corvette News around 1976. Chevy did a complete how-to on reinforcing a C2/C3 frame for racing. I should try to find that this winter when I'm rearranging things downstairs.

 

[carrollm]

I wonder if it is the same article as the one in the "Chevrolet Power" manual. I have that one and tried to follow their suggestions on gusseting and filling the open access holes.

You know, one thing that really had me worried was the rear kick-up area and rear 1/3 of the frame. Before any work was started, the frame was set level on jack stands.
The rear kickup supports had to be removed. This is necessary to fit the C2 body. in 1968, Chevrolet began putting the rear supports in there. They really do help strengthen it alot. But after they were removed, the whole back of the frame (including the kickups) could be lifted up and down several inches!!, without moving the rest of the frame.

My welder made 2 thick plates of steel that start at #3 crossmember and run the full length of my kickups to the rear. He also put triangular steel in where the stamped pices used to be at #3 crossmember. After doing the "lift" test again, it had very little flex.

I am adding a 12 point roll cage too, so I'm hoping this will add rigidity to the frame as well.

64mike

 

[LT4man]

What a great project! Congratulations on what you are trying to accomplish and how far you have already come!

SAVE THE

 

[Tom Bryant]

I'll bet that it is the same article or the Power Manual article may even be improved over the original. With the gussets that you installed and the cage it should be nearly flex free.