Help on frame up restoration

[05DaytonaRam]

Well I've gone from just rebuilding the engine to now doing a frame up.

I got to looking at the frame and stuff and decide that its best to go ahead and sandblast the frame and paint it.

So how hard is it to do a frame up? This will be my first and just looking for some info on it.

I plain on replaceing about everything and rebuilding the engine. My body and inside is all good and dont need any work. The only work I have to do it engine and frame.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

It's pretty easy to do one. Just expensive and labour intensive.

 

[6880 Mike]

Do you need a frame off restoration or only want one? There's a difference. My advice is not to pull the body off the frame if not absolutely necessary. You can do a lot of work with the body on the frame. It is much more pleasurable to work on a car you can drive than one up on blocks or on a body dolly.

There is no single printed source for a How-To restoration. Purchase three or four of the restoration books and read through each before you begin. That will give you an idea where you're headed. Steal the best ideas out of all of them.

At the least, you will want the GM chassis service manual and the assembly instruction manual (AIM) for your model year.

There is an unwritten rule that a frame off restoration will cost twice as much as you plan and will take three times longer than expected.

It's a big jump.

Good luck.

 

[05DaytonaRam]

Well my frame is in pretty bad shape. I'm have someone come look at it and see what they have to say bout it.

The way I see it is that my engine already needs to come out and rebuilt. The body is fine just needs a good paint job and the inside was redone less than 5 years ago and has been kept in the garage since then.

I'd rather do it now than have to do it later on down the road

 

[paz72vette]

Brian

If you decide to do a frame-off restoration, take a million pictures before you start. Find the sources of your parts. Next get the books and study, study, and study.

Cheers

Vito

 

[05DaytonaRam]

Oh I've already started taking pictures and buying books.

This will be first rebuild for a car but I've done servile rebuild for machines. I work for a CAT dealer here in SC and do alot of rebuild work there

 

[6880 Mike]

...Well my frame is in pretty bad shape. ...

Define "pretty bad shape." Post some pics.

 

[lars]

My 1-year body-off job took 3-1/2 years and cost 3X the anticipated budget.

Link here:
http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com...3-1-2-year64-restoration-rebuild-process.html
Lars

 

[Crimson Thunder]

Make sure you have the room to do a frame-off. The chassis will take up one half of a two car garage and the body will take up the other half. Plus you need somewhere to store all the parts you take of the car.

 

[05DaytonaRam]

Room is not a problem for me. I have a 3 bay shop and bout a bays worth of space on each side. Most of the space is not being used really besides a ATV or two.

Ill try and take some photos in a little while and post them.

 

[05DaytonaRam]

Lars that is a very nice car you have there.

I went out and took some photos of the frame but none of them came out worth a crap. I need inspect the whole frame. It looks to be a solid frame with no holes that I can find but the front and middle parts are rusted pretty good.

I will have to get some better light under the car and take some better photos

 

[Mac]

There are some areas which are notorious for rust like the bottom sills of the birdcage which gives structure to the body.

-Mac

 

[05DaytonaRam]

Mac

What is the birdcage? What part of that picture is it.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

Mac

What is the birdcage? What part of that picture is it.

Everything you see in the picture is nicknamed the birdcage. very prone to rust and reeeeeeeeeeal expensive to fix.

I hope yours is in good shape.

 

[05DaytonaRam]

Mine is in good shape. The only part that I really have rust on is the frame it self.

I'll try to get a better picture today and post it.

Most of my rust though is in the engine bay area.

 

[LVMYVT76]

There is a project that I have been watching on the internet called THE CORVETTE RESTORATION PAGE, where a guy is restoring a 73, shows every step he has taken to do it.

 

[lars]

Sounds like all you have is surface corrosion - that's not what most people regard as "rust." Surface corrision can be removed with wire brushing and sanding and treated with a rust converter before sealing up with epoxy primer or a POR-type product. There is no need to pull the body to deal with surface corrosion - it's just cosmetic - not structurally threatening. If you have holes through the frame from "real rust" or entire sections of the birdcage or frame are missing, you need to pull the body. Otherwise, just clean it up and paint it.

Lars

 

[05DaytonaRam]

well how hard is it to sand down and paint while body is still on?

 

[6880 Mike]

...My 1-year body-off job took 3-1/2 years and cost 3X the anticipated budget...

Sounds about right. Twice as long as planned and three times the expense.

 

[05DaytonaRam]

Here some photos of my Crovette