Jims79

Hi I jacked my 66 coupe up yesterday to check on some rust I knew I had. What I found was some pretty bad rust on the drivers side frame right in front of the rear tire. I was able to pul big chucks of frame off to reveal a 4 inch hole. Can I cut out this section and replace it with the body on. I didn't want to get into a body off restoration right now but if that's the right way to do the repair then I will. Has anyone else had this problem.
Thanks
Jim

Allcoupedup

Jim, I feel your pain. Mine had rusted from the inside out and I was able to open a pin hole into a few holes the size of rasins. My holes are on the driver's side too. Personally, I would not want to repair this with the frame on becuase there is likely other rust that you cannot see. You don't have to do a full off body restoration to fix rust though. If you immunizize against project creep, you can remove the body, have the frame fixed, and drop the body back on.


Brian

BADBIRDCAGE

If you immunizize against project creep,

Brian[/QUOTE]





"project creep" I like that one Brian. AND a strong will is necessary in order to harness it in.

If you are not careful, when the body comes off for the frame repair the full monty restoration will be ON ! !

Rich

steves65korvette

I can attest to the super natural "project creep phenom" I started to do just a few cosmetics,,,,replacing window felt/seals/window bumpers etc...i now am in the process of seat covers/carpet/arm rest/console and the list is growing!! Is there a known antidote??? Help......

61 Silver

I believe that you will have to remove the body for a correct repair. Most Corvette owners that I have talk with in reference to frame repair have had it tack welded to a jig or fixture to insure that it does not change shape or distort during the repair.

I purchased a 1963 SWC and I had thought I did a through inspection of the frame prior to purchase. It is amazing what type of repairs and camouflage these frames have had over the past 40 years. The 63 now sports a new frame as well as many other new parts.

I would take an awl or screw driver and throughly check the entire frame including all the cross-members.

Good Luck

Ray

Jims79

Thanks all. I will take your advise & lift the body off the frame. I do I need to disconnect to lift it 4 to 6 inchs so I can make the repairs paint the frame. Next week I'm bring it to a friends garage you has a lift to see just how bad the rust is. I'll take pic's thanks again

soppeng

Jim, I've got a similar condition, so have been studying the best solution. You can get repair rail sections from several sources. One is Vette Products of Michigan - http://www.vetteproducts.net/
The side rails are two piece, welded together on top and bottom. To make the repair correctly, you will need to lift the body. While you could probably come up with a temporary patch with the body on, it would not fully correct the problem and you would need to go back in the future and do it right.

Corbrastang

Does it look like this. If you can reveal a 4 inch hole by picking at the metal my guess is that your frame is shot. The good news is that now you have a reason to do a frame off restoration.

rgs

Jim,
I had the same problem in the same place on my frame. Here is a picture of the repair. The kit I used I believe I got from Paragon (not sure, too many parts, from too many vendors!). It has 5 pieces, two frame section halves, frame channel connector, inner divider, and end cap. In addition to this, I replaced the body mount with a new one rather than use the old one that comes off with the rusty section. A couple words of warning. Notice the 2 x 2 steel tubing setting on the frame. It is actually welded to the frame holding it in alignment before cutting out the old section. This eliminates a bunch of headaches later. Also, I had a bare frame with no weight on it. You will have to support it in numerous places to reduce twisting that will be copied into the welded frame. As to doing it with the body on, I believe it can be done with lifting it a few inches, It will be obviously more difficult and time consuming to do correctly, but alot less time than pulling the body completely. Another thing, when I stripped my frame and set it on the shop floor, I found it was twisted from the torque of the BB over 1 1/2" just from the front end of the frame to the trailing arm mount. I had the frame straightened after I replaced the section and welded all the cracks I found.

Good luck
RGS

Link to my restoration progress http://pws.prserv.net/usinet.rstruve/

67L36Driver

I had a similar situation in '91 with 'Old Blue'.
Because he was/is my daily driver we went ahead and replaced the frame. Mostly for minimal downtime and strength.

We only replaced what was necessary, i.e. brake lines, gas line, body mount cushions and a few bushings (rear crossmember). Cleaned and painted everything with black epoxy, mostly for rust protection.

If you don't get too wrapped up in cosmetics you can avoid 'project creep'.

BarryK

that's not possible, i wrote a detailed medical paper on that and even posted it up on here a little while back.
The thread was called: "whileyouareatityoumightaswellas" is a disease.

65nassau

Interesting thread.

Whatever happened to those little kits that could detect corvette frame rust, was it just a little magnet or..

And did it even come close to working?

kdzdds

I had to replace the entire frame for my '57 due to stress fractures at the engine mounts and poor repair work in other areas. So, I just drove 15 hours last weekend to pickup a new frame at Vette Products in Orion, Michigan..... brought it back and put frame gauges on it... it is better than new. They use dedicated supports to hold the sections as they are being welded so that there is no warpage... I was in their shop. Now I can put the body back on and not worry about some halfbaked repair job that I am riding on. Just my $ .02