Frame repairs

[Martin T.]

I am looking for either a C-2 front frame clip or someone who can repair mine. The frame was hit on the passenger's side and bent that frame rail and tweaked the horns. Any ideas on someone capable of repairing such damage would be appreciated.

[Dick W.]

Re: Frame repairs

Have someone check the frame to see if it is diamond shaped. If so, you will be better to replace the whole frame. If the damage is localized in the rf area, you can buy sections from Vette Products of Michigan www.vetteproducts.net

[Boyan B.]

Re: Frame repairs

Americas Finest Corvettes in Ramona California has a jig and can handle most about anything with a midyear frame. They advertise in the driveline.

Boyan

[Edward M.]

Re: Frame repairs

Depending on how bad it is, you can have it pulled. I have a friend that has a 67 frame that was hit and diamond shaped. He got it pulled to within 4 mm of actual spec, which is well within the margin of error.

[Wayne K.]

Need some education, what is diamond shaped mean?

In reference to frame damage.

[Edward M.]

Re: Frame repairs

One side gets hit and shoves the entire frame rail back or forward. Frame is no longer square, it is now diamond shaped.

[Dick W.]

Re: Frame repairs

With a diamonded frame you have bent every crossmember and in my experience, is not worth the time to fix. You have lost a lot of the structural integrity with bends and stressed welds.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Frame repairs

One side gets hit and shoves the entire frame rail back or forward. Frame is no longer square, it is now diamond shaped.

You could also say such a frame was "racked"...~vi: to become forced out of shape or out of plumb.

The frame was formerly a rectangle, and then the blow changed it into a parallelogram without right angles.

[Edward M.]

Re: Frame repairs

With a diamonded frame you have bent every crossmember and in my experience, is not worth the time to fix. You have lost a lot of the structural integrity with bends and stressed welds.

Yep, my friend's frame had some crossmember weld cracks. Got re-welded as part of the repair. I guess it comes down to how bad is the frame diamonded (is that a word). Cost of repair was significantly less that a replacement frame.

[Bill M.]

Re: Need some education, what is diamond shaped mean?

What is diamond shaped in reference to frame damage.

The way this is checked is to measure from RF to LR and compare that to LF to RR. The measurements will be the same if the frame is square. One will be shorter if the frame is diamond-shaped.