Willbanks

I'm a rookie with project cars still. I have invested alot of time in my 84 z28. I read about this "straight body" stuff and it really gets me worried, what if my car is not straight ?

So how can I tell ?
What is the bad side to having a crunched body?
How can I fix it?
How much will it cost?
Is it worth it?



All my doors close good, the hood does not work good but i think it's the hinges, but my passenger side front fender is damaged and it looks like it had work done to it, the guy told me a tree fell on it ( wtf? ) but the damage is to the fender only.

Thanks in advance

R1UK

A Motoliner jig, or any quality jig can tell you by laser if the chassis is straight, but you have to check the fit of a lot exterior panels yourself. Most big bodyshops have a jig, but it costs money of course.
Anyone can weld a wing on, and not everyone can weld it straight.
If in doubt get someone who knows what they are looking at to give it the once over.

JeffW

i think your refering to staight panels not so much the entire car.

blocking with guide coat on your primer wil tell you what is straight. when we say straight we mean no low spots in the panels or highspots. a long board will show you the way with guide coat.

the bad side of not straight is the when you paint any dent or previous bad body may show. like a wavey door we all have seen that. when you look down the body line you want it all to be smooth. that is my thought on straight.

jeff

Willbanks

I'm talking about the frame, i think ....


hell i dont know .... if you were to buy an old camaro that you "think" may have been wrecked what would you check first to ensure it does not have frame dammage

R1UK

Think about the average age of a 3rd gen [never mind corrosion], and the fact that a lot will have aquired some minor damage [lets face it, we all scratch or bump something] or at worst a major shunt. Spotting the difference can make you buy it, or walk away.
As you know cars that are written off totally by insurance companies often appear back on the road, some are good repairs, some are bodge jobs. You need a few years of looking at stuff to tell whats good and whats bad, i could fill a book.
My advice would be take someone with you who knows [friend , parent ,mechanic], buying him a few beers now, could save you hundreds of $ down the road.
Even people i know in the trade have been stung bigtime, its easy to miss, or dismiss something trivial that comes back to bite you in the @rse.

JeffW

ok the entire chassis.. you can do a simple quick cheap check. take it to an alignment shop, one with a good computerized machine and have an alignment done, tell them you want to see the thrust angle to make sure the car is square. thrust angle is the angle of the rear end with the rest of the body. it would show if there is a tweak right to left.

or even better but may be more money is ask a body shop for a quick check on the frame machine for straightness. that would be the proper way.

you can look at your body panels the strut mounts and the sub frame and look for kinks or spots that were repaired or pulled. there are usually easy to spot it its been worked.

maybe im all wrong but that is how i would go about it.

jeff

KEVIN G.

All EXCELLENT suggestions Jeff!!
Yes and alignment will give a good inidication. A frame measurement will pinpoint where the bad spots are, if any damage shows up in the alignment.
I would charge anywhere from 100.00 to 125.00, depending on how far the customer wanted to go.

Dialed_In

iTrader: (3)

In the factory service manual there are several pages of dimensions across given points on the frame and body. For example they may give you a dimension of 24-24.5" between a bolt on the engine crossmember and the front A Arm mounting bolt. If yours measures 24", you're good. Basically you're using dimensions specified from the factory and comparing them to your cars measurements. This is the way to do it if you don't have access or the $$$ to get it put on a computerized frame machine.

VILeninDM

I've read someplace you could take a tape measure and pick few diagonal points to give you a good idea if the body is square or not.

Not sure if this was in a manual, a magazine or online, but basically they had a list of points and asked you to measure them. If difference is more than 1/4" (or less, don't remember) of an inch, you might have a problem.

So for example you measure from top, driver side radiator support corner to the top of the passanger a-pillar. Then measure the opposite side, passanger side radiator support to driver side a-pillar. If the frame been bent, more than likely these will not be the same.

They had 7-8 other pair. I don't remember what they were, but common sense would work here. For example you could measure from wheel to wheel.

Dialed_In

iTrader: (3)

That's what I was talking about. It's in the factory service manual.

VILeninDM

<-- yeah, that's probably were I've seen it.

I wasn't sure if that was the same thing, because you didn't mention about diagonals. You just said there are specific measurements and each car should fall somewhere in the ranges specified by the manual.

What I tried to discribe is using diagonal points where you don't really care what the actual length is, you only care that the two lengthes (whatever they are) are the same.