85berlinetta2.8

berlinetta. 14" wheels. skinny front sway bar. no rear sway bar. didnt think it could happen to me.







Its a pretty fat crack, and it looks like the 2 dividing peices are twisted away from one another.

how do i fix this?

conlinj

iTrader: (3)

Wow, I had mine crack, but no where near that bad, Looks like your going to have to find a donor car if your going to fix it.

StreetRoc85 350

JB weld to the rescue!

Psycho_91Camaro

your kidding... I hope you are

matt_p

Your gonna have to cut that out, get some 14 ga. steel, and start welding.

85berlinetta2.8

my bodyman has 2 donor cars in his posession, however he may opt to remove the surrounding gear, put a fat weld on it, then make a plate to cover the whole area and weld that in.... i dunno, ill ask him tomorrow. this is putting me in the position to buy a wonderbar immediatly.

xplane

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...-what-now.html

I have fixed this on 3 different cars, 1. my bros Z, 2. My car 3 times didnt last the first 2 till i installed the Wonderbar, 3 a friends car.
Believe it or not mine was worse than yours it was hanging by about 1 inch of metal and had also broken where the rad mount attatches to the frame. it was so loose you couldnt steer the car at all the box just flopped, i didnt even do a extra reinforcing plate. prolly will at some point when i get it in a proper shop but for now its holding good.

both of the other cars have been going just fine for almost 2 years now with no problems and i probably would not have had it keep breaking but i go down lots of rough roads and i thrash the car on a daily basis. i installed the wonderbar in conjunction with the weld fixes and have not broken it again. I did all the work but the welding.

EDIT: oh and i assure you that the cracks are much bigger than that if you have that much deterioration there. you will need to remove the gear and wirebrush all the crap away to see the whole thing. not hard to cause this if you hit a good bump on one of these cars with at least 16 years of fatigue on the parts.
I bet you will crap your self cause of how much better you car will turn and respond even with the 14's and small bar.

85berlinetta2.8

i got it fixed, he started digging and prying, and while holding the metal with me cutting the steering wheel, the crack was more noticible and was actually over a foot and a half long traveling up and around.

i have pics with my cell phone ill post later tonight.

the body shop guy bought me breakfast before he fixed it as well, and he only charged me 25$ canadian for the work.

however he showed me 2 of his z28 and gta's and i also dont have the frame triangle braces.

ill be looking for those in the classifieds ontop of the wonderbar.

also i scored a 34mm sway bar from ebay for 10$ as well.

xplane

told ya! good that ya got it fixed. now Baby that thing till you get a Wonderbar and mabe even those braces.

Does any one have a pic of those so i know what im looking for?

85berlinetta2.8

you cant miss the triangles, they are just that, hollow metal triangles that bolt onto each side of the frame and to the crossmember

StreetRoc85 350

Why would i be kidding? JB weld and zip ties are heavens gift to car crafters


(Yes, i am being facitious)

John in RI

iTrader: (167)

To Be honest ---- You are more prone to the frame rail crack than most others !!!! Not because of your wheels or lack of a Sway Bar, but because your car didn't get the 'cross member-to-frame rail' braces from the factory. Chevy only installed them in the Z28 until late in 85 when they started installing them in all the cars in the Camaro Line-up. ( I think Pontiac started sooner than 85 ! )

The 85 Brochure states " The engineers who developed the IROC-Z package have re-tuned Berlinettas suspension ". They added the frame rail braces to overcome these stress cracks is what they did !!! a Factory 84 Z28 has at least 5 additional reinforcing braces than the coupe or the berlinetta did. Once Chevy realized how weak the front end of the Coupes really was - they tried to fix the problem.

Besides the 2 'cross member-to-frame rail' braces and a wonder bar; also install the brace that belongs under the drivers side 'battery tray' too !! That one also helps keep the drivers frame rail 'square". Look on any F-body after 86 and you should find them !!