Hi everyone! I have a 92 camaro that I purchased a while back and I am finally ready to start making some headway with it. I wanted to have the car placed on a frame machine to verify that the unibody is in good shape, i.e. not twisted up or mashed. Every single place that I have contacted (local to me) will not touch the car. Typical responses are "We don't do that." or "The car is too old." I have even tried some local shops that claim they specialize in classic restorations and body work/frame work is specified on their websites. Call them up and they tell me that "You car is too new, we don't have the chassis specs to do it."
I am at wit's end here. I live in Hudson, FL which is about 40 miles north of Tampa. The car is a roller, no engine or transmission so the vehicle will need to taken on a flatbed and they charge by the mile, which is why I am trying to limit the distance it travels. Anyone know of any good frame/unibody places that can take this on? I don't want to spend a boat load of time and money on a car to find out later that the frame is fubar.
Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

 

You may be needlessly concerned. Has this car been in a collision? Do the doors open/close OK? Do the hood and the hatch work normally? Misalignment of body panels would be a red flag.

How about the tires; do they show 'normal' wear pattern? Does the underside of the car---floorboards, pinch welds, suspension attachment points, etc., look OK?

 

Make yourself a tram gauge...
This is one example I found on Google http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...80#post6805080
This thread has the dimensions that the unibody should measure out to...
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...e-chassis.html

It's not hard to do at home it helps a lot to have a helping hand for the longer measurements.

 

ironwill: I have been burned in the past. My 88 camaro was in an accident and the passenger side upper radiator support was welded on and the front frame outriggers (where the impact bar bolts to) had been crushed and pulled out. The car has tubular adjustable EVERYTHING from Spohn and I still couldn't get the passenger front tire to stop rubbing on the ground effects. I took the locating pins off of the RH side of the tubular K frame and shoved it forward (thus moving the lower control arm and ball joint forward) to no avail. Then I swapped out the tubular a arms for the QA1 rod end style control arms and adjusted the length of the rod ends to move the lower ball joint even further forward. Still had rubbing issues. I am tired of fighting the chassis on everything and I want a fresh canvas to work with, hence why I want to make sure all of the unibody points are within specifications.

daferris: I will look into the tram gauge. Having access to the unibody measurements is also a plus in the event I find a shop who can set the unibody up on a machine but doesn't have access to the specifications/values.