Ok, so I'm looking through my recent autobody tool mart catalog and I see a bunch of frame straightening tools, and that got me thinking... Do you guys think unibody cars are ok after they've been straightened from a wreck?

Mathius

 

Nope. Definatley not. It will never be the same. Weight distribution is off. Things don't line up. It's never as strong as it was before. If that happened to my car I would junk the frame and salvage everything else needed to build a "mint" car when I got another one.

 

it depends. first off it is done right yeah it will be ok, it might not be as strong but it will be damn close... And the way alot of body shops go about it the just pull it untill it is close and sometime all the parts don't fit, such as a tailight so they rig it in there by making holes bigger and well, that is not the way to do it. I work in a high class autobody shop and pulling is done alot but with there is pulling there has always been panel replacements, we would pull the not so f'ed up parts the replace everything else that was in the least bit "suspicious", drill the pinch weld out and weld it back on with a pinch welder...not a Mig with a spot welder attachment....and the guy who does all the the pulling gets in on the money each time, nothing is forced, if you need to force something in, something is wrong...so you see it all depends on what shop you take it to and a shot that takes the time to get is right will cost more then some other shop with will just make it "look right".

Basically, if done right, frame pulling does not affect the structure enought to where you can tell a difference(in tire wear or handeling or what not) or impare the safty of the car....

 

i voted number 3.

i my experience my first car was in a first end hit with the previous owner, he said he got it fix pretty good, but things still didnt seem perfect, o well i wound up wrecking the car after 5 months of driving it.

 

my beloved 87 firebird got hit broadside smack in the middle of the rear wheel. fought with the insurance company forever over the repair. they wouldn't go for a frame shop. instead, the body shop pulled the frame on the floor with jacks and chains.

the car sucked after that. doglegged going down the road, went through back tires every 15,000 miles (it was a v6, there's no way i was doing burnouts), the right front tire scraped like hell on hard left turns, etc.

years later, i took the car to a frame shop, paid him 25 bucks to put the car on his frame jig and within 30 minutes he told me exactly what was wrong. not only was the frame bent, but the control arms and even the rearend housing itself were bent. he straightened the frame as much as he could without having to redo all the bodywork and i replaced the rearend and control arms. the car was fine after that.

i believe the trick to getting it right is to put the car on a frame jig. no matter how carefully you measure, you just can't get it right any other way.

 

Mine was hit in the rear a few years back and needed the frame straightend. To this day I still cannot tell the difference. Seems to drive and handle just fine.

 

I'm just curious as to where the people who says things like this get their info. Do you people actually have experience with this sort of thing, like having a car repaired where the frame was bent or actually work at a collision shop?

Unibodys can be pulled back and be just like they were before. Rule of thumb for frames is if its kinked or torn then replace it, otherwise it most likely can be pulled back to specs. Any GOOD quality shop should have a frame rack (most are laser nowadays) that they can put the car on and measure everything down to the mm. You should pull all specs to within at least 5mm. I've seen cars straight from the factory that aren't even within the specs. If the cars are supposedly so much worse after a wreck then how is it that 1000's of unibody cars are fixed each and every day?

If you have some backyard ghetto shop pull your frame with a tractor and a tree then no your car isn't going to be like it should be.

 

i voted yes. because 99% of all cars that come through the shop i work at are unit body. if it is impossible to fix unit body, why do we still do it, the insurance company would just total it. sure there is a fine line between fixable and total loss, but the majority can be fixed.

take my 87 iroc for instance, it kissed a light pole, and the main body man said he could fix it like it never happend. but then he turned to me and asked how much i was willing to spend. i will fix it, but probably not this year, because of my other projects and my snsp on tool box i bought.

here is a pic. the roof is pushed up, the floor is bent, and the a pillar is damaged, but the car still drove strait, and does not have any alighnment issuses.

 

2

 

in this shot you can see that the cowl is slightly damaged. a body man with the right skills can pull all of the main damage out with 3-5 pulls. the roof, floor and the cowl will suck back out to their origianl positions. sure, some integrity will be lost, but i want to install a cage and sfc's, so it wont matter.

thanks

 

I never said that it couldn't be done. Most of the time however it will not be the same. I do have expeirience with cars that have had frame damage. And they have never been right again.

Also I knew someone that had a 85 Firebird and after being rear ended The car was never right after that. The dealership they took it to never got it right.

What's more important than finding a shop that has the equipment to do it right, is finding people that can do the work. I have had no luck getting it right. Neither has anyone I have known that has had these problems.

Getting both is difficult. I do however agree that it can be done depending on the extent of the damage.

Do not assume that people that dissagree with you have no experience. Such a statement is unwarranted and uneducated.

 

that was the reason why it is not strait. dealerships are good at paint and minor body work, but when it comes to frame straitning, most dealerships dont have people trained or that have enough experience, and just write off a crappy pull and hope no one notices.

thanks
anthony

 

I didn't assume anything, thats why I asked a question, not made a statement.

I was just wondering where you were coming from because I have seen so many people on here and elsewhere say how a car is never going to be the same and that a unibody is junk after it is in a wreck, etc, etc.

Like said above going to a dealer probably isn't what you would want to do to get a frame straightened, at least I wouldn't take it to a dealer. Finding a shop with the right equipment and the right people can sometimes be hard, especially if you live in a small town, but if you live in a big town there should be plenty of competent shops to take your car too. It all just depends on how much money you are willing to spend to either get it fixed right or half-assed.

Brandon

 

Sadly enough in Dallas I have had a really hard time finding anything auto related service wise that is worth a crap. Leadership Ford has a really good body shop but I wouldn't take my Trans-AM there. I don't think they do frame straightening.

I can't even find a decent auto mechanic. Which is part of the reason I spend so much time on this site. Learning more so I have to pay for less.

I didn't mean to come off sounding the way I did. I get a little defensive when people assume I have no idea what I am talking about. I am only relaying what I have experienced. I am by no means an expert.

I did work in a body shop. But we didn't have the stuff to straighten a frame. So I have no experience doing the work. All I have done is some paint work and hammering out dents.

 

No problem, I may have come off sounding harsh too, it was not intended that way. I am by no means an expert either.

I can definately 110% agree with you about spending time on this site, it is a huge wealth of information and I can't imagine how much time/money I have saved from what I've learned here.

 

No kidding. without this site I probably would easily have double the money invested into my car I have now. And still only be at this level of progress.

 

Last winter I drove the car, and hit a curb doing liek 20. Well anyways, it pushed nmy frame back about 1/2" in the front right croner, somewhere in line with the LCA. Anyways, 1/2" is nothing, but becuase the wheel is so much further out then the famer, the wheel is back about 1 1/2" - 2" towards the back of the car, so my car pulls to the left i think, i cant remember.

But, with somehting so small, it shouldnt be much of a deal to junk the frame & lose that much strenght, right?

I am putting SFC's on the car to, so it shoulnt make a difference.

 

Depends on who does the work. For every horror story you hear, you'll hear a good story. Subframe connectors definately can't help.

As I posted under "hit a tree", I totalled my ride; went under a pickup parked on the side of a road. The pickup's bumper hit my passenger side strut tower, and mashed everything down and back. My body shop told me to get a parts car, strip both to a motor, and they'd swap front subframes. They did, and I put the car back together... never had a problem.

But- it's yet another reason why I'll never put a v8 into this car. I trust their work, it's held up since '96 with no problems, but I think a v8 would twist my car into a pretzel. Even before the accident, I already had the stress cracks in the roof- from a V6!

This year I'll be cutting off my rear quarter and welding a new one on- and subframe connectors will be coming almost immediately afterwards.

 

I wouldn't mind a cheap V-6 as a daily driver. But I think part of the fun of these cars is a having the rumble of a V8. (Excluding the mighty TTA.)

 

Did you type that correctly?

 

LOL- no, I didn't... I meant "Subframe connectors definately can't hurt!" Haha, sorry 'bout that.