Has anyone tried making our cars full frame? I know Eq uay makes a kit that goes part way up front it appears. I was curious if has tried this or knows anyone who has done this?

 

Unless you do some major fabrication work, the frame would probably be inside the body to keep the body low enough.

The front and rear subframes in a third gen are made from heavy gauge steel but they're not real heavy steel like the front subframes on first and second gens. Some good sub frame connectors tying in the front and rear subframes is the closest you're going to get to a full frame in a production car.

If you go about completely changing the front subframe to a tubular subframe then back halving the car with a rear subframe and joining the two together, it would be cheaper to just build/buy a complete tube chassis car.

The only subframes I see from Ed Quay are for the rear to back half a car. They incorporate SFC to tie into the front subframe.

 

I have SSM subframe connectors and a backhalf kit from chris alston installed and a crappy comp engineering 10 point cage. I was looking to replace the kit with the ed quay one but I didn't know if someone made one front to rear (I have to redo my cage and apparent;y do my floors now or get a new car.

 

Has anyone tried using the ? This gets so damn old year after year.

Lots of good information in this thread: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...ng-f-body.html

Read it.

Mathius

 

Did use it and did read it. Not really looking for a corvette frame also been eyeballing the art norrison stuff but really just is not my deal.

 

Well good, if you read it then you know nobody here has done a full frame, so there see? Your question was answered and this thread can fade into obscurity like the rest or just burn out if that's what you prefer.

Mathius

 

Wow real mature. How old are we 16? Way to turn a real question that I posted after searching to see if someone has mastered this and not said something; and then you flame on it. Does it make you feel more like man?

 

Wouldn't be that tough to make it a full frame car, well that is for a Hot Rod shop. Could be done at home, but it requres some special tools and some special skills to build a frame and suspension that actually works!!!! Number of years back I did a '78 Camaro onto an S&W frame...the guy thought he was saving money by buying a done frame, but after all the necessary mods probably would have come out better with a scratch built frame... What are you after with the car? drags, road racing, pro street, or just something unique?

 

Yeah I have so much money wrapped in the car I was thinking the ed quay rear frame kit. They have an 18 page guide to install it (things to cut and stuff). I have been looking for back halfed and tube chassis cars on racing junk considering for anywhere from 6500-12500 I can get a new roller.

Stephen and radical thank you for your posts.

 

After listening to the same question for over 10 years, I don't feel the slightest bit of guilt getting annoyed at you for asking it again. It's all there if you do a search.
Mathius

 

Then don't post on it and don't read it, it's that simple and you have only been here 8 years like me

 

Your points are valid, but chill out a bit. Sometimes new methods are revealed with new posts.

-- Joe

 

No, that's what my joint date says. The board crashed and everyone had to re-register. I've been a member since back in '98 or so if not earlier.

Mathius

 

If someone that was a member of this board put a full frame under their car, they'd be in here bragging about it two days later.

Mathius

 

I'd like to build a full framed 3rd Gen primarily for street use, not Pro Street but more towards some wide open cruizin', track days, and my favorite twisty road around the lake!! Something kind of like pro touring, but more subtle and sleeper like, I've had my cop magnets and they're not a whole lot of fun to travel in.....

 

Or you could do what i did...

 

Fueled Soul you do know the rear kickers will be attached to the top of the hoop in the car right?

 

This is what I'm running. I am thinking about doing a larger frame kit.

 

The duck tape wouldn't hold them up.

 

a full frame thirdgen has been built! haven't you guys seen the F87 Raptor from Rad Rides by Troy.

 

Exactly, I was just thinking the same thing.

 

How did you determine that? I have never seen a shot of the body off the frame and I looked through that site several times. Adding subframe connectors doesn't make it a full frame no matter how beefy it is. Do you have any shots of it off the frame?

Mathius

 

You didn't look hard enough

Series 1, look through the pics of them setting up the front susp & rear axle, you will see a full ladder frame

 

I guess we have two different ideas of what constitutes a full frame car. It's still welded to the body and there are no bushings. It's not much different than connecting the front and the back with subframes connectors, they just made it all one piece.

Mathius

 

There are pictures of welding in the bushing mounts. Have a look at 85 of 359. You can see them several times more throughout the process. Later in 153 or 359 you can see how it mounts more clearly as they're building the floorpans.

 

theres pics of the frame off to the side and like Apeiron said you can see the body mount bushing in several pics.

the frame is not welded to the car. in the rocker panels where reinforced and body mounts were welded from them to bolt it to the frame.

 

Ok, a number I can work with. There are indeed body mounts. I stand corrected. Now if someone can just get troy to come in here and answer questions there might be a point to this thread. Although I'm not sure what good his answers would do. It seems like the way to do it is about what we said it would be. The whole bottom of the car was removed, the front suspension was changed, he had access to a full frame jig, the only real question is what steps he took to fabricate and re-enforce the areas where the body bushings would be.

That could be just a bit of tubing that was capped off and threaded, but the pics also kind've look like there might be ridges inside the tubing sortof implying he milled it out a bit (possibly just the welds though)

Mathius

 

good thing all this post was going to is fade away. dont be a rooster and belittle people especially when your wrong. keep up the good work deimos and good luck dude.

 

It's cool bud my camaro looks so weird being parted out to make my truck fast. Maybe someday ten years down the road it will be a full frame dragster.

 

At what point was I wrong where I didn't acknowledge it? Full frame's have been done on third gen's for years, about once every 2 months someone posts a 3rd gen that some backwoods idiot lifted and put mud tires on. The point is, nobody here has yet to come forth and pointed out that THEY did it or shared how. Every bit of information necessary to do this that is known on this board is listed in the thread I linked above that was easily found with a search.

It's real simple. Brace the car, gut the bottom of the car, build your frame, build mounts, and weld a floor back in place over top of what's left. It's not rocket science, it just requires a LOT of fabrication, money, and above all, space and equipment to work. If you don't want to buy a frame, or adapt one from another car there are books that exist on creating your own chassis/frame.

Beyond that, there is noone here who has come forth and said they've done it to be able to share information. So again. This thread is a waste. It's just more of the same crap that's come up year after year.

You call it belittling someone I call it being tired of the same old crap on this board over and over again. The majority of the posts on this forum are the same old things over and over again. "My car has rust, what do I do?!" "My car has rust, can I repair it with fiberglass!?" "How do I make a cold air intake?" Some of my personal favorites: "Has anyone done a targa top?" "How about an AWD third gen!?"

It's all more of the same, and let me tell you why. Because the people who are doing actual unique, creative stuff, are ridiculed on this board. Take hsilived for example. Dude created a one off custom rear end, chopped his rear hatch and added a trunk from another vehicle, and SOMEONE else posted the car because he KNEW that the people here would just give him crap because it was "different" and because he used a Mustang for a donor

Here's his exact quote:

So don't criticize me for getting mad about listening to the same old song and dance every day. Check your own attitudes and start looking around at yourselves, because there's so much prejudice on this board its sickening. People here are literally stunting their own growth.

Mathius

 

Once again Mathius your comments here aren't constructive so seriously dude move on with your life. I can only maybe some day you will realize when you're being a tool. I mean honestly if I did a search, and didn't see anything useful, I figure I would post my question. You answered like a jerk. I moved on to a full frame vehicle end of story. This thread is dead and should go back to the grave.

 

Yuppers, many times reading threads here I've came to the same conclusion. Creativity in styling and design is generally discouraged on this forum with bits of wisdom like, "it doesn't belong on a 3rd Gen", or the catch-all for disapproval, "it looks *****". Well, myself and a bunch of other Hot Rodders live to express their creativity in their cars and some of us choose a 3rd Gen for this expression.

BTW- if anyone wants a full framed 3rd Gen, my chassis table is always ready for such a project!!!!! Just don't expect much encouragement or approval from a lot of the members here...

 

We do have a rash of folks that all of a sudden think some of these are 'collector cars' that 'shouldn't be messed with', but for the most part those attitudes stay on corvette forum, and waxer queen online where they belong.

Fbody has always been cut and weld, and that's how I'd like to keep it. Stock is boring. If someone wants collector, buy a '57 chevy.

-- Joe

 

I'd cut a 57 chevy

 

after reading about the car in one of the monthly rags, i came here to see if there were any progress. troy says that the major drawback to the third-gen is the amount of plastic used inside and out, which is why he is replacing the plastic body parts with sheet metal. the car looks awesome. i had no idea it was a full frame, though.

the more information that comes out about projects like the F87 Raptor, the more it will become accepted. there will always be the nay-sayers; that is prevalent in the car hobby no matter what car you are talking about. remember when they introduced fiberglass '32 ford bodies? the purists went wild. now, not so much.

 

Freedom for being creative is the whole reason I got into Third Gens. As far as I'm concerned the only F-Bodies that deserve sacred status is the 1989 Indy Pace Car turbo Trans Am and the small handful of Firehawks SLP made in 91'. If someone puts a firebird nose on a Camaro and calls it the Cheviac Camarobird so be it, they're expressing they're right to be different.