Hi guys (and girls)! First off, Happy Thanksgiving, hope everyone has a great one! Now, today I tried to install my new Wonderbar from TDS (Very high quality piece by the way, for those who don't already have one) but I was very disappointed to find that it appears that my frame is bent The bolt holes appear to be about 1/4-1/2 inch off. I can line one side up fine, but I can't even come close to starting the bolts on the other side (frame appears to be spread apart). I also saw that there has already been some welding done near the steering box, so I'm sure the frame cracked as is typical, and I don't know how good the repair is since it was done before I bought the car. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else has encountered this issue, or if I just have great luck lol Let me know your experiences! Also, does anyone know the exact measurement for the distance between the frame members so that I could measure and make sure that it's a problem with the frame and not with the brace? Thanks so much!

-Paul

 

The "frame" bends surprisingly easily. I'd be inclined to suspect that yours is tweaked a bit, not that the bar is the wrong size.

I'd bet you could go to the hardware store and get one of those screw type clamps that uses a piece of water pipe, and press the frame far enough together to get it on there with nothing more than that.

 

Yeah, I felt pretty sure that it was an issue with the frame...I feel like the history of my car is pretty sketchy at best. That sounds like a good idea with the clamp. I'll probably try that since my dad has a couple of those clamps already. If that doesn't work I figured I could hook up a comealong between the frame rails and pull them together with that. Thanks for the advice and I'll keep you posted on how it turns out!

-Paul

 

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u can try to use a come a long to pull the frame rails back together

 

The pipe clamp idea worked and I got everything put back together. The swaybar would line up ok even if the frame was slightly out of tolerance because the bushings/mounts for the swaybar can be moved to different positions along the sway bar. I'm going to take the car to a shop sometime and get the frame by the steering box looked at because I think that the previous weld job failed and that is the cause of the problem, however I did get the wonderbar bolted in and the swaybar bolted back up just fine, thanks for all your help guys!

-Paul