Cme

Hey everyone, I have a question for You all. Can the drivers side frame rail be replaced without taking the entire front end off? I just bought my first camaro as a project car and found out after the fact the the frame rail on the drivers side is about rotted out. Also anything else i need to know about this would be great. As I said its my first project car. I do all my own machanic work but body and frame i know nothing about. Thans in advance for any help

Cme

The pictures are from where the front sway bar mounts to the frame rail but i found out the its pretty much shot

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

My first bit of advise would be to look over the entire underside of the car since I find it very unlikely this area is rotted out and nothing else is.

As for the repair, there is no 'frame' it's a unibody, so you would need to cut out the bad section and graft un a new piece from a doner vehicle. You can probably do it without pulling the engine, probably just pull the steering, radiator wheel tire and sway bar to get at it.

Cme

Ok, i think what happened is it was in a wreck which compromised the integrity on this side. The rest of it look normal for its age. It sound like the only way is to pull the front end off. I guess i'll just sell it as a parts car. Thats not something i have the knowledge, tools or ambition to do. Thank you for your reply

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

Anything can be fixed on these cars, but it begs the type of question: how good are your welding skills or how deep are your pockets?

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

That area is notorious for cracking because of stress from the steering box, chances are it split, then the bare metal started to rot, time passed, it got worse ect ect ect and here we are.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

That one is done unless you've got a donor, or reproduction panels, and good welding skills. Might shop around all the reproduction parts vendors. The frame sections are available for some cars, and I'm thinking I've seen the rear segments available. You might be able to get the front frame pieces, but I haven't ever looked. If you wait long enough, even if they aren't available now, they might be available in the near future... But then itd be a lot easier to just get a car that's not about to fold up driving down the street.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

I'd be inclined to agree with Drew.

It's certainly true that anything "can be" fixed. However in this case, that would entail getting a WHOLE OTHER car that's PERFECTLY GOOD; cutting all manner of parts out of that one and thereby destroying it; cutting all the same parts out of this one; and welding, riveting bolting, etc. as appropriate, onto the fornicated one.

Keep in mind that if a STRUCTURAL part that's damn near 1/8" thick is WASTED as bad as that is, what do you suppose the THINNER parts of the car - floor pans, rocker panels, gas tank, wheel wells, strut towers, ??? - are going to look like? Meaning, you might get all done with the paragraph above, and "suddenly" "discover" something you overlooked, at some critical point, after it's inconveniently late in the process. What then?

So, instead of buying a PERFECTLY GOOD car and destroying it to fix a totally unremarkable plain jane, the better idea would be to buy a PERFECTLY GOOD car and build THAT one instead; transfer anything about this one that's better than that other one, over to it; and throw this rust bucket in the trash where it now unfortunately belongs.

Just because something "can be" done, doesn't automatically mean that it "should be" done, let alone make it A Good Idea.