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Old 01-05-2014, 04:12 PM
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SSLance SSLance is offline
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What is it about frame repair days and hangovers...

Headed out to the shop this morning after plowing the 3' snow drift off the driveway in -15 degree wind chills... Set the passenger side down on the newly painted frame rails and set about raising the driver side as high as I could get it. No matter what I did, I could only get about 3.5" of room above the frame rail to work with. First sign that it was gonna fight me.

Borrowed a body saw and with 5 new blades, set about cutting out the bad stuff and making room for the repair washer.







Got a much better fit with this one



Turned the welder up just a touch and practiced a stitch or pulse weld method to burn the weld in good without blowing through the frame. It worked pretty well really...until my hand got trapped against the body with my finger on the trigger and blew through an area about the size of a dime!!

I then had to turn the welder down and plug that area back up again. I was going to get away without having to do a lot of grinding until that happened.



Still turned out better than the last one, just takes practice I guess. Cleaning up was a bear, just no way to get any sort of grinder in that tight area. Tool of choice ended up being a die grinder with a cut off wheel on it stuck in from the side.





Then on to the same process, coat the inside of the frame with the Internal Frame Coat then rust encasulator and extreme chassis black on the whole driver side of the frame.



Be nice to button this part of the job up next time I'm out in the shop. Need to shim up the #3 bushings, get all of the bolts started, then try to figure out how to move the back of the body to the passenger side to line if back up square with the frame.
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1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car
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