ricks327

This car came into my friends shop to replace a damaged one piece front end. Found a little birdcage corrosion.

Rick

VeroWing

Wow, what a nightmare for the owner!

Nowhere Man

Rust never sleeps is that it or did they stop tearing into it. Going to be fun to repair

ricks327

That's pretty much it, birdcage parts on order.
Rick

GUSTO14

The good news is that most of that metal is now available ready to be welded in...

The bad news is that it is not going to be cheap to complete the repair. I tell most folks that if you're looking at a car with a serious amount of birdcage rust to add $10k to whatever else you think it will cost to make the car right.

Good luck... GUSTO

Blk63Vette

Wow
That suxs

Nicola

Yuk and $$$ouch

ricks327

The fiberglass has been separated from the birdgage and it is not pretty.
Rick

Gary's '66

Man, that's ugly. I sure hope I don't have nightmares tonight!

Gary

65silververt

That's almost as bad as my 63 convertible was. Sucks for the owner! Might be better to just look for a donor cage!

Railroadman

WHAT birdcage?

Frankie the Fink

There are a few C2 vert birdcages on eBay right now (one is factory pristine)....not cheap; but neither will the cost to repair this one.

Not sure I'd want it in my car even if it could be pieced back together

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CORVETTE-196...-/331516279321

I would offer the customer the option before embarking on a wholesale birdcage reconstruction.

You might make an offer on this eBay piece, sell off the door shells and dash parts bundled with it, and come in under what the restoration effort of the trashed original birdcage would cost net/net...

Railroadman

The thing would have little structural integrity. I think that body was holding the birdcage instead of the other way around.

65Bob-bo

Do the leaks come through the windshield gasket? Just asking.
Bob

65silververt

The only parts I see useable are the z bar, upper inner and outer windshield frame, and about 90 percent of the hinge and latch pillars. Fixing the tops of the hinge pillars is going to be a challenge without screwing up the alignment of the windshield frame. Quite frankly, i wouldn't mess with trying to repair the windshield frame either. If you are off just a hair on either side, everything will be screwed up...ask me how i know! I repaired mine because I liked the challenge initially and because I am stupid. If i could go back in time, I would just look for a good donor cage and pony up the 4-5 grand and sell off what remained of my original cage. You can easily drill out the spot welds on the z bar ends and transfer the entire bar with tags attached and unmolested. I would not drill out the spot welds or rivets on the tags....just my .02.
And i retract my previous statement after reviewing the photos again. This cage is worse than mine!
The driver's pillar was the worst portion of mine, but somebody had already attempted to repair the rest of the cage with parts from another car....passenger pillar was from a later car, driver's rocker had a donor section from another car poorly welded in place, windshield surround was cut and spliced, etc.



However, with enough time, money, tools, measuring, cutting, and welding, anything is possible!
Make sure the shop braces the upper portions of the latch pillars with a metal rod or brace running between the two units before welding them in place.

Nowhere Man

I bet the frame is Swiss cheese too. Like said above find a another one and start over. I hope the owner of that car is in love with it. Because that's one long expensive road ahead

Frankie the Fink

Oddly - I've seen more than one C2 with a "gone" birdcage but the frame was in relatively good shape. i always figured it was rain/water intrusion around the windshield/cowl area and A pillars that never got low enough for frame rot... Who knows ???

65silververt

SALT!!!! Or at least I am pretty sure that was the case with my car. The way the metal on my car corroded and the shimmer of white around some areas, led me to believe it was sitting on a beach somewhere at some point in its life. Salt corrosion just has that certain look to it that is different from regular fresh water oxidation and corrosion. Like so...

65silververt

BTW, the one full birdcage I found on ebay looks to have had repairs performed to at least the rear section, especially on the driver's latch pillar extension to luggage stop. Somebody hammered the bleep out of that panel.

ricks327

The restoration is finished except for proper paint finish.