nashdavea

I have a 79 that my son ran up a curb sideways and one of those traffic light control boxes took off most of the rear end. Pictures are here: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/memb...tte-31684.html

I've procured a "rear clip" from a salvage yard. It is being sawed off through the doors and I will get everything aft of the doors, less the frame.

Any help on how to get the old parts off my car and the "new" parts separated from the rest of the old car without damaging them and so I have good bonding surfaces would be very helpful.

Also any advice on how to put it back together. I've done quite a bit of regular body work, and did a fair bit of work on this car to get it on the road a year ago. Had to re-bond the headlight support and the right front fender. But I'm doing this in my one-car garage with help from my son.

I have the AIM and I've started looking at that to find where the panels are attached.

Can't see any "bonding strips" in the AIM. What are bonding strips and how do they play in the re-attachment

I've seen posts describing screwing the new parts on and then filling the screw holes. I'm not looking to build a show car (nothing is original on this car), just a good, simple way to get my car back on the road.

Any advice (positive) appreciated.

markids77

Are you certain the frame received no damage in the accident? If you have not had that verified by someone with the experience I would do so before I started your bodywork. Judging from the damage I see it would surprise me if the frame is still straight.

zwede

Look at the last of your pictures, the one showing the passenger side quarter. See the 2 cracks starting at the door going back over the wheel? That's where the split is between quarter and rear deck. The deck actually includes the first few inches of the side. Behind the panels is the bonding strip that hold them together. You can see a piece of the bonding strip sticking out the back.

Some pics that might help:

leadfoot4

And if you decide to do the repairs, make sure the wheels are on it, it's sitting on level ground, car's weight is fully loading the suspension. These cars flex more than you think. A number of years ago, one of my friends bought a damaged '79 C-3 with the intention of "fixing and flipping" it.

He did the work with 4 stands under the frame, with the car at a comfortable working height. Boy, did he get a surprise when he took it off the stands, and put it back on it's wheels....

540 vette

Find a picture of the frame for the car. Probably in the AIM. It will show you what the measurement are supposed to be from one spot to the next. Thats how I found out I had a bent frame on a 77 I owned.

540 vette

You will need to screw the car together first.

markids77

Or rivet, or Cleco or something. Moot point if the frame is tweaked... BTW, was that RH impact absorber for the rear bumper torn from its moorings? That takes some force to do!

nashdavea

Well, here it is 2 years later, and my rear clip replacement is almost done. I ignored all the naysayers and trolls when I sought advice here a couple years ago and have had a great time.

The rear clip came sawed through a few inches ahead of the rear of the door openings. I began by carefully cutting all the metal parts of the front underbody and halo frame out of the clip. During this process I determined it was probably possible to slide the whole rear fiberglass assembly onto the car's underbody/halo if I cut the rear compartment door support off the car. (see picture). I cut the door support off the clip and saved it to attach to the car later.

As suspected by many, the frame was bent. With the AIM in hand, and many 2x4s, my garage walls and a port-a-power, it was simple to correct the frame damage.

I was able to slide the entire fiberglass assembly onto the car, with some minor cracks where the carpet attaches at the rear of the doors. This was caused by spreading these apart to get them past the door pillars on the way down since the door pillars and halo are not in the same plane. Fiberglas repair done, and all this will be hidden under the carpet.

When I got the new clip on, it didn't seem to align very well, but THANKS to leadfoot4 for his post about making sure it was on the wheels when I put it all together - I had to reinstall the differential, crossmember, etc. etc. to drop it on the wheels, but as soon as I got it off the jackstands everything fell into place beautifully.

I used Evercoat Panelbond 45 (after reading many posts) and used bolts instead of the rivets holding the front underbody to the rear underbody. This left a perfect 1/6" gap between the halo frame and fiberglass. I squeezed an appropriate amount of glue in there, and it seems incredibly solid. Everything lines up beautifully.

I'm now about a week away from a full primer coat, and I hope to have it back on the road by May. This was never a show car. It had a Buick engine in it when I bought it and it's a 79 with an Ecklers fiberglass 82 style rear bumper. I put a new GM crate motor in, and it will be a very nice (if not totally authentic) driver car. I'll have about 15K in a car I can sell for 6 maybe?? But it goes to my son who will be graduating from the Air Force Academy this year, and I think every jet pilot ought to have a corvette...