Hi all

hoping someone might be able to help out here......

At our Corvette Club monthly meeting last night a member told us about a friend of his whose 17yo son has been saving his money for a long time to get his dream car, a Corvette, and he bought a 1980 recently.
It's a nice driver car and runs great BUT it turns out that the seller did not disclose a MAJOR problem with the car and the kid didn't know enough to realize the problem which is that the frame is cracked. He went back to the seller who basically told him tough luck, it's his problem
NOT a nice intro for this kid into the Corvette hobby.....

The mother had contacted our club member asking if we knew anyone interested in purchasing the car as a parts car so the kid could at least get some of his money back out of it since he can't afford to pay someone to replace the frame and doesn't know anything about working on the car himself.

We came up with the idea of trying to help this kid out and we have club members that have volunteered to do the labor for free to lift the body, pull the motor, strip the old frame of the suspension and reinstall everything on a replacement frame and get this kids car back on the road and save the car from being destroyed as simply a parts car.

Our club is in Delaware and we are hoping that someone may have a good condition frame that works with an '80 within a reasonable distance from us that either we can purchase at an attractive price or that they may even be willing to donate if they aren't using it.
After spending all of his money on the car the kid has nothing left to spend on a frame so any expense would have to be obsorbed by our club so we are hoping to find a decent frame very inexpensively since we are also donating our time to do all the labor for this kid for free to try to help him out.

If anyone has or knows of a good condition frame in the Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, or New Jersey areas we would GREATLY appreciate hearing from you. You may PM me or send me an email with the information.

Thanks!!

Barry

UPDATE: 7/16/07.
We do have a replacement frame that you will see if you read thru this post. If you would be willing to help participate and contribute to this worthwhile project we have set up a PayPal account. The account is:
Corvettefun@comcast.net

thank you all for reading this and thank you greatly for all those that have contributed.

 

Barry where is it cracked ? front C member area? lots of them crack there
Most times they can be repaired for alot cheaper than replacement

 

Don't have a frame or I'd gladly donate it! You guys are a stand up bunch to help a kid out like that. My hat goes off to you!!

 

I just talked to Mr.Gee in Pa.He has a 80-82 frame,and he is willing to work w/you as i explained,and read your post to him.His phone number is 570-376-3421,but he won't be available til'Friday.You work a deal,and please,let me know,and i don't have alot of free money,but i can come up w/a hundred,or so.I greatly respect what you all are doing!Maybe,some other guys will come forward to help,also........

 

There's ya another guy..................Pauly!!!!

 

I wish I could help out. If it weren't for my buddy's dad when I first got my liscence in the 80's, my first car wouldn't have been. I definitely try to pass it on as much as possible, and hopefully this kid will feel the same way. I feel confident that good people will come together to get this worked out.

 

Barry: Great idea to help this kid out. I don't have a frame but could donate some labor to help out. I'm close by, just over the line from Wilmington in PA. Let me know if I can help in any way.
Regards, Ed

 

Pauly, I don't know as of yet where the crack is. Right now we are going solely by the information supplied by the kids mother and all we know so far is that it is cracked and from the looks of it the previous owner tried to weld it up to repair it and it didn't hold as it cracked again. Without someone in our club that knows welding looking at it to make a final determination we are going by the assumption that frame replacement is the best course of action. Of course if the crack isn't too large and good weld will repair it that that definitely would be a much easier repair.

Vettesbydesign, thank you!! I'll call your person, Mr. Gee, and try to talk to him and see what we can possibly work out.

98IndyPacer, yes, Thornton is pretty close by. I'm sure everyone involved would welcome another helping hand. I'll try to keep you posted on what's happening if we can get this project rolling. Thanks!!

 

Keep us posted, I found my rusty frame at 19... It does make you an expert I guess. This is a good cause, and a great way to spread the pride in our cars!

 

Hey Barry - that is a stand up thing your club is doing! You're too far away to volunteer my labor but when you get close to nailing down a frame or additional parts, I'll send some cash.

Hi to Linda for me!

John

 

 

Hey Barry, thats great, this is what the Corvette hobby is all about, not the constant bickering and nit picking that has been going on here lately. I was thinking along the lines of what Paulie was saying, you need to get an experienced Corvette/welder type person to look it over and see if it do-able, just like you've already said, I've got no frame for you, I've been trying to change over a rusty one now,,,for the last 3 years, (no ambition). So, good luck to you guys and you are priceless for helping this person out,,,Peace,,,Moosie

 

Hi John!! Long time no talk. Hope all has been well with you.
I'll tell Linda you said hi

 

Now this is what I remember this site being about!!!! Barry PM if donation is needed Muddy

 

Barry, Andy & All - I just sent an email to Corsa Performance Exhaust asking for some help. My thought is if we had something we could raffle off, we could raise the money to resurrect the 1980 Vette and have one happy Corvette loving kid!

Barry - we will need an assessment of the frame as soon as possible to know exactly what his needs are.

I know Ron at Contemporary Corvette - I'll see if he can help out after we know what we need.

Any additional thoughts on this?

John

 

Very late last year,or very early this year,I went and looked at a "project" vette.Twas raining,cold and windy,the car outside.I didnt check the numbers or even the year. It is a 78 thru 82...going by the body style. The car was totally disassisembled,.I did see two frames.I did look at the frames,surface rust only.No motor or tranny.He wanted 1 grand. Might just still be there.Its a hot rod shop,just across the state border,in Ill.( near chicago) here is his site addy, give him a call.
http://www.davviki.com/home.htm

 

Well, the frame should be assessed before spending other peeps $$.
I cannot volunteer (too far) and funds are tight (new roof on house).
However, I do have an old frame that is cut into sections sitting in the
driveway.
If you need any pieces to replace a section or repair (overlap), let me know.
I will cut and send any reasonable chunk(s).

-Dave

 

John.....Many thanks.....MANY people have volunteered time, knowledge and their skills in order to help this young man. Apparently the frame is in bad shape./ We are waiting PICS of the frame. The car has been inspected by a few SHOPS in the "know" in our area, and apparently all are of the same conclusion. replace it. So, time will tell on this one. We appreciate everyones help, replies and comments......as we all wish to start this young man off on the right foot in the Corvette Hobby.

Regards,

Andy Rumford
President...Corvette Club of Northern Delaware

 

You may want to check. Some states have laws against selling cars with defective/damaged frames. The 'friendly" seller may have his butt in a sling over this deal.

 

Update: 6/1/07

well, the car arrived at Andy's house (Greenwood79) today so I'm going to try to get over there on Sunday to look at it myself. I have Tuesday's off so will probably be there Tuesday as well to start getting something going on this project.

Spoke to Rocky at Contemporary Corvette a few days ago and he has '80-'82 frames but wants $1500 for one. a few other leads I had also didn't pan out so we are still trying to dig a decent frame for this car at a reasonable price.
Kevin, I held off until this week when the car got here to try to dig a frame up but will attempt to get hold of your contact, Mr. Gee, you supplied the info for previously, and see if he still has that frame and if so work out some kind of deal.

In the meantime we have a lot of work ahead of us for the next couple of weeks since we need to build a body dolly to sit the body on after we remove it from the car, disconnect everything to prepare for lifting the body, get the body up and off the chassis, than strip everything off the current frame.
I figure this will take a few weeks just to get these steps done.
At least that gives us some additional time to keep trying to locate a frame.

If anyone from here is within reasonable driving distance to Kennett Square, Pa, where the car is now located for us to work on at Andy's house, and would like to help us with this frame swap to help this young man out please contact either Andy (Greenwood79) or I.

Thanks!

Barry