You can do a lot with an angle grinder, wire wheel, and some POR-15

 

I think I'll do that cause it'll be cheaper and I don't have any room to take off the body

 

True but I found a lot of rust, dirt, and sand settled on the top surfaces which cannot be reached with the body on. The rocker channels are another area where these cars rust. Can't really treat them completely without lifting the body. I'd say it depends on the condition of the car. If it spent much of it's life in a friendly climate, away from salt and sand, there's probably no need to access the top surfaces or rocker channels.

 

I'm presently 3/4's the way through my '80 resto. But let me tell you about my frame experience...

Stripped the car down to the bare frame. Easy as pie. My frame had the typical C3 cancer; bad corrosion on the risers and the side rails ahead of the rear wheels. Took the frame to the Corvette Shop. My expectation was that they would be able to graft replacement sections onto my frame. Not to be. Especially when they had another '80 frame in the backyard that they wanted to sell me. So, I eneded up buying the replacement frame rather than bring home a "FrankenStein Frame".

Well, lets forget about the actual cost of the second frame because you don't want to know that. I had the frame dipped to strip all of the dirt, oil and surface rust Cost was $1200.00. I wanted some extra welding done to the underside of the side rails, plus I asked to have the #4 body mount brackets repaired - that set me back $500.00 in shop costs. The frame was then powder coated at a cost of $600.00. Lastly I spent $300.00 in trucking fees to move the darn thing between three locations.

So for $2600.00 I had a brand new frame returned to my garage. Worth every penny.

 

I was lucky, my frame was exceptional. Only cost $500.00 for sandblasting and epoxy sealer.

 

in Canada it's $8,000
Corvette Specialty's

 

2012 ,, this was,, do you think its done,, I hope it is

 

$8,000 is to remove the frame and replace it
this is just labor they said around 68 hours

 

Eight year old thread. Time to start a new one.