I am changing my transmission cross member and although I have looked at GM`s welding before I have never took the time to really look at it closely. I knew it left a lot to be desired but having over 40 years of looking at welding of all types the best I can say of GM`s welding is it closely resembles what one old timer once called "a cats *** sewn shut with a grapevine". It`s MIG I am sure but does anyone know why GM let such shoddy leave the factory.

 

YEP ! It's MIG. I'd like to know what wire they used. It's crap too. I am in the process of full welding and reinforcing my 70 frame in prep for racing and anytime I over run the factory weld it just spits and sputters and throws spatter everywhere. EYUCK.

 

It almost looks like it was bare wire welded with no shielding gas, some of the most God awful porosity I have ever seen and arc strikes 3 or 4 inches long. I know production was the name of the game but I have never seen welded products this bad

 

I had a piece of that welding wire stuck on a chassis I did. It was at least 1/16 dia and didn't have any kind of shielding on it. Its around the shop someplace. I`ll have a look around and if I find it I`ll post a pic.

 

When my '72 BB was about four years old, one of the A-arms broke away from the frame because of a bad weld. Just by good luck, I wasn't going 110 at the time.

 

I would imagine that ALL of the American-made car frames had similar welding jobs.

 

GM did not do the welding. Frames were purchased from the A. O. Smith Company.

 

Hi,
I think Chevrolet knew the difference between production car frames and race car frames and what was required for each.
Regards,
Alan

 

Best description of the weld quality on Corvette frames I have read/heard was that they were welded when Stevie Wonder (or Ray Charles) was working for AO Smith.

Frame welding on my 70 El Camino, while rough, was not as bad as what I have found on my 71 Vette.

 

All in the name of get it out and get it sold! Growing up and living my entire life in the Detroit suburbs and a family of mechanics. Not to mention the experiences of relatives and friends who worked for the big 3. Just another mass produced product and the best bottom line possible.. LOL

 

I see no issue here, folks. It's a moot point asking why GM "allowed" anything forty five years ago. The A. O. Smith Company made frames which met the GM engineering specifications of the time.

 

What ever happened to taking pride in your work. I have seen cars much older with better quality work on them. I can totally understand the production aspect of things but some of the welding I see on both my 72 and 73 is just shameful. It would seem the someone at GM would have sent some of these frames back to AO Smith.

 

Maybe they did. Maybe you have the GOOD frames.

 

Maybe the welders were being paid by piece work.The more frames they welded the more money they brought home to their families.

 

but probably built (and welded) to a GM spec and at a GM price point

 

ever read an older Chevy Power book? it has a whole section on welding a gusseting a Corvette C2/3 frame for racing.

 

If the frames were built by AO Smith as you guys said they were that would explain a lot. They made everything from welding machines to hot water heaters. I seem to remember AO Smith also ran a vocational welding school. I think they got out of the welding machine business a while back so it is most likely a lot of folks "learned" to weld on our frames. Like I heard someone once say about a guys welding " don't walk by it to close you will snag your shirt on it"

 

I totally agree that the welding was bad, I cleaned all the spatter and stuck wires, and poor welds on my frame, and did a much better job myself with my mig,....even though I am just an amateur......BUT.......truth is, the factory welding apparently was good enough, cause nothing fell apart on my car after 69000 miles. Point is, we can complain, but it was good enough for a production street car, which is what GM was producing

I often get tired of the criticism of GM. They built the car I love, and they built it for a specific purpose - TO MAKE MONEY! Not to build the best car possible that would last forever, I did that part when I rebuilt the car. IF they would have build the car as good as I did, the price would have been way higher than it was in 1977. For me, there is nothing wrong with what GM did in 1977. People like to whine about it, but usually they don't get the big picture.

 

Seems they welded it enough to be adequate for the intended purpose which in most cases its seems to have been? Given that the intended life span of the car was supposed to be about 15 years or so.
At least my 112,000 mile chassis still looks okay. I guess if a Corvette was sold new at a Ferrari price then we would have something to grumble about?
There were other things that come to mind such as the lack of paint on a lot of under body components even though they knew the cars would be driven in your so called "rust belt". I often wonder what the engineers and executives who were there in the day thought when so many of their creations were still on the road so many years later.
Off topic a bit - A new discovery channel has started here recently (Discovery Turbo) and a shop called Fantom Works were restoring a 77 coupe for a customer, I see the bill came to $31k for parts and then there was 900 hours of labour, what I couldn't get over is they got stuck into the bodywork and when this was well advanced found that the lower birdcage and floor were rusted out so had to pull the body off. Corvette 101 check for rust before throwing $$ anywhere I would have thought? Seems they had to take about 12 coats of paint from the body too wow.

 

Union Made!