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If a person has concerns if a MIG welder is good enough to do frame welding. As long as it has the amperage to penetrate the steel. A MIG welder is just fine. The only bad thing about a MIG welder is the spatter that is produced when welding.
A TIG welder is also good and foes NOT spatter due to the way you weld withe a TIG welder..
An ARC WELDER or stick welder is also good as long as the correct rod is used and it also have enough amps to make the weld penetrate and not just lay on top of the steel.
A like what v2racing mentioned. This is not an impossible job to do but it is not an easy job either.
Costs will be REALLY HIGH if oyu give it to a shop to due for oyu due to the amount of time can vary from being somewhat excessive...to off the charts insanely extensive.
Having a place to do it and figuring out how you can SAFELY lift it is important. I know on my very first body-off. I had 10 guys I know to help in lifting it off the frame...due to being a 1965 convertible. I had that many there so if any needed help for back-up...there was someone to come in and help lift in that area of the body.
DUB
Yeah my main issue is not really having a solid place to lift the body. Or the tools to hold it up
Yeah my main issue is not really having a solid place to lift the body. Or the tools to hold it up
A good size 1 1/2 ton engine hoist and 2 people will do it quite nicely. The lifting straps you see in the corvette parts suppliers catalogs work fine. You can often pick up a set for $50-75 used here on the forum after someone has done their frame-off. That's how I found mine. I just loaned them to a buddy to lift his body back onto a dolly for transport.
You only need an 8' ceiling to clear the frame. You might have to tie the straps into knots to shorten them. That is what I had to do.
Yeah my main issue is not really having a solid place to lift the body. Or the tools to hold it up
Actually these two things seems quite trivial and easy to remedy.
Because the main thing (in my opinion) is YOUR DESIRE to want to do it.
Building a body dollie to support the body is not that hard to do.
Hopefully you can find what it takes to make this work for you so you can do this yourself...or at least get the frame out from under the body so it them can be repaired.
I've been picking away at little things now that I have the car back home. I am also kicking around the idea of getting the car running and shaking it out good to make sure all the mechanical is bug free before I do the body. I don't want to have to lean over freshly painted fenders to fix things or do tuning. Even with fender covers you always seem to mess up the clear some.
So I'm going to completely assemble the car, except for some of the interior. I'll drive it around for a little while in the spring and then start to work on the body again. Sound like a good plan?
I like that plan, and may borrow the idea when it comes to mine. I am pretty short so I always have to lean on the fenders to get into the engine compartment...
Yeah my main issue is not really having a solid place to lift the body. Or the tools to hold it up
I have pulled both C2 and C3 bodies off by myself using a Cherry Picker. Roll the chassis out and roll in the body dolly. It can be done if you have the comfort level to do it.
I like that plan, and may borrow the idea when it comes to mine. I am pretty short so I always have to lean on the fenders to get into the engine compartment...
I'm tall and I still end up leaning on the fenders. It really doesn't take that much time to pull the body parts back off to work on them. Hood, convertible deck lid, doors, lights, and the headlight housings can all be pulled off in one day's work. I'm not going to put any trim on, it's all off the car already.
I don't want my new carpet and other interior parts in the car when doing the body, so I will just put the dash and the seats with original covers on them back in to shake it down. I'll probably leave the rest of the interior out. It'll look pretty rough, but who cares.
YESl...as long as your body still has paint on it and it has not been stripped down to bare fiberglass/SMC.
Are you planning on pulling the body back off after the 'shake down'???....I read a member talking about how they put theirs back on...which I know you need to do.
YESl...as long as your body still has paint on it and it has not been stripped down to bare fiberglass/SMC.
Are you planning on pulling the body back off after the 'shake down'???....I read a member talking about how they put theirs back on...which I know you need to do.
DUB
Body has been back on for a month almost. There is some exposed fiberglass, but I am going to spray some sealer/primer over those spots. I'll sand it back off later if I need to. Maybe I'll finish the bodywork in those areas first and then seal them, we'll see.
Don't plan on pulling the body off again. I'll cover and mask all the chassis and engine compartments during bodywork and paint.
You already know to protect the raw fiberglass in some way if you plan on driving it....that is all that matters.
DUB
For those of us who don't know; is there any risk of damage for the bare fiberglass if the body or parts of the body are kept stored in a garage?
If so what can be done to reduce or eliminate the risk.
Also is there any time the bare fiberglass can be stored in a garage before is starts to deteriorate?
For those of us who don't know; is there any risk of damage for the bare fiberglass if the body or parts of the body are kept stored in a garage?
If so what can be done to reduce or eliminate the risk.
Also is there any time the bare fiberglass can be stored in a garage before is starts to deteriorate?
The danger for bare fiberglass is mostly the chance of absorbing anything spilled or splashed on it. Oil, silicone, brake fluid, etc... absorbed into the glass fibers will play hell with any paint job put over it.
The danger for bare fiberglass is mostly the chance of absorbing anything spilled or splashed on it. Oil, silicone, brake fluid, etc... absorbed into the glass fibers will play hell with any paint job put over it.
Mike
EXACTLY and
making sure that every step...regardless of the cost is implemented to protect the body is worth while because if you do get something to soak into the bare fiberglass...you will WISH you had done something.
EXAMPLE: If a person spent $300 to build a make shift wood frame work around the Corvette and then wrapped it with plastic to keep it safe....with good filtering obviously so this does NOT turn into possible greenhouse....depending on the garage conditions.
TRUST ME...if a good spot of crap gets on the body...think about how much time and effort it is going to take to make sure it never comes back and haunts you....and then compare that to the $300 you could have spent to STOP it from a happening.
I installed my cheap ebay catch can on my PCV system. I first put a Mopar style breather with nipple on the valve cover. The breather is baffled and has filter material in it that will catch a lot of the oil and vapors before they reach the PCV valve. I installed the PCV valve on the nipple and then ran a hose from the PCV valve to the catch can. From the catch can it goes to the back of the carb's vacuum port.
I modified the catch can a little because the way it was, both the inlet and exit had tubes that ended at the same height. I shortened the exit tube and lengthened the inlet tube so whatever mist comes in is below the exit.
This system should keep most of the garbage out of my intake and off my valves.
Mike
Last edited by v2racing; Jan 17, 2018 at 01:06 AM.
I noticed you don't have a choke. Also noticed two throttle cables. Is one for an idle advance? I don't have a choke either and am planning an idle advance. If that's what you have - does it work well?
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
