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2025 C3 ('68-'73) of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2024 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2023 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
Run Forrest................... Run ......... there is probably a lot more rust that you can't see, trailing arms, bird cage, etc RUST NEVER SLEEPS !! Rough unit
$10,000 ......I never realized Rust was that expensive per pound.
I should have saved all the rust gems I cut out of my basket case.
But then....I wanted a basket case/not ONE surprise in 8 years!
(well...there was ONE surprise....the windshield frame had only surface rust )
Take it for a test drive , that way you will know what not to buy. Pretty much useless walk around video. The body looks straight , who knows what's under that primer covering. Way too much wrong with it for that much.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
The 2 things I wanted and Im glad I stuck to it........ Decent paint and body, and no rust...everything else is simple.
I do all my own work and I know how to weld so frame repair isnt a big deal to me, but the birdcage is hidden and I didnt learn about that until I started to look seriously. Im glad I found this sight for the 10 things sticky. I saved alot of grief on my part. Nowing ow th e c3 is put together I wouldnt bother repairing a frame, I would replace it. So much is riding on that frame support wise that a weak frame can damage that you would get away with on a steel bodied car. I wouldnt bother for that price. Maybe less than $5K. You would have to do a body swap. It would hae to come off just to weld it safely anyway so why bother fixing when it should be replaced
Run Forrest................... Run ......... there is probably a lot more rust that you can't see, trailing arms, bird cage, etc RUST NEVER SLEEPS !! Rough unit
From: Some days your the dog and some days your the hydrant.
Royal Canadian Navy
There is a reason why he didn't show a video of the car going down the road. He couldn't hold up the cell phone cam because both his hands were firmly gripped to the wheel trying to prevent the car from wandering all over the road. A project car is an understatement.
Last edited by resdoggie; Aug 18, 2021 at 11:32 AM.
That car was likely in a salt water flood. No chance of 'repairing' that frame. Even if you cut out the stuff that is bad today, it will still progress in the other areas. RUN AWAY!
What's your skill level? Anything's fixable. People have repaired worse than that. I've personally repaired rusted frames. But there are a lot cars out there and unless it's a fantastic deal ...keep looking. You're better off enjoying the car instead of repairing it. That's probably the worst of it, but you don't know until you get the frame removed. Plus, you haven't mentioned anything about the birdcage either.
A guy would have to drop the frame ...and it's major fab work. A guy is going to need a torch, wirefeed welder, a bevy of grinders and air tools. A plasma cutter would come in handy. Might as well sand blast nearby areas. I personally wouldn't turn away from doing frame repair like that. And honestly, doing a metal fab repair project like that (for guys like me at least) is kind of a fun and challenging project that is fun to dig into and complete. But if you have to pay a guy to do it, that's going to be expensive. And like I said, what's the rest of it look like (front cross member/radiator support/birdcage). If those are as bad, then you have to call it a candidate for a new frame.
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.
Is this frame fixable?
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