What is a typical cost for a bircage repair. What are the price ranges?
Why is it called birdcage?

Thank You

 

I could give an answer if I knew what part or parts of the birdcage need repair. Some areas need to have the body panels cut away for repair. Other areas need the body off for repair. My own opinion is it is the most costly area to repair if you are having it done by a body shop, and most will not want to mess with it.

I guess the reason it's called a bird cage is it would somewhat resemble one if the body was completely removed from it, but I don't really know for sure.

 

check out the pic's at this site.
give you a good idea what a bird cage is and were it's at.
and the work that go's in to it!

http://mcspeed.homestead.com/Vacation.html

 

A guy near me had his windshield posts and lower corners repaired.
I recall it was over $1000 just to have that done. Ouchy.
IMO - it's cheaper to replace the body - depending on the year.
SO, what year ? coupe/vert ? Where exactly is the birdcage rotted ?
Mine was too far gone ... bought a rear clip instead of buying/making all the pieces.

 

This is probably the most costly repair you may ever need. I would think for a body shop at least $1000 for accessable windshield frame, maybe $5000+ for the cowl area and below-the front clip must come off and almost certainly the body too.

 

Get a detailed estimate and a firm price from the shop doing the repair. It may be wiser and cheaper to walk away and sell the parts than to repair. It all depends on how bad it is and what has to be done. Remember after spending $4-5000 you will still have the same car only with a repaired birdcage. Everything that needs to be done will still need to be done.

You have to be very careful once you get into these type repairs. It can be a bottomless pit so don't fall in without looking carefully. If the repair is extensive chances are the frame is in dire need of repair also amd that is only the beginning. It is always wiser to spend the money and buy one already done than it is to spend twice the money and not have use of the car for the next 4 years while you complete extensive repairs. If you are doing the work yourself it can be a long term project but if you are going to pay someone to do the work you need to run away as fast as you can. People spend thousands of hours doing restorations and if you are paying someone else you will never recover that money.

 

The main purpose of the birdcage was some preservation of the passenger compartment during collisions and some additional ridgidity...

...all of which can be replaced, if not improved with non-standard mods.

The later doors have metal linings and a bar or two. The windshield subframe rot out repair, while irritating and expensive, is less than replacing the birdcage itself as a whole, and can be done in a week end with a grinder, a mig welder and some 11 gauge metal stock.

The floor pan stiffiners and especially the metal behind the seats can be easily replaced with new thicker sheetmetal and glassed in.

The tie ins between the windshield frame and the frame past the kick panels can be decently reinforced beyond factory designs.

You catch my drift here - all this can be fixed in a non-approved, not necessarily lighter, but infinitely cheaper manner exceeding the original carefully engineered for weight savings strengthening and still be invisible to all but disassembled inspection of the worst **** retentive concours quality NCRS type collector.

You can even get decent rollcages of different levels and intrusiveness for under $500 that are drastically stronger than stock and offer real hope of decent survivability of some triple digit crack ups.

Short of that, the other recommendations to get a whole new body are not unreasonable.

Go outside the box here and save thousands of dollars better spent elsewhere.

 

I would like to thank everyone for the response on this topic. Its funny now that when I am looking at a corvette I now ask alot of questions about the birdcage. I used to look underneath the car. The owner probably wondering what I am looking at. Anyways, this site is very helpful especially the links and the illustration. I should have found this a long time ago and save me some grief.


Still no vette but I am looking at ssr this weekend with 6 speed.