I need some opinions on this issue. I've just pulled the tranny to convert to overdrive. In the process I've noted a lot of distortion in the cross member mounting flange in on the drivers side and corresponding distortion in the frame mounting bracket. Here are the photos


Here's the mounting flange, note the bending.


The bracket is clearly bent. But the welds are all OK


Driver side bracket has a lot of distortion of the bolt hole on the side of the bracket toward the front of the car. Worn?



The back side hole also has some distortion, but not so bad.



Here's the passenger side bracket, nice and square.



A view of the bolt holes on the passenger side, elongated, but I think that's intentional.




This is the underside of the frame below the drivers side bracket. Note on the left the odd angle for the bolt that holds the cross member up to the frame.



Here's a close up of the bolt hole that's not perpendicular with the bottom of the frame.



On the passenger side the mounting holes are in good shape.

My question is what the car built like this, maybe with the bracket not welded in the proper position so they just beat it into submission, maybe even intentionally elongating the one mounting hole. Or is this collision damage? I've owned the car since new. The only collision was in '84 when I rear ended a Chevy Impala. It was a hard hit, like two bumper cars hitting head on at full speed. When I got out I expected to see pieces laying all over the road and coolant pouring out. But the vette was good to go with minimal damage. I never even had it repaired. Other than some scratched paint, the only damage was some cracked fiberglass under the nose of the car. The photos below show that.



Driver side damage from the collision. View is looking up from below the car. The piece here is about 2" across.



A little to the left of the previous photo there are some fractures.

But don't let that small amount of damage make you think it was on a solid hit. I smashed in the Impala's trunk and passenger side rear quarter panel, partially detached its bumper, and took out some tail lights. After we exchanged info I hopped in the vette, cranked it up, and drove 250 miles to my parents' home. I did not have the T-tops on when the collision occurred, But it clouded up on the way, so I popped them on. It was so long ago I don't remember if they went in unusually hard. But I know on that it did leak some rain in, something it had never done. The car had about 20,000 miles on it then and I've driven it 70,000 more since. I've never had unusual tire wear or any odd handling.

So, again the primary question on whether this is damage or just poor build quality? I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has seen anything similar on a cross member. Thanks,

 

Maybe the previous owner hit a curb or they did it at the assembly line or driving it onto the delivery truck....???

 

I should have noted, I'm the original owner, so the only collision I know of is the one mentioned. My dad took it one day, but my mother was with him and she'd have blown him in. M brother had it a couple times, but he'd have owned. up. Now, I did have at least one dealer ding the front end on a service call.

 

I would think someone caught a lift going on to it or a speed bump or something.....

 

possibly a jack? fell on a stand?

 

Those are possibilities. I'll need to look at the bolts for any head damage. In any case I'll need to straighten the bracket for the new cross member that the 4L60E will mount on.

 

Also possibilities.

I'd prefer these to a bent frame.

 

As sheriff Buford T. Justus might have said, "I got d'evidence". I put brought the xmember down to the basement and on the bench where it is much easier to inspect it than under the car. This photo tells the tale.


d'evidence

That's quite dent. And as the bolt hole in frame was bent also, this had to happen when the xmember was already on the frame. Clearly a case of a high speed collision with debris on some Texas highway. Not so fast Watson. This dent is on the rear side of the xmember. Now, I admit to some wild driving at times, but usually that was forward, not reverse. And that's no home brewed misplaced jack or jack stand what done that. That took a lot pressure and or impact.

Now, I know when took delivery that the car did not have its airdam extension, i.e. that black rubber strip that hangs off the polyurethane front bumper. The reason I found out years later was that the front had been banged which bent a metal strip that was supposed to support the airdam. This warped the shape of the airdam so they couldn't mount the extension. It was an easy fix, but just selling it the uninformed 21 year old as is was easier. I suspect that happened unloading the car. What else may have happened on the truck or coming off the truck? Or what other bubba mechanic may put a lift block in the wrong place? Etc. I'll never know. But I know it wasn't the collision I had in it.

 

good job Sherlock!!!!

 

As I've had work done by Bairs Corvette in the past and have met with them at Carlisle last year, I opted to get their input. I figured they've been doing vette restorations for 50 years, so they've probably seen almost everything. They were glad to help with it. They said they've seen this type of damage more than once. They suspect a lot of it comes from lifts used to put load the cars for transport. Basically the solution is to bang things back into place as well as can be done, and as long as it all bolts back up tight it should be OK. I am a little concerned about the threaded insert in the frame. It seems to move a little. Hopefully it's caged in there and can't go too far. Once everything is back in place I'll tag a final outcome to the thread.

 

Glad you got it figured out. Hopefully everything will bolt right up and you won't have any issues.

DC

 

Just to wrap up the thread, I had to do a good bit of work to get the bracket into a shape for the replacement cross member to fit and align with the frame holes. As for the bolt hole which ended up angled from the force of whatever twisted the original crossmember,, I was not able to get the frame bulge out despite pounding on it with a 3 lb hammer. A testament to the strength of the frame and to the power of whatever damage the crossmember. That failing, I saw that the frame bulge to the downside was very localized and less than 1/16". So, I filed this down partially and that got things close enough per the photo below. The bolt to the frame still has a small angle, but that I can live with.

I've left the bracket flanges bent outward for now to ensure I can pop the cross member in without a hassle once the tranny goes in. DC told me he had some problems with fit on his, so I figured anything that makes it easier to go in once the tranny is dangling above it, the better. Once I tighten the cross bolt it will pull the flanges in.

So now, I'm just waiting for a 1 5/8" hole saw that I ordered June 29th to show up. Then I can cut a hole for the wiring harness section that goes to the tranny and maybe get the tranny in sometime in the next couple weeks.