chassis assembly question
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 463
Likes: 0
From: South Haven MI
chassis assembly question
Can anyone recommend an order of reassembly for putting my 79’s suspension back together? I’m doing a body off and am at the point where I can start putting stuff back on the frame. It came apart real fast but I’m concerned about the order I do things in. In particular the front sprints. How do you put these back in without the engine mounted first for counter weight? I’ve seen a lot of pictures where guys don’t have the engines installed but do have a complete rolling chassis.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Premium Supporting Vendor
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 4,312
Likes: 70
From: Clearwater FL
If you have a lift you can strap the frame to the lift so you don't have to worry about the weight of the engine. If you don't have a lift, call some friends over and have them take a seat. You can do the front 1st or the rear 1st. There really isn't much to the suspensions up front so that is probably the easiest. After doing the front Than you can install the diff and t-arms.
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 40,412
Likes: 792
From: Redondo Beach, California
Save the original suspension bolts. Many of the suspension bolts cannot be bought from general bolt vendors and also the repro bolts that people will sell you are not really correct. For instance the lower control arms in the front of the car. They're each held on by three bolts; two smaller one facing forward and one large bolt that faces the firewall.The large bolt facing the firewall has a shaft that's about 20 mils greater in diameter than the repro bolts. That large bolt acts as a pin and the shank diameter is important. Also the trailing arm bolts actually function as pins. The repro bolts have threaded portions that will "bite" into the frame. Where these bolts contact the frame, there should be no threads. There are many other suspension bolts to which this applies. A large number of the Corvette suspension bolts were custom tailored and cannot be replicated. Save 'em and if not rusted, re-use them.
Race Director
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 11,874
Likes: 263
From: Arlington Va Current ride 04 vert, previous vettes: 69 vert, 77 resto mod
the order probaly should be the same as when they were originally assembled... the Assembly Instruction Manual should help you out with the priority of things.
