I finally made it to the new board thanks to Patrick T., Thanks. Better late than never I guess. I pulled my body off recently eagerly searching for new numbers and the whole bit.......well, I am looking for shims on the body and/or the frame and haven't seen what I think I am looking for. All I have found are the composite donuts that sat in the middle between the mount and the body. Am I wrong in assuming I am looking for actual shims, similar to front end alignment shims? Maybe I am thinking of a mid-year where I know they had individual shims truly used to raise and lower the profile of the body. Thanks in advance.........

 

Jason, the shims are intended to adjust the body to imperfect frames. The chances of getting a perfect frame must be astronomical. You will find some body mount locatons with zero shims, but all the other locations will usually have some shims.

CAREFULLY clean the frame on the outside of the rails JUST below where the mounts are located. I don't know what year your car is, but it sounds like a later shark; earlier sharks have aluminum spacers. Arabic integers representing the number of shims at that location will be written in crayon on the frame below the body mounts UNLESS IT HAS BEEN MONKEYED WITH, i.e. "restored by Bubba", etc. If your frame has "0" under every body mount, then it never had any shims...if it has nothing written, with paint in pretty good condition, I would be concerned that the car had previously had a "frame off" restoration by the uninformed, but this is speculation on my part.

When the factory got a perfect frame, MAYBE they wrote NOTHING on the frame. I doubt this because, after placing the frame on the jig, the worker would have to check all locations first to know the frame was perfect; since imperfect frames were the norm, it would be easier to just determine the number of shims required, record the number on the frame, and move to the next mount location.

 

Chuck the car must be after 1973, my guess as they are the first to have rubber in the mount assembly.

Jason, Check up in your birdcage sills to see if there are any shims stuck up in them. They have habit fusing themselves to the cage and will need a little help to be removed. :smash:

 

Thanks PT! I see we have have a common interest in the :cheers: I would never turn down a cold brew. It reminds me of a college buddy of mine; when asked "Wanna have a cold one?" His reply was, " I wouldn't do such a disgrace to my mouth to drink just ONE cold beer." ;) But inevitably a couple of cold ones would turn into a night of many and that always lead to :U .

Anyway, since this is a corvette discussion board, DDOOOOHHHTT!! (Homer Simpson moment) did I say discussion board? I meant corvette forum, I will stick to the preferred subject matter. To Chuck and others, I found the shims stuck to the underside, just as suggested. Shims were only found on the front two middle mounts, none on the front frame horn, and none on the very back. Strange. The frame is fairly covered with grease and and surface rust, so no other markings are visible. Everything else looks normal, the doughnut washers are trash and so are the body bolts, but that is to be expected. When I finish stripping the chasis and start to sandblast (probably after football season) I will more than likely have many more questions. Thanks for the input, we will chat soon

 

By the way guys, it's a '68 roadster!

 

Jason,
Your situation is odd, when was your '68 built. As Chuck stated, '68's had alum. shims (look like large alum. washers) your being A composite type sounds like they have either been replaced or perhaps if a late model car maybe received the '69 model year shims(are '69's compsite?). Good luck with your '68, I'm right in the middle of the same thing. :rolleyes:

I believe that a white grease marker was used to indicate no shims needed by placing the number zero at that shim location.




[Modified by Robd, 12:33 PM 8/7/2001]

 

Robd, all 68-72 had aluminum spacers.

Also, there were usually natural steel square shims with turned down corners(or up depending on the mount location). You are correct; number of shims at the location was indicated by crayon "numerals" on the frame. If the location had NO shims, it was marked "0" as you said.

 

Chuck you are correct mine did have the natural steel square shims also.

 

When I took my old body mounts out they were so badly rusted and dry rotted (just lots of rust scale) that I could not tell if I had any shims in place. There are no marks on the frame that I can see as the frame has been painted over in many spots.
How can I measure to see if I need to put shims in place with the body mounts? I am at this stage and I need to do this only once!

Thanks! Greg

 

I saw a detailed procedure for determining the number of shims over on the C3 Forum several weeks back. Try the search function.

 

Jason, I still have a 68 conv with BUG eyes! No rust on the frame! See ya tomorrow evening. Get a 70! Everything went down hill after that! :bs :jester

 

This discussion sorta address's an issue I have. I will be putting the body back on a 65 conv soon and I have a complete set of GM body mount bushings for a 73+ conv. 4 pn:334755 and 4 pn:334756 (I think). They are twice as tall as the squashed ones that came out of the car but fit in the frame just fine. Does anyone have any idea if these should work?
Thanks
Andy B http://vette.20m.com

 

Andy, I know they are different from earlier cushions because they are sold as different parts by the vendors. I believe the later Shark frames were redesigned slightly to use the thicker cushions without altering the ride height. You would be well-advised to "deeg down" and buy the correct parts.

 

Chuck,
Thanks for the advice and I agree on getting the correct ones for the car, I cannot see these bushings flattening out as much as they would need to. I am not going for the lifted 4x4 look!
Andy B http://vette.20m.com