I traded an old truck for a 71 skylark with 350-2/ and a th350 tranny. The best thing about the car has an estimated $1500 or more in new interior. The body is not too bad and in keeping with my skills to make it a good looking daily driver. But the frame at firewall on both sides has been repaired badly on both sides of car. My question is, if the pieces of channel were taken out and new ones, done properly welded in, would I ever get stability at that location, or should I just call it a day and look for a new frame. This is a 2 dr post car. With car jacked up, doors won't open. With a flat tire, doors won't open. I can adjust with jack to get things opening and closing properly.
Yikes! Those repairs look downright scary. I bet the frame has other problem areas as well making the effort to repair this area just a waste of time. Where are you located? If we know where you are, it could help in finding a suitable donor frame that is relatively close to you.
I am in Bellingham, Wa. 100 miles north of Seattle. Most everything bad looks forward of firewall, but didn't take measurements. Thanks
Attached are a few pics I pulled out of various threads here in V8 Buick. They should give you an idea of what it's supposed to look like. best of luck.
Hang out on Bangshift? Because before I brought it home and really got a chance to look deeper into it, was going to put my 1970 Electra 455 under it and go bangshifting. Don't know what I am going to do with it now though. Might part this out, keep the Electra or just start over completely. ---------- Post added at 02:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:52 PM ---------- Thanks for going through all that trouble. Looks like pic #3 pretty much tells the story. Strangest thing happened. Couldn't open driver door. Had the rim and tire just hanging. So I torqued it down, to get it back on the ground and move the jack stands, and the door opened. Passenger side still won't open, going to drop it and see if that will open too with both tires and rims on and stands moved.
We could probably find you a decent frame over here in the Yakima / Tri Cities area, they will be mostly rust free. I have one under my donor car, but I think I'm gonna need to replace the one under my driver. I know of several good salvage yards in the lower valley that have a ton of "A " bodies.
I have been checking C.L.pretty much daily and haven't seen anything, but am definately interested in you run across anything in the yards. Thanks
Google search TEE PEE auto wrecking in Outlook,WA and also Dan's Garage in Kenniwick WA. They are my "go to" places Dan has a better selection of "A" bodies, but his yard is really tight, so getting things out may be tricky. Terry at TeePee would be your contact there, ( the owner) loves the older iron and will treat you right.
O.k., found a frame, plus another car. It is local from a fellow board member. Very fair deal. Decision time. This would put me at 3 skylarks and with new paint, which I am quite comfortable doing myself, would end with a complete car in probably number 2 condition. I would have 2 cars to get rid of and a slew of parts. Going to list my 66 Impala today and see if I can make it all work out without too much $$ going out the door in the short term.
Hey George i'm diggin the custom radiator fan. Shouldn't have any problems with running hot. Who makes that style? :laugh:
