1971 Chevelle repair

[dustinm]

Very nice frame work. Our local frame guy well... he needs some lessons from you

[Too Many Projects]

Here we go, rip, tear and dissect. I welded a pulling tab on the bumper and pulled that out far enough to gain access to the mounting bolts and remove it. The quarter started unfolding with it.








Once the bumper was off, I went to remove the wiring, but it was routed thru small holes in the frame and I had to cut it all apart to get it out. The connectors weren't going to fit back thru those holes.











Once that was cleared, I used 2 clamps on the quarter and tail panel, pulling them far enough to relieve the pressure on the frame and pull some of the deep buckles out.








I had the body locked to the rack in front of the left tire and 2 ratchets holding the front of the frame from going backward and another chain holding the front from pulling sideways to the left from the towers at the rear.








20 tons of pulling power made easy work of unfolding the quarter and getting the door pillar back where it belonged. I have a very even gap again.








This pic shows how far the quarter moved at impact. It had overlapped the door by almost a 1/2".





Then I cut out a good size piece to get access to the reinforcement inner structure at the door pillar and to relieve more of the stress of the sail panel at the roof.





There are still 2 shallow buckles but they are below the roof seam, so nothing to worry about.





That's all for today, folks.

[m22mike]

Neat stuff

[Too Many Projects]

Not much changed visually today. LOTS of time spent removing spot welds. I started drilling them, but I don't like the tip on the drills they have at work. By the time the top layer is drilled thru, most of the bottom layer is too, which I DON"T want to drill thru. I already have a handful of holes I need to weld shut and sand smooth. I went to a 3m 1991 stone to grind off the quarter panel material, leaving the substrate with only a slight amount of material gone. The stone is VERY slow, compared to a drill, but no time fixing a hole either.
I ground out all the welds on the quarter to trunk seal channel, but didn't bother with a pic of that.
Tomorrow, I'll remove the rear glass and, hopefully, get the rest of the quarter off.