Project No-Flight Update
December 2001
Never leave your corvette unattended with Mr. Sawsall in the neighborhood!
Here is the factory supplied 1965 corvette suspension. This particular car was not built correctly. The left suspension was 3/8" behind the right suspension. Apparently someone dropped the frame in the jig, left for coffee break, and the next guy welded it in place without checking the fore and aft location of the frame rails. The front cross member was square to the frame, just welded into the wrong place. The body mounts were also aligned correctly to the body, just in different places on the left and right frame rails. It took about 2 months of measurements and cross checking to realize what really was caddy-wumpus with the original frame.
Only a few minutes work with a Saws-All, and the front portion of the frame, from the "pinch" forward was severed. There was enough built up stress in the frame that the remainder of the main frame rails moved inward 2 inches after the front cross member was cut free.
This is the beginning of the realigning and jigging to position the front section for reattachment to the main rails. All the suspension was aligned to be square and the same position on the left and right sides of the car, but with the wheel base slightly longer than the factory wheel base. The right side was extended 2" forward, and the left was extended 2-3/8" forward to compensate for the original factory frame mistake. If you look closely you can see the 10 ton frame ram holding the main rails in their original positions.
The frame was stretched by replacing the inner part of the frame "C" channel with a section of 3 x 4 " structural steel tubing. The size is correct to replace the original inside C channel, and slip inside the original outside C channel. The factory frame rails are nesting C channel sections with the outer C a larger height than the inner C. This allows for an overlap joint, which is actually stronger than the original factory frame.
You can see the gap left in the outside frame rail by this process. This was then filled with a separate patch panel. The entire frame was welded and ground smooth.
Here is the completed frame surgery. Now it's time to work on narrowing the front suspension.
The lower A-arms remained for the most part as a stock '65 was from the factory. They were converted however to Mopar press in ball joints and narrowed 3/4 " on each side.
The new drop spindles are for a S-10 Truck, or a 1983 Monte Carlo. They match the front steer requirements of the rack and pinion installation and give an additional 2" of front drop. They were re-reamed by hand with a custom tapered reamer to change the ball joint tapers to match the ball joints.
Now that the lower A-arm and spindle are in place, it is time to fabricate the new upper A-arms.
The upper A-arms are IMCA racing parts, and are a fully adjustable steel tubular setup. This makes future caster and camber adjustments as simple as loosening a nut and twisting the A-arm. No need for factory shims here. Yet to be installed in this photo are the coil-over shock units which will replace the original spring and shock absorbers with a fully adjustable setup so that ride height can be changed by turning a nut on the shock body.
With the frame now straight and the suspension work completed, I was able to finally install the forward frame supports for the roll cage. It was when getting ready to install these several months earlier that it became obvious something was amiss in the frame - which is what started this whole process. But in the end it turned out OK since I really wanted an excuse to change the wheel base anyways. :-)
The "Before" and "After" shots below show how the tire has been moved forward to have a much better match to the wheel opening on the forward edge, but the rear portion of the opening needs to be closed up by moving the wheel lip forward approximately 4 inches. This will let the body match the curvature of the wheel more closely and leaves an overall much smaller wheel opening to match the smaller diameter front tires. Even with the very close fit between the tire and the front edge of the body, there is plenty of clearance for the full steering lock due to the wheels being moved inward by 3/4 inch. The narrower front track also now matches the width of the rear tires, with both front and rear "tucked in" for better aerodynamics (at least that's the official excuse).
Next on the agenda is installing a mock-up motor and trans to locate the mounting points, and install the new frame center cross-members and floor supports. Then it's on to a long winter of body work to finish off the front wheel wells, install a new Carbon fiber firewall and floor (the Carbon is on it's way from Hawaii), and then ....
