A-Body Frame/Body Jig

[CFD244]

when I have it up on jacks, completely gutted (no engine, transmission, k-frame or interior, that the drivers side frame rail is off the jack by about 1/2 inch. Doors, trunk and hood open and close fine

Exact same situation with my 340 Demon. I have 1/4 inch.

 

[Cuda416]

Thanks for all the pics. That gives me a lot of ideas. The best idea is to bring my car to your shop for the frame rail replacements. Too bad you're so far away. The next idea is to use the bumper bolt holes to locate the rear of the rear rails and the front of the front clip. I'll have to study my car to see about the mid supports. My car is straight and doesn't appear to have ever been in a wreck so I can probably verify and get good original measurements. I'm close to an Alro Metal Supply outlet and the generally have good tubing cutoffs that they sell by the pound. I don't think I want to spend for I beams since this is probably for this car and maybe one other. I don't ever plan to do this for anyone other than myself and maybe a friend or one of my sons. I think maybe a truss structure like you have under that first Duster would be the way for me to go. I'm assuming I'll need to do a full trunk pan with the rear rail replacement but I'm hoping to save the front floors. I'll have to drill a lot of spotwelds I guess.

One thing I would need to consider is how to get the body up on a jig and back off of it since I don't have a lift.

A stripped A-Body is not that heavy. Two engine hoists would easily do the job.

 

[DC 340]

A question I have for all the "former drips under pressure" is how much frame rail/body twist is tolerable for an a-body street car. My 67 Barracuda vert was tagged pretty good in the passenger side before I inherited it. I had the frame "straightened" at a shop, but I notice that when I have it up on jacks, completely gutted (no engine, transmission, k-frame or interior, that the drivers side frame rail is off the jack by about 1/2 inch. Doors, trunk and hood open and close fine, but before I weld in frame connectors I want to know if further adjustment is needed.

That would be your call for sure. I think that is a tough question. Are you able to visually detect that "twist" in the unibody structure when comparing levelness of rear of car compared to front? On front end alignment, can or does it fall within spec? Are door gaps visually acceptable? If all that says OK it may not be worth the effort to fix IMO.

 

[gdrill]

I can give you the measurements for the heights of the body legs It is in the shop right now with a car on it. . Ours is a fixed stand for 67-76 A-bodies. The first pics are of adjustable stands where you can change location and height. Ours is heavy duty and can be used to straighten bodies or assembling bodies. The tubular stands are for dismantling and assembling bodies. Note the leveling legs to the floor. If the floor your on is not level these take the flex out of the stand. Even though ours is made from solid 3/4 steel plate and I-beams it still flexes and changes the structure.




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I found this post again. I used the info to install a front clip as you showed. These 8 dowel points you use would be common to all 67 - 76 A-body chassis dimensions I presume? You mentioned you could share the lengths (Difference in height) of each point but I did not see that. I would like to know these so I can construct a similar structure? I have a rail that I suspect is almost identical to your Valiant! I have looked over the frame charts but can not figure out the vertical dimensions.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

The fixture is at the new shop. The legs are off . I will be going down there to put the windshield on the skid loader over the holidays. I'll get the heights and widths of the legs and post them. There is 4 front legs connected and 4 rear. They are all the same heights on a-bodies. The 66 and earlier cars the widths are different. There is also legs for the bumper attachment to tie the carr down if it needs to be jacked around. We have a Busk frame puller that fastens to the table if needed.

 

[CFD244]

The fixture is at the new shop. The legs are off . I will be going down there to put the windshield on the skid loader over the holidays. I'll get the heights and widths of the legs and post them. There is 4 front legs connected and 4 rear. They are all the same heights on a-bodies. The 66 and earlier cars the widths are different. There is also legs for the bumper attachment to tie the carr down if it needs to be jacked around. We have a Busk frame puller that fastens to the table if needed.

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Thanks for posting

 

[Demonic]

Who does the painting Steve? It all looks great!

 

[gdrill]

OK great. Thank you. This will be very helpful in confirming my suspicion.