My brother screwed up this time

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A good shop that can do good frame work can fix it. We used to live in a world were things that were hit hard and wrecked was not repairable and today that is not the case.

A good frame guy is worth his weight in gold. My dad did body work and went to frame school and I can tell you he put them back to factory if not better. They have so much to be allowed off and my dad didn't except that is was put back to 100% correct.

I have seen him take cars that most would pass on to rebuild and rebuilt them and you could never tell that it was wrecked and a good many of them he did not do an all over paint job he just simply blended them in.

It will cost a good bit but a numbers matching car is worth saving. It also sounds like a few guys are talking about reboding a car now that is just wrong because it will never be what he just wrecked it will always be a questionable car with different numbers with the hidden vins.

We do live in a world that things can be fixed and brought back to life and there are a lot of slant six donor cars out there and new sheet metal.

Do you know most new cars driven off the lot have frame damage? This comes from being tied down on the carriers and all the stress they go through from the bumps in the roads and moving will bend the frame.

My dad fixed a many of frames on new cars driven right off the lot due to this and it is funny but the most of them were fords.

Also when buying a car you can check the frame by just putting I think its three or four fingers between the front wheel well. You messure from the back of the front wheel to the fender and if you can get them in with out touching there is damage.

We don't live in a time that a car is to gone to fix.
 
Yep they can be pulled straight i do it all the time.This one was hit twice the ricer didn't stop for the red hit the 1/4 spun him around and hit the fender,Buddy pulled ricer guy out of his fart can and hit him twice!!!!
 

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66 Dartman said:
Yep they can be pulled straight i do it all the time.This one was hit twice the ricer didn't stop for the red hit the 1/4 spun him around and hit the fender,Buddy pulled ricer guy out of his fart can and hit him twice!!!!
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Nice looking cars in the shop. Is that an AMC and right now the name of the car I'm thinking of just went out the window.... I know the cars were painted red white and blue.
 
Fixing the frame structure on a car that has a "real" frame isn't that hard. I've replaced whole rails, and straightened out cars that were hit so hard the frame was 6" shorter than before the hit. Clipping, replacing rails or even entire sections of box frame cars can be done with great results even with serious damage. The trueness of the car depends only on the box frame, and that's as simple as replacing sections of rectangular tubing. Granted, making sure it all ends up in the right place is a little time consuming.

Unibody cars are not that simple. The trueness and integrity of the car depends on the entire structure, not just the rails. If there's damage behind the firewall or ahead of the rear axle, it won't be the same again. And I'm not a fan of "pulling" a car back out.

The problem is that the damaged sections don't change, the undamaged sections do. Steel work hardens as you bend it, so, if you put a big wrinkle in a panel, then pull that panel back by pulling on the ends, you don't fix the wrinkle so much as you stretch the undamaged metal to put the ends in the right place. It's just not the same. Maybe when all is said and done the suspension points end up in the right places, but the integrity of what's between those points is not the same as it was.

Yes, you can go back and replace everything. And its true, nothing is really too far gone to be fixed anymore with the parts and resources that are out there now. Anyone that's seen some of the rebuilds on the hemi cars out there can attest to that. But, those are basically "money is no object" builds. If this Duster is really bent, it could easily cost twice as much as the car is worth to get it straight, doing it the right way.
 
The car has a 6-point cage. I'm hoping that saved everything behind the firewall. I might go see it this weekend, if I can refrain from beating his ***.
 
Well, good luck, regardless. Agreeing with much of what has already been said, I think that it could be saved, first by getting pulled, then replacing anything that was bent badly after it is in spec.
 
George R said:
Thats a 64 Chevy Impala.

Thats actually a cool picture! LOL

George
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HAHA I was way off and now I can see it is. I thought it might be a AMC Rebel Machine I think that is what they were called....Dang memory some does its good other days its...what was I say again lol.

I do like seeing shop pics.
 
Just buy a nice /6 duster and swap your parts over. if you rebuild a badly wrecked 340 duster you will spend too much in relation to how much a badly damaged but then rebuilt maybe numbers matching 340 duster is worth. So if you like it not because it's numbers matching, but because how you like to drive it anyway, then duster bodies are cheap!
 
Well, I smacked my 'Cuda into a concrete wall and I'm in the process of restoring it. Granted, it needed to be restored and the front end work (new clip and all) didn't add much to the scheme of things. Just more headaches.
 
thats why I dont put my foot in my Duster. The first time my wife drove it she tried to drive it like our Nissan Sentra we had. She wanted to take it to work after I stuffed the 440 down in it. She came back home about 15 min. after she left and told me she wasnt gonna get behind the wheel of it no more. I asked her what was wrong wit it and she told me she turned it around in the middle of the road trying to turn right at the stop sign. I told her she didnt have any need to drive it again. Its been 12 years now and she has never been behind the wheel of it since.
 
72bluNblu said:
Unibody cars are not that simple. The trueness and integrity of the car depends on the entire structure, not just the rails.
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This. Look at the door alignment. If they don't line up and close as before, it's basically game over.
 
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