pianiy

iTrader: (2)

Ok, me being the 6th owner in my Firebird's history and seeing that it was involved in at least one non-totalling accident through carfax I'm kinda wondering about the integrity of the body.

I know the lines aren't straight and I don't know if its been on a frame stretcher nor do I see any welding on it. Apparently whatever damage was done was small enough to fix with new body panels. But after having it aligned a week ago and the tires rotated and rebalanced I found that in order to keep a straight line I have to turn the wheel about 15* CW. Then I noticed how different my front wheel offsets are, take a look:

<a href="http://web.njit.edu/~ljd8271/Temp/offset-right.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://web.njit.edu/~ljd8271/Temp/offset-right-t.jpg" width="200" height="150"></a>
<a href="http://web.njit.edu/~ljd8271/Temp/offset-left.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://web.njit.edu/~ljd8271/Temp/offset-left-t.jpg" width="200" height="150"></a>

Click on the pics and you'll see the (very) large versions with some lines to help see the difference.

3.1EyeCandy

iTrader: (3)

What rims do you have? some f-bodies have different rims for the front and rear with differnent offsets. A tire place put both of my rear rims on one side and my fronts on the other side....it looked like I had frame damage. I took it back and they fixed it....looks 100% better. Maybe that's why your car looks funny.

3.1EyeCandy

iTrader: (3)

ah...GTA rims....those have different offsets for front and rear if they are factory rims *and not all fronts*. You might want to check on the inside of the rim....it should say which end it is for (front or rear)

pianiy

iTrader: (2)

The guys at the tire alignment shop thought the rims were on wrong, I was there watching them do it the entire time and corrected them. They rotated, balanced and put them in the CORRECT locations.

The front end is definitely not on right, but I wasn't about to go popping all 13 or whatever fasteners that hold it on, besides a few of them are a real bitch to get off (I've only taken one nosecone off, never put one on). I'm thinking the fenders may not be aligned quite correctly at the bottoms. I would suspect that the driver's side is where a hit occurred because the nosecone was cracked up underneath when it got it, there is some bent metal (small brackets and such), one of the horns was cracked when I got it, one of the EVAP canisters (the round one) has a broken tab and really has no place to mount itself, it just sits wedged between the charcoal canister and the wiper fluid container and the driver's side turn signal wasn't working as well when I first bought it because of some cut wires. So, yeah all that evidence leads me to believe it was hit on the driver's side but I'm wondering how bad it really was if the car wants to pull slightly to the left.

I'm gonna have to lift it somehow with all the weight still on the wheels and measure the distance from front to back between the spindles and rear LCA mounting points or something like that. Something that would indicate if one side is shorter than the other between the wheel bases. ideas?

Aviator857

You may want to check and makesure both your spindels are the same and both your rotors are the same, someone may have replaced one on only one side, with a slightly different type makeing the off set different, even if you wheels are set off to the side you shouldn't have to turn the wheel. I have had some really fubar cars where one side was off set more than the other, and it would drive straight down the road. When you say turn the wheel 15* do you mean from the point the wheel is stable or from the point the steering wheel looks straight. They may have not pulled the steering wheel off to make it level.

You may also want to check your steering linkiages and make sure none is worn more that others, espicially the idler arm.

MdFormula350

make sure that the brackets that hold the bottom of the fenders are intact.. the one on my drivers side was a bit bent in from a tap from one of the past owners, i just bent it back out and it pushed the fender out and aligned it back well.

erictheviking

The only real way to check for damage unfortunately is to remove all the frontend bodywork.I have first hand experience of this as a friend of mine bought a front end damaged car which didn't look too bad (new nosecone bonnet and wing).After the engine came out he measured loads of reference points to make sure he had the same readings on both sides.After a while it became very apparent that the chassis was damaged.He actually cut part of the front end of a spare car of mine and with a lot of time and patience,welded it onto his own.Yours might not be the same problem but you should really investigate as thoroughly as you can.To be honest the amount of work he put into it,he would have probably been better buying another car.It may also be worth measuring another car against yours.Look out for creases on the chassis and things like master cylinders etc. are where they should be.Good luck

okfoz

I looked at a 92 T/A convertable with the same problem, the front was off center by about 1/2" so I let it stay where it was at. They were asking only $3000 for it too...

John

TomP

Actually, I'm willing to bet that all is fine, and that your fenders are just bent. You could measure from the hub of the rotor (with the wheel off) to somewhere on the front strut tower, or maybe distance to lower main frame rail, and then do the same for the other side. Don't trust the body panels for frame alignment. Maybe the previous owner jacked the car up using the lower fender bolt (between bottom of door and rear of front tire), and one of the fenders is bent in. Or maybe some wacko hit you in a parking lot, didn't crack the paint or bumper, but tweaked the fender a bit.

You could also have a frame shop check the car out.. they have books with measurements .. example, back left corner of engine bay to the front right corner should measure X, if not, it's bent.

okfoz

What really qued me on the 92 'vert, was the alignment of the struts on the strut towers. If it looks to be adjusted to an extreeme, all the way to the right, or all the way to the left then you might have a serious problem.

However, like tomP suggested, it might just be out of adjustment.

not sure.

John