For all you Body ppl out there...Whats the best way to tell if You have frame damage?

Im sure the Car was hit on the Upper Drivers Side Fender or near the Front of the Car. At the Joint where the Drivers Side corner of the Hood and Bumper Cover meet there is about a Half inch gap where the Cover is just a bit low. Also looks like the Strut Mount on the Drivers side was replaced and Painted over(paint is coming off), and the Windshield has a Crack coming from the A-piller down to the Hood.

Car drives Straight on any Road surface if I let go of the Steering wheel and there doesnt seem to be anyplay in the Front Brakes or steering at all.

Former owner didnt say anything about it being hit but did mention that the Bumper cover was low and they tried to fix it.

Any Idea's would be helpfull as Im trying to figure out to keep the car or junk it....its an 86 Iroc

 

Did you have it given to you or what? If you just bought it why would you "junk" it? If you really wonder about frame damage you will need to pull the fender to get an accurate look at it. Or get underneath and see if you can see anything obvious under there. Welding, or original factory seam sealer that is broken or replaced are dead giveaways that the frame may have been bent. But that doesn't nessasarily mean that you should junk the car. Frame damage can be repaired correctly and you would never know the vehicle had been hit.

 

do what I'm doing (and did), get underneath, check the measurements you can on the body (find someone with the measurements)

and then take it to a body shop, seeing as they are the ones that would fix it anyway... a good mechanic can spend a bit of time with it and tell you one way or the other.

if he's not sure, he's got a rack to put it on

 

I've Looked under the car but cant see anything that would suggest frame damage to me but I dont know much about Frames and such anyway.

The main reason I would junk it is that the Previous owner('s) Really mistreted the car and it needs ALOT of work done to it and if there was frame damage then I wasnt gonna bother to Restore/Improve the car if it needed to be Straightened.

Thanks for the Input

Brian

 

Every car has potential and/ or has some value to someone. So why junk it?? I mean what are you gonna get like $100 tops?? If ya dont want it there are plenty of people who do! The way I look at is evey thirdgen junked or any car of worth for that matter is one less car for someone to enjoy!! You should see my 86 IROC!! Rusted floor pan, needs two front fenders, hood, front nose, lota body/rust work, paint, interior needs work thats just to get it into some what decent condition!

Kevin

 

jack it up and take off the wheel, maybe the brake rotor too. after i spun out we were changing the tie rod and with all that stuff we could see a nice fat frame crack =/

right in the middle of the engine bay bottom frame ... keep ur eyes out

 

Well guess all I can do is find someone with a Frame Rack and Check it out...if all goes well then Time to drop somemore cash into it to get it back on the Road.

With any luck I can get some of the Guys at work to gimme a hand....seems they are all car ethusiasts big time, though one is a major BS'r when it comes to Imports(says a stock civic with a vtech does 13.5 in the 1.4...and his his Neon does 10's with just a turbo and stock int and stuff )

Anyway thanks for the info

Brian

 

If the frame's been painted and the reast has not (or has obviously older paint) then chances are good its been damaged.