Frame rail carnage. Fix or forget.

[Garagegoon]

The car is disassembled at the moment but the alignment was fine prior to disassembly in looking at the tires that were on there for 20K miles or so when I purchased the car . This is old damage, not new. If I choose to make the repair, the car could be sitting as it is for a few weeks. If that's the route I choose to go, would coating it with some WD-40 or some grease hold me until then?

Whatever you do...do not cote it in WD-40 or grease! This will effect any coating you put over it later! Even if you you wax and grease remover and metal prep, it will not get out what has soaked into the metal. Adhesion problems!

[sblake01]

I hope he's already done whatever he needed to. The original poster hasn't posted in this thread in over a year and a half.

[Kiwi ZX+Zed]

with 20yrs of crashwork behind me....wouldnt worry about that,its cosmetic at most.You can feel safe no integrity has been lost.

[peterc]

If it were my car, I'd clear-coat it and carry a big mirror with me everywhere I went, . The dents just add character, exactly what you'd expect from a real road warrior. The fact that they're totally rust-free would absolutely amaze anyone from these parts.

p

[Mikes Z car]

I used a 4 lb sledgehammer on my drivers side frame rail to straighten it out some (responding here to an old post). Attached should be an animated GIF I made from a 7 minute video I took under the car looking down the frame rail toward the front while I used the sledge with a short 2X2 drift and then a four foot long one to get more swinging room for the hammer though I am not sure the longer drift helped any.

The GIF doesn't show the many sledgehammer blows used to cause the straightening just the total result.

Mike

Edited July 11, 2009 by Mikes Z car
clarify

[bigoak]

Looks like your car is breathing...