My 1969 Corvette Project

The Saga Continues

January 16, 2000

The frame goes outside, and my wife gets her spot back. The frame is pretty light. My wife and I can move it ourselves. I am thankful for that, since I think my family, friends, and neighbors are tiring of helping me move, roll, and lift heavy objects.

January 22, 2000

The frame goes to beauty school. We rented a truck, since we had to also pick up some furniture. As luck would have it, it snowed the night before, so driving was scary, especially in a big unfamiliar truck. 

Rob at Redi-Strip will be removing all the grease and rust from my frame. He had two similar frames he had just finished with. The frames were in a lot worse shape than mine. One was rusted through in places. It looks like things could always be worse. Rob has a backlog so it will take about a month, and then I need to get it painted. I am not sure how I am going to handle the painting, but there are several body shops near Redi-Strip. I have plenty to do, in the mean time.

January 29, 2000

January 31, 2000

February 25, 2000

	The differential is rebuilt, which is going to be a page on its own, and repainted. I just have to bolt the cover on, torque the cover bolts, and fill it with gear oil and posi-additive. The frame should be ready for pickup any day now.

March 23, 2000

The frame is home from Redi-Strip. It looks great. This is not the recommended way of hauling a Corvette frame. The guys at Redi-Strip thought I was nuts, and asked me to call and let them know I made it safely, nice guys.

May 10, 2000

	Well I decided to fix the frame. The way it is dented could cause some structural instability under stress, or buckling in an accident. I marked the half section I will remove with pencil, and then cut along the lines. This is a view from the bottom of the right side.
	I ground the welds out with a Dremel tool using some reinforced cutting wheels. The Dremel tool did not like this work. Between this and cutting bolts, I think it will be shot before this project is over. I had access to a pneumatic grinder, but I do not have a compressor.
	I forgot to mention during the disassembly that I broke off one of the rear brake line brackets. These are welded to the frame, not very securely I might add. This is a picture of the one on the opposite side. I will fix this as well, when I rent a MIG welder. I may also look at other areas of the frame, and add some welds where I think it may add to the structural integrity.
	I cut out the bad section. You can see how deformed this short section was.
	Here is the previous attempt at repair.
	This is a view from the top. This shot illustrates that, even with dip stripping a frame, rust remains in the lap joints.

June 14, 2000

June 16, 2000

	I rented a MIG welder and spent about 20 minutes practicing on some sheet steel to get the settings, and my movements right. I should have spent more time, since I have never MIG welded, and have not TIG or stick welded in about 20 years. My first weld, the brake line bracket, looked like #&*%.
	The other welds went a lot better. MIG is easier than the other welding methods I have used. I also struck once before lowering my mask, leaving dots in my eyes for 15 minutes, before I could continue.
	After some moderate grinding, putting in the appropriate factory holes and slots, and some primer, it looks pretty good.
	I filled in some of the more pitted areas before I primed the rest of the frame. The area in front of the front frame mount was the worst.
	I was originally going to have someone else paint the frame, but after considering hauling it back and forth and waiting on someone else, I decided to take the cheap way out. It is actually looking pretty good.
	I will start finish painting the frame in a few days, after a mini-vacation. Then I can start reassembling. I am committed to having this thing ready by next summer.