was I taught wrong at school or is everybody taking short cuts

J

jamon8

all over the forums I look at the build threads and I see that the cars are taken off the frame and there is no bracing inside the interior. at school they taught us to brace the interior. not just one or two braces but a spider web of bracing. is that overkill or was I taught right

even on the car shows I don't see them bracing up the interior
 
At the shop I work at we only add bracing once the car is off the frame and getting cut apart to repair or replace. Typically the car will come off for new floors and then go right back on the frame for the new exterior sheet metal. Once its done in metal it will come to me for body and paint. I will do 90% of my work with the car on the frame. Once I feel the body is straight and ready for final prime we will rip the car apart.
 
I've done it both ways but with some of the cars I've become more familiar with I for the most part don't brace as much as I have in the past. I find that I'm better off to not brace them when I re-body them and use it to my advantage to get better body lines.

For instance the Impala we did here, had both rear quarters off, trunk floor and inner wheel wells out.. No bracing. you could move the whole back end of what was left with you're pinky. But I used it to my advantage to line everything up and get better body lines. In this case the body was still on the chassis, but just a reference to bracing.

A Chevelle we are doing right now that we took off the frame, we put new quarters on it, roof skin, rear package tray and rockers. for this I only added a brace across the back between the trunk hinges to make sure they keep in the correct location but didn't brace anything else..

If I were just removing the body from the frame I wouldn't brace it at all unless of course it's completely rusted out. They didn't have bracing in the body when they built them if they required it just to put the body on i'm not sure I would feel safe riding in them, as they do have to have structural support built into them.
 
It depends on the car. I definitely brace convertibles when lifting them from the frame but cars will no pillar issues and a solid roof should be fine. I guess when it doubt add the braces.
 
cool that's what I thought. a lot of what I was taught was overkill, they also preached etch primer but I did my car in epoxy since I had to pay for materials. I am about to do a 68 gto do you think I will get away with doing all the structural stuff on the frame then separate without bracing
 
I brace convertibles when I lift them but I'm with Chad using cautious commonsense to your advantage. Floppy bodies are easier to adjust.

What kind of school would preach etch primer with the quality epoxies available today?
 
jamon8;33172 said:
cool that's what I thought. a lot of what I was taught was overkill, they also preached etch primer but I did my car in epoxy since I had to pay for materials. I am about to do a 68 gto do you think I will get away with doing all the structural stuff on the frame then separate without bracing
Click to expand...

I just did a bunch of metal work on a LeMans convert. I did add some bracing to that, but I put in floors, wheel well sections and quarters.. I think there is a project thread on here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top