Jim72Chevelle
Apr 6th, 01, 12:33 PM
A friend of mine told me that SS's came with a heavy duty frame. Is this true? Would reinforcing the existing frame and putting cross-beams be good enough to hold around 800 HP/Ft-lbs?
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Schurkey Apr 6th, 01, 2:50 PM The only heavy duty frame I know of is used on the convertables and the El Caminos. The main rails are fully boxed instead of C section. LMacdonald Apr 6th, 01, 3:25 PM Jim, those frames were designed to hold 300-400 HP engines. If you drop an 800HP engine in and you get it to hook up the frame will flex. I ran a 500HP engine in a 79 Malibu (full frame). After 2 years we started to see stress cracks in the upper rear quarter panel. The frame was reinforced with a 6-point roll bar. After 4 years of racing (about 200 passes) we sent the car to the junkyard. If you are going to use this on the street it probably doesn't matter, as much, because it is unlikely it would hook up. ------------------ Larry TC # 1000 66 Malibu - under transformation Off the Frame (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/lmacdonald1.jpg) Back on the Frame (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/macdonald2.jpg) chev64 Apr 6th, 01, 3:40 PM The only Chevelle that came with a heavy duty frame that is common knowledge is the 65 Z-16 that was fitted with a convertible frame. ------------------ Leo Paugh Maryland Chevelle Club #017 A.C.E.S.#3731 there is only one way to fail, and thats to quit. Maryland Chevelle Club (http://www.clark.net/pub/chevelle/mcc.htm) JWagner Apr 7th, 01, 6:36 PM Sometimes the heavy duty frame could be bought as an option for trailer towing.That is a long shot as those were not the types of options that dealers ever told customers about, but it is possible. Carl Brune Apr 7th, 01, 9:09 PM Maybe your friend is talking about the braces which go between the rear control arm attaching points? Regarding heavy duty frames, there is another example discussed 1965 resto packet. The taxi cab model (RPO B02) goto an HD frame: "Heavy gauge front extensions and special reinforcemnt at front crossmember to side membeer and lower control arm attachment." MARTINSR Apr 7th, 01, 10:32 PM But did you know that ALL '65 and '66 Buick Gran Sports had the boxed convertible frame like the few Z16 Chevelles did. I agree that the boxed frame is an over kill, Buick way over built the Gran Sport, it even had things like a forged iron clutch bellcrank, I mean jeez it was built like a tractor. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif ------------------ 1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible 1965 Buick Skylark H/T "Fan of most anything that moves human beings" Quadzilla Apr 8th, 01, 3:12 PM What se the Z16 apart was that they added more metal to the already beefy convertiable frame. I suspose if you wanted you could take your exisisting frame and and put all the reinforcements you wanted to. The only major detractor is weight. ------------------ Francis Taracido Gold# 201 sniper0666@aol.com History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man. Oh No! You Know She's Got To Go! Go Go Quadzilla! <oo=+=oo> http://members.aol.com/sniper0666/page/intro.html Rich-L79 Apr 9th, 01, 2:19 PM The Z16 frame is also unique from the standard convertible frame in that ALL the seams are completely welded from end to end. Most long seams on all frames have 2-3 inch welds every 6-8 inches. For the Z16 they added additional welding by hand to fill in the typically unwelded sections to stiffen up that frame just a little more. ------------------ NCOA member #220 ACES member #1670 Team Chevelle #998 Rich's 1965 Malibu SS Restoration Project Progress Page (http://www.geocities.com/ticklewiggle/) 1:18 scale diecast car Detailing by Scooter (http://www.amhost.com/scooter/) | ||