Chassis As Found
Pictures as of 05/01/2015
Of course the chassis held some surprises once the body was removed, and the undercoating scraped away. The car has an aftermarket 5 leaf home built rear suspension, the cross braces on the frame have been modified for straight exhaust, the front bump stops have been removed, spring rubbers installed, push bracket added to rear, L brackets were added to the frame rear of the axle to relocate the fuel tank, an attempt to ad a rear sway bar and 1.5" tall "C" plates added to the frame rails (about mid door) no cuts, no bends just a "C" channel. All indications is the car was hot rodded and road raced prior to 1971. The plates added to allow jacking the car up on the right or left side to remove tires without damaging the welds on the lower section of the frame. (note plates have since been removed, no damage under plates.
The chassis will need more than a few hours. After stripping it you can see the rough life it has lived. The addition of jack plates at about the mid door area, the replacement of the battery brackets and mount, the removal of a large section of the cross member (center section only) to allow for straight through exhaust pipe, the addition of brackets to relocate the fuel tank to the trunk, and a push bar bolted to the rear cross member. All will be fixed. in addition to a lot of hand sanding to get the frame back to original finish.
It is alive!! after over a year of cutting, grinding, welding and repair the frame is done, and the front and rear axle assemblies are back together. Went so far as to make sure the axles assemblies and frame are not the exact same Hue of black as the frame since all three were painted at different times. The frame looks fantastic as does the parts below but wait to you see the assemblies. I am now rejuvenated and excited to make her a roller before winter.
While some of the parts did clean up fantastic some had to be replaced; don’t worry any parts that came with the car that did not sandblast and clean up well (i.e. brake backing plates) were placed with original NOS parts sourced from CA. The end result is fantastic base parts to begin working with.
The frame is finally home and looking good as new. It required more work than thought but in the end it will make for a great base for the restoration. The frame repair/rework/restoration came out fantastic, I could not be happier with the end result. .. The advice from Chris Sherman was spot on. It is so good to have parts back in the garage that are too large to move to the basement, kind of makes me feel like it is moving forward again.
Below is the front and rear axles coming home to be mated for the first time since May 2015. I forgot how much "fun" drum brakes were to rebuild. Still need to find correct drums but for now this will do and will allow me to move forward with assembling. The goal is to work in parallel assembling the chassis on evenings after work as time permits and working on the body on weekends. With a bit of luck and good fortune the completed chassis and the painted body will be back together by Spring.
I have taken a 2 prong approach, on weekends going to TIN to help sand and body work, and i the evenings after work (when I am home) working on the chassis. I hate having to put the body on the chassis, all that hard work covered up. The front and rear axle/brake/steering assembly are about done and mounted to the frame.
Pictures as of 12/01/2016
Above is the assembled chassis, axles fuel and brake liens etc. When the car was originally manufactured by GM in 1959 the frame and axle assemblies were painted at different times using variations in paint Hue.I have tried to replicate this hear. Once all mock up is done the exhaust will be removed and coated, the hangers and bolts properly plated to match originally provided. .... and yes the bubble wrap is not OE.. HA HA
Still a few bolts, hardware and fitting to paint. Decided to paint afterwards to keep the finish correct. Tie rod ends have to be removed and coated also to match OE... to bad as the front end came out fantastic. If you look close you will also notice the brakes hoses have incorrect DOT marks etc. .i have a set of original single crimp hoses however for safety purposes i might accept the DOT hoses. I plan to PV the car and a failed brake hose mid drive would be bad... very bad.
While still far from complete Lolla made a show in 2018 at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Chicago, where she was part of Restoration timeline. She had a lot of people thinking she was a cream-puff.. little did they know that teh body and chassis had well over 1000 hours in them already just to get to this point. She was even shown in an article in Vette Vues Magazine.
To say i am proud of the work I have done to the chassis is an understatement. I built the entire front and rear assembly completely off the car at lunch at work... 1 hour a day many many weeks. The worst part was the hanging of the front end. The weight made it difficult to work with. And of course getting the nuts and bolts on the front end to line up required some drift pin expertise and a few small ratchet straps. but after some time everything lined up and the bolts are all going the right direction.
