Frame: Help straighten me out

[Brakin80]

We went out for a ride last week to meet up with Martin Jansen at Jule Enterprise to get his opinion on the frame of our 1960 BN7.

The diagnosis wasn't great. The door gaps at the top (back) were tight relative to everything else. As soon as we got the car on the lift the frame flexed and the doors sprung open. I'd say the door openings spread about 1/4" between the top of the door and the shut face. That wasn't the surprise. (Thoughts/fixes for this?)

The surprise came in the front end. We had noticed that the front tires were wearing unevenly. We prepared to do an alignment only to find that the camber of the right tire was way out (the real reason we went to talk with Martin). What we found. The chassis rails from the engine mounts forward had some waves in them. As well, the top of both sides of each frame rail had slight buldges in them in front of the engine mounts. Martin explained that this was a common stress point in the rails as a result of engine weight (I think that's how he explained it). The other thing that he noticed was that the lower pulley was closer to the crossmember than normal. Again, he felt that it was pretty common. The bottom of the crossmember has taken a hit as well.

He said if we replaced the crossmember as part of the camber correction, there's no guarantee that it'll take. In other words the frame could relax back into the exact same postion.

So all that being said, what do we do? Replace the front sections of chassis rails? (I've noted that Moss sells these.) Replace the front crossmember? I've also had someone suggest that we replace just the bottom half of the entire length of the chassis rails. Apparently this can be done with the car fully assembled. What would this accomplish? Frame flex at the doors? We are hoping to not get into a $50,000 resto, just to get the frame right because the rest of the car is in great shape. Are we going to have to disassemble the entire car to do the work that needs to be done? What do we do?

Whew! Thanks.

 

[Dave Russell]

Most of the Healey complaints about poor panel fit, scuttle shake, doors popping open, & skittish handling actually stem from chassis/frame flex caused by deterioration.

These cars are a semi unibody type construction. See the attached pic. The whole under part is welded into one piece with the outer metal just hung on for the ride. The cars were originally very structurally rigid. A solid car can be jacked up at any corner or the middle with no change of door, bonnet, or boot lid alignment or gaps.

As time & rust take their toll, the "frame" gets progressively weaker until it flexes as you have observed. A lot of the rusting takes place from the inside out, so anything you can see is likely only the beginning.

Serious restorers cut out the bad parts & weld in new. Lot of work & expense. The alternative is to replace the complete assembly with new from Jule, Killmartin, or others. $8000 US sounds like a lot for a new frame assembly but you could easily have that much in repair to the old one. If you can do the welding, cutting, & fitting of new repair parts, it can be a viable do it yourself project for less money. Once you start such a project, there is likely no stopping point.

You are fortunate to have Jule near by. I would suggest going by his advice. You may want to just drive the car as is.
D

 

[big6]

Don’t waste your time repairing an old frame. I spent many hours repairing my old BJ7 frame and was never satisfied with the results. I purchased a Jule frame and then repaired and mounted the three main sections. All parts now fit correctly and I have no frame flex or sag. However, the car is now about 60#’s heavier with the more rigid frame. Martin usually doesn’t sell the frame by itself because of the skill level of some restorers. If you have never completed a frame-up restoration I would suggest you have Martin take your old parts and weld them to the Jule frame. The project will be completed sooner and probably more cost effective than attempting to graft parts to the old frame.

 

[anthony7777]

bulges and waves in on or around a frame?ive never heard of this being caused by the weight of the motor,unless its had some type of front end damage due to impact,or perhaps you mean to say the frame is rusted so saverly its not able to hold the weight of the motor!in any case it sounds to me that perhaps no mater how you proceed with the repair,you should not use it as is!!!!!!!!