Advice needed

[fadeaway2]

I have a 1977 Corvette coupe t-tops 350CI. automatic. Car was rough when

purchased but slowly over time i have it to what i consider as a nice daily

driver about a 6 or 7 out of 10.

I have owned the car since 1992 - 22 years. My frame on

resto has been a project over that time.

I enjoy the car - like most of these, the car sits in the

garage too much but i enjoy it when i get to drive it. I have way more money

invested in it that i know i will never get back so for that reason ill

probably own it until i die. For that reason i am trying to care for it

as best as budget will allow.

The car had a engine rebuild before i bought it. It starts and runs fine

and has never let me down - the motor has a periodic tick from lifter i

think which a mechanic could probably fix with adjustment.
I plan to keep repairing and restoring the car as best i can.

The problem. Recently i took the car to my mechanic for brake work. When

the car was lifted by frame, the passenger side front fender cracked vertically

aligned near the edge of the fender by the door. See the pictures.
I am wondering if any of you could tell me what you think of this or

anyone had this happen. My gut is telling me this may be a vertical

pillar problem on the birdcage decay.

I am hoping i can get a repair done without a frame off. The car is not worth a full frame off i dont think. Obviously i dont want to repair and paint until i fix the problem. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thank you.
Steve

 

[nascar03]

Hi Steve...
Welcome to the Site.
That crack sucks. I have never seen that before.
I know there is a big stress put on that area when C3s are on a 2-post lift.
That whole front end and motor just hangs out there!
The last time my '75 was on a 2-post lift it scared me as the door-fender gap opened up a bunch...!!!! Yikes.
It looks to me as the bonded area at the back of the fender split.
Maybe with the use of two jacks at home you can slowly lift at the jack points and see where things are giving up or moving..?
Good luck. Sorry to see that.
Graham

 

[rocky yo]

Any crack sucks but to be honest that does not look that bad and should be easily repaired without a frame off. Any body shop should be able to fix that, get some quotes and see. It definitely is not a do it yourself project. Send the photo to some shops and see what they say. Good luck.

 

[buckhorn76]

odd location. could it be an old repair done prior to you purchasing the car ?

 

[Riley P]

Aaaaaaah! That suck to hear!

If you want to look at the different parts under the body, you can scroll through this thread where Taylor has been doing a bod off. Maybe this will show you what is under the fender.

http://www.canadiancorvetteforums.com/forums/c3-forum/3194-begins-body-off.html

As there are a few pages on this thread, the end is where the body starts getting taken apart.

 

[taylorsk8]

Seems like a very weird spot to crack. I am no expert but I believe that is right on a bonding point to the firewall. I will double check when I get home how much overlap was there. The fix should be easy. Hopefully the bond to the firewall didn't break free, although that should be a relatively easy fix as well. It is more a matter of figuring out why it happened. I will do some looking on my car tonight and come up with some ideas.

T

 

[taylorsk8]

Ok. looking at my front clip (currently off the car) the flange from the firewall is bonded at least back to the point where your crack appears to be. I dont see how lifting the car (and having the nose flex down) would cause this crack. If you lift the car from the jacking points does the crack spread at all? Here is a pic of the I/S of the clip where your crack is. Ignore the bonding seam it is separating due to the removal. The picture with the black line is approximately where the firewall flange lines up.





Sorry i know this isn't much help but it is what I can see for now.

T