Thread: measurement blunder

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I have a back half clip question. In high school I saved up and purchased a 4-link suspension and a welded rear frame for my 56 Chevy from chassisworks. I installed it by reading the directions supplied by chassisworks, that was about 7 years ago. I recently started to work on my car again. I went bach and rechecked all of my measurements All of them are perfect except for one. The 4 link crossmember is off a little less than a quarter to one side. The brackets were allready welded by chasissworks so one bracket is slightly closer to the inside of the stock frame and the other is slightly further away. How much will this affect my car? It will mainly be a prostreet car. Should I scrap the frame?

Are the brackets allready welded on the rear end housing?? If not you could correct it here. I'm not sure that I am visualising what you are saying, could you put a pic of it on and then your measurements???

I'm guessing you are saying you welded the assembly in the car slightly off to one side? I wouldn't think a jig welded clip would be welded together wrong. More info. or a picture would help. If it is as simple as the clip assembly being welded in offset, do you have enough material to cut it loose and reweld it?

My bad I'll work on getting a picture on today. Thanks guys for replying.

Thanks for the replys guys! The pic did work. I didn't think it would show up. The frame did come welded together as pro70z28 describes The picture is what basically what I recieved. One pair of arrows is pointing to where the frame was cut to fit in between the original frame rails. Thats where the math is off this shifts the front part of the frame over almost a quarter of an inch. The frame rails which extend to the back weld to the end frame piece which supports the bumper. The end frame piece was bolted to the car so I know it aligned. I also measured the end frame rails from right to left
they are welded in the correct places. Will this greatly affect my car? What do you guys think I should do? I do have spare pieces of frame left which were cut off. If it does'nt affect my car greatly then I don't mind leaving it but, if it will then I'll fix it. I have a 210 Lincoln wire feed welder so anythings possible.

Ideally everything should line up exactly, but the most critical thing to look for is the relation of the rear end to the car itself. If the rear end is square to the drive line and is centered in the wheel wells that is the most important part. The rest could be adjusted to fit maybe, hard to say without looking at it.

Are you saying the clip is shifted to one side or out of square or have parts been welded on in the wrong place or cut to the wrong length?? Just trying to get a visual picture of what the problem is.

If the car is on all 4 wheels, take it to a shop that has a 4 wheel alignment rack and see if it checks out square on the wheelbase. If I'm reading your post right, looks like your track would be off less than !/4 inch, hardly noticable. See what the alignment rack sez about the car.

Originally posted by techinspector1
If the front of the subframe is 1/4" off and the rear is spot-on, then the subframe is lolly-gagged in the car and the car will never work right. Pro was saying if the rearend is straight in the car, it can probably be made to work, but the rearend can't be square in the car because the rearend is square with the subframe and the subframe is lolly-gagged. Sorry, that's a word my dad used to use and I stilll use it.

That's the part I'm not clear on. If Alston jig welded the clip assembly I wouldn't think the problem would be there. Guess anything is possible tho.

I wouldn't worry about it...when you are finished,as stated above,take it to a 4 wheel alignment shop and have them align it for you....lasers are good.............