Project Quandry

[twfurst]

Malibu came to its new home today. Here are some pics as attachments. Could not figure out why the link to my flickr page wouldn't work.

If I didn't already have a frame I would have never picked it up. But everything else is in beautiful shape for 29 years old.

Already bought the set of Energy Suspension body mounts. Hope to swap the frames in about two weeks or so.

[twfurst]

Last night we got the front clip off the Malibu (will post pics when my brother sends them from his camera). Came across something interesting that I didn't think of.

The Monte frame is 2-1/4 inches longer in front of the radiator support. Will be sectioning it down to the correct length once the body has been moved over. Am I the only one that thought that this was a one for one swap?

Other than that, everything came apart very smoothly, nothing broke or stripped. Hope that continues throughout the rest of this project.

[twfurst]

Here are two pics showing the difference in the frames:






Was very obvious once we got the nose off the Malibu. Here are some others post nose removal.

[twfurst]

Have made some more progress. With the rear of the frame being rotted out, I kind of expected to run into some body bolt issues back there. Had to cut open two spot in the trunk to grind the bolt plate off.







Also finally got the V6 outta the way so that we can jack the body up and get it on jackstands. Hope this weekend to get that portion taken care of. Its all unbolted, just need to disconnect the brake lines and e-brake cables.

[deeddude]

Last night we got the front clip off the Malibu (will post pics when my brother sends them from his camera). Came across something interesting that I didn't think of.

The Monte frame is 2-1/4 inches longer in front of the radiator support. Will be sectioning it down to the correct length once the body has been moved over. Am I the only one that thought that this was a one for one swap?

Other than that, everything came apart very smoothly, nothing broke or stripped. Hope that continues throughout the rest of this project.

No, Tom your not the only one who thought that it would work. I've built a number of racecars with these frames and never ran into that problem; I never use the stock core suport and sometimes cut the frame in front of the steering box. Sometimes I got frames that were supposed to be from malibu's. Some guys believed they were lighter and sold them for a few bucks more.

Do you think you could just extend the bumper mounts out or is the core support located further toward the firewall? If you can, I've used rollcage tubing to extend these in the rear, it would work the same in the front. Or instead of sectioning the frames together just build a mount off the frame where you need it and extend the bumper mounts. I've sectioned a few frames behind the cross member and a few fit up perfect and others took a lot of heat and hammers.

[twfurst]

I have come to the conclusion that it will be easiest to remove the 2-1/4 inches from the good frame and weld the bumper mount back on. Instead of cutting the piece off of both frames, I'm going to make some kind of jig off the rotted Malibu frame, and use that to position the mount on the Monte frame. All of the same holes exist, just that the location for the bumper shock is further forward on the Monte frame.


This pic above is the Monte frame, where the body is headed.

The Pic below is the Malibu frame. You can see how much closer the radiator support mount hole is to the absorber mount.

[deeddude]

So the core supports are in the same postion. Hmm.That's even easier. Could you do this without welding? Maybe you could leave about an inch of material on the frame that you could heat, bend up to make a flange, and then cut some holes for the mounts? Even if you cut to much off you could use the shims from the donor car to move the bumper out. I think their 1/8" thick.

I love both of those body styles, but I allways liked the malibu just a little bit more. Keep the updates coming. Good Luck.

[twfurst]

I hadn't even considered that option. I will have to take a look tonight when I get home. I don't have a torch to generate the heat, but what I was thinking too was that rather that weld a cutoff portion back on, simply create a flange out of angle stock and weld that on in the correct position to locate the absorber. We'll see.

[twfurst]

Got some actual work done yesterday. Was a good day for it, nothing but rain. I got the body up off the frame and on stands. It's not high enough to roll the frame out from under it yet, but only a couple more inches.




Here are a few pics showing the cancer on the rear of the frame.







Probably won't get too much done again until maybe Thursday. Wife wants to go to the Brooklyn Fair today, bowling tonight and school starts tomorrow. We'll see.