Unibody

steve from staten island · Jul 22, 2015

This is my first Mopar(69 satellite) I was lucky i knew there was left handed lug nuts. I was having a discussion with a fellow car guy and we were talking about unibody construction. Whats the feeling about strength of the body verus a full frame? Id think these cars had to be strong to handle those big engines

snakeoil24 · Jul 22, 2015

They where not strong. Twisted easily and cracked 1/4 panels.

steve from staten island · Jul 22, 2015

Your kidding!!! Did they use stiffeners that ran front to rear? I do know high HP cars can twist full frames

snakeoil24 · Jul 22, 2015

No stiffeners The factory did not want to spend the extra 20.00 to tie in the two frame sections. So they are junk. Doors that don't close cracked 1/4 panels around window frames. Etc etc.

monaco66coupe · Jul 22, 2015

It depends on the car. Unibody cars are quite strong. many new cars are Unibody.

MarPar · Jul 23, 2015

old uni-body's are weaker than full frames...if you think about it, it stands to reason Steve-o. no support in-between the two sub frames (no b-pillar=twist).

unless you have a post car. that helps tremendously, but still weaker than a full frame IMHO.

weld-in frame connectors are your only solution...that is, if you're running an honest 550+ HP.

if you're running stock stuff, you'll be fine. just don't launch hard too many times with a hardtop. lol

Richard Cranium · Jul 23, 2015

When you strip a car completely & stick it on a rotisserie, it's clear to see that the only thing holding these cars together is bent pieces of sheetmetal stuck together with shitty spot welds. When I was doing over the Daytona a few years ago, after the undercarriage was sandblasted, I found that most all of the spot welds holding the first section of floorpan onto the firewall had all failed due to the spot welder only grabbing half the sheetmetal.

Darius · Jul 23, 2015

Thus the title of my build thread in the projects section
"B Body Stiffening"

Dennis H · Jul 23, 2015

Remember the "Torsion Barbers for Super-Spension" commercials?

RS23VOA · Jul 23, 2015

US Car Tools makes some things to weld of and bolt on to help stiffen these cars.

Budnicks · Jul 23, 2015

Add some Torque Boxes &/or @ a min. Sub-frame connectors, they are both easy fixes,
it helps tremendously to "tie the car together better" & stiffen it up...

especially for an experience welder, it should be easy peasy

Unibody

steve from staten island

Well-Known Member

snakeoil24

FBBO Gold Member

steve from staten island

Well-Known Member

snakeoil24

FBBO Gold Member

monaco66coupe

Well-Known Member

MarPar

If it weighs, it pays

Richard Cranium

FBBO Gold Member

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Darius

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Dennis H

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RS23VOA

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Budnicks

Jackstand racer #1 & proud of it, Sir Posts A Lot

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