Hi all, quick question; Is a car (especially our unibodies) as strong as before after it’s been on a frame machine? We’ve all grabbed a hunk of metal and bent it back and forth enough to snap the metal off, like a paper clip. After it’s bent once from an accident, then bent back into spec, wouldn’t it be weaker than before? Thanks, and Happy New Year!
I would think the original "engineered" design, would be the ultimate for stock applications. If you had damage, and repair, why not just add frame ties, and rest easy after that ? The Quality of the repairs would also factor in...
They say it’s good. The metal has a memory and wants to go back how it was. And when a frame rail is bent the bed is very slight. But due to the length it looks like more bend than it is. It’s not like bending metal in half and back and forth like your example.
It really comes down to what was bent and how bad. Once a frame or in our case a channel gets bent, it loses strength when pulled back out. If hit in the same place again it will take less force to do the same damage. Alot of the new vehicles are required to replace rails and panels after they have been pulled to keep the strength and integrity of the body. It's on a case by case basis. any pic's on the damage would help!
It may be a little weaker. But not much. The old cars got alot of metal. Good stuff not the cheap crap like the new ones. If its pulled properly and heated and dollied out properly. It will be fine but usually anything like a rear frame rail or front rail pending how sandwiched it is may have to be replaced after all the pulling and lining up of panels has been done. Cross measuring and diamond is crucial. So theres no dog tracking. It was done back when they were new. So no different today on those. We just have better tools to do the jobs properly.
Sorry, my car isn't damaged (other than rust); I was just curious. I looked around online for answers and only found articles by body shops or frame machine companies who probably wouldn't admit if it weakens the metal!
My '65 Coronet suffered a slide off the track through the traps. The front frame was bent. Replaced the K member & had the frame straightened. Worked perfect. Many thousand runs after that.
A friend of mine had an Olds cutless that got severe front end damage. The frame was straightened and once they applied the bondo to the damaged area it was good as new
Our b bodies are unibody When repairing anything that can’t be hammered back to original cold ( meaning no heat ) Gets cut out to factory seams and welded back together with new or undamaged salvage parts The structural integrity remains the same and bondo is never used to cover up poor work It’s the same everywhere you get what you pay for if you want it done right it’s gonna cost you but you save in the long run
