Mark,
The most common misconception is that the main frame itself has sagged. This
comes about by folks peering under the car from front to back and seeing
what they think is a sag along the bottom edge. Please be aware that for
something like the front 51" there is a taper of 1 1/4" from about the front
outriggers forward.
What you almost certainly have there are ends of outriggers and the inner
sills that have deteriorated, allowing the body structure to sag, causing
your problem. The frame members will flex by themselves, because the frame
components are only a portion of the strength of the car.
The Austin Healey is an early semi-unibody design, with a partial frame, but
with the rest of the inner structure including firewall and bulkheads, inner
angular bracing members, the aforementioned inner sills and outriggers, the
door pillars, A post supports and even the floors making up the actual final
structure.
On your car, some of these have deteriorated, usually the first culprits
being the ends of the outriggers, the inner sills, the bottoms of the A
posts and the bottoms of the shut pillars. In other words, all the bridging
points between chassis frame and semi-monocoque structure. A suspension
bridge would have no strength if most of the support cables were removed
even if the towers were fine. It's a similar idea.
The car will need to be supported squarely and accurately and these
components will need to be thoroughly examined and replaced as needed.
I'm not saying that your 45 year old chassis frame is necessarily healthy,
but it may be fine, with these other components needing replacement.
Don't go sticking add-ons onto your chassis frame. If those portions are
really that bad, they need to be replaced. If you do the things I've
mentioned above, you shouldn't need to be sticking add-ons to your chassis.
You'll only ruin what you have there, as these add-ons are almost impossible
to take off without ruining what's beneath.
Rich
> Hello,
> I recall seeing frame 'add ons' which you could weld to the frame to
> strengthen an area of the frame. Specifically I recall triangle pieces
> that
> are welded in the cross area. My BJ8 has the common sag in the middle,
> which makes operating the doors less than perfect. This car is definitely
> a
> candidate for a new frame, but there's no way i'm going that direction.
> My
> thought was to jack up the car to the point where the doors operate
> correctly and then weld in these frame strengthening 'add ons'. Hopefully
> this should change the memory of the frame.
> Anyone know of companies that sell these?
>
> Thanks, Mark
> '67 BJ8
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