How to Check Uni body for Straightness

Shakedownscott said
Thanks everyone for the replies and helpful information. A tram gage looks like a useful piece of equipment to help figure some of this out. This gives me a lot of food for thought on going forward with this part of the project. Figure I am going to have to create a level plan under the car to measure any heights from/ As well as check the level and squareness of the body and frame.

I am going to add front and rear torque boxes after I repair the existing damage to the rails. I purchased safe-t-cap pieces to go over these sections after I cut out the rusted areas. They are pretty beefy and will definitely stiffen this area up.

I figure I have one chance to get this right after its welded up, its pretty much not going to be easy to correct. If anything is twisted or I don't feel confident in my measurements, I will send to a body shop to straighten and weld this up for me.

What are you going to do to arrest the rust inside and outside of the boxed sections prior to welding on caps? The caps you have can be coated with weldable sealant/paint prior to install and sealed along the welds after.

Have you looked at the US Cartool site? I would consider doing your car in a similar fashion as their body in white. Replacing the crossmember and other sheetmetal rather than capping it?

There's another similar site that has even more actual replacement components rather than capping the old ones. They specialize in rust repair parts, but I can't recall their name. Maybe someone here will. There is also AMD.