A-Body Frame/Body Jig

[KCBones]

I was wondering if anyone knew of an A-body body/frame jig that anyone has made or any plans that anyone is aware of. I have a '68 project Dart that I'm getting in kind of deep on. I found a rotted front frame rail on mine and started trying to figure out how to replace it. I bought a set of rails with a torsion bar crossmember that a forum member here sold me. There ended up being a few cuts when it was removed from the donor car that I didn't like so I bought a better clip with the inner fenders still attached that was removed much more cleanly from its donor. I think I can figure out how to get the front clip removed from my car and get the new one lined up and installed, but then I found a nice set of rear frame rails that I'd like to replace the rails on my car that had been capped.

The reason I'm asking about a jig is that I've seen the Camaro guys building them for the first gen Camaros and there are a lot of drawings and documentation on the internet about how to build them, dimensions, etc. I've also seen some good Mopar B-body jig pictures on the internet but haven't seen anything on A-bodies. I looked at the chassis dimensions in my '68 Dodge service manual but the drawings are not that great and it's kind of hard to tell exactly where the dimensions are referenced from, I'm assuming there's some locating holes and such that were used in the original factory jigs that must be used as reference points.

Maybe A-bodies just aren't worth the effort yet or people are keeping their A-body jig plans secret. I'd really like to know if anyone knows of plans that might be for sale. If not, maybe someone has built one and can give out a few tips.

Thanks for any input.

 

[CFD244]

@DemonChronicles is doing an awesome job on his restoration. He built a jig and perhaps can give you some insight.

 

[Murray]

Usually jigs are homemade and able to accommodate many types of cars. They provide an accurate base for measuring and fabrication. Shops I know make their own.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

I can give you the measurements for the heights of the body legs It is in the shop right now with a car on it. . Ours is a fixed stand for 67-76 A-bodies. The first pics are of adjustable stands where you can change location and height. Ours is heavy duty and can be used to straighten bodies or assembling bodies. The tubular stands are for dismantling and assembling bodies. Note the leveling legs to the floor. If the floor your on is not level these take the flex out of the stand. Even though ours is made from solid 3/4 steel plate and I-beams it still flexes and changes the structure.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

We have extra legs on the front and rear to tie the car down tight on the stands using the bumper bolt holes. This holds the body down incase you need to jack on the car or pull it down on the stands. Once the car is bolted down it don't move on the stand at all.

It can be used to back half a car or straighten a car that twisted. The last pics of the valiant show how far the body was twisted on the car.

The car was over a inch high on the right front. The cage was cut out the car was straightened and the down tubes and engine plates were reinstalled using a mock up block and trans with a pipe going through the engine and trans on bushings to parallel the drive line with the differential.

 

[CFD244]

Man, I've gotta visit this shop someday!

 

[Oldmanmopar]

Man, I've gotta visit this shop someday!

Don't come here until he moves to the new shop. The place is packed full. We use two garages here . plus sheds and trailers. The new shop is huge and will free this place up for just mopar builds.

 

[KCBones]

Don't come here until he moves to the new shop. The place is packed full. We use two garages here . plus sheds and trailers. The new shop is huge and will free this place up for just mopar builds.

Thanks for all the pics. That gives me a lot of ideas. The best idea is to bring my car to your shop for the frame rail replacements. Too bad you're so far away. The next idea is to use the bumper bolt holes to locate the rear of the rear rails and the front of the front clip. I'll have to study my car to see about the mid supports. My car is straight and doesn't appear to have ever been in a wreck so I can probably verify and get good original measurements. I'm close to an Alro Metal Supply outlet and the generally have good tubing cutoffs that they sell by the pound. I don't think I want to spend for I beams since this is probably for this car and maybe one other. I don't ever plan to do this for anyone other than myself and maybe a friend or one of my sons. I think maybe a truss structure like you have under that first Duster would be the way for me to go. I'm assuming I'll need to do a full trunk pan with the rear rail replacement but I'm hoping to save the front floors. I'll have to drill a lot of spotwelds I guess.

One thing I would need to consider is how to get the body up on a jig and back off of it since I don't have a lift.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

You don't have to have the car real high. lift the front with and engine hoist and the back with a jack to get it on Make the stands telescopic.

 

[MyD750]

This guy has a whole series on his 72 rebuild, including some details on building his jig. In this one he's doing front frame work.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

This guy has a whole series on his 72 rebuild, including some details on building his jig. In this one he's doing front frame work.

He is holding the car by the rails in the front only, While he is repairing them? I don't know if that would be a good idea. The body should be setting on 8 strong posts with a dowel in each specific frame hole to hold the car square. Also a straight K-frame should be bolted in with the tapered original bolts while rails are being assembled to keep the rails square and in position.

 

[KCBones]

I subscribe to that channel, lots of good info. I agree with Oldmanmopar on the support of the car, though. He fabbed a cool way of holding his car up and moving it around but for frame work, I think I'd prefer something a little more stationary and solid. He's actually repairing the exact same issue my car has, except since my frame rails were capped under the car, I'm suspicious about the condition of the rest of the rails. I got a really nice front clip from an Alabama car to splice onto my car.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

If installing a clip on a car without a fixture. After its in place install the K-member and front fenders that are in rust free condition before any welding. I did several that way in the past, Measure 3 times and weld once. And now it came back for the back half.

 

[KCBones]

If installing a clip on a car without a fixture. After its in place install the K-member and front fenders that are in rust free condition before any welding. I did several that way in the past, Measure 3 times and weld once. And now it came back for the back half.

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Hey Oldmanmopar, I see you left the cowl/firewall brackets on the Demon, I take it that works well? I watched a Graveyard Carz youtube episode and the brackets were on the donor clip they were installing, the brackets were removed from the firewall of the car they were installing the clip on. The clip I bought was removed by cutting through the donor car brackets and leaving the inner fender aprons untouched, I have to drill some spotwelds to remove the bracket remnants from my donor and remove my front clip while leaving my brackets in place (more spotweld drilling). Is that the typical way you do it?

 

[DemonChronicles]

Built our own.

Current

 

[Oldmanmopar]

That is real nice. We put dowels/pins on ours they have a location built in the cars frame rails for them. Holds the rails at the correct location and they cannot move . Front and rear of all 4 rails

 

[KCBones]

That is real nice. We put dowels/pins on ours they have a location built in the cars frame rails for them. Holds the rails at the correct location and they cannot move . Front and rear of all 4 rails

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Oldmanmopar, if I was closer to PA, I'd just contract with you to do my front clip and rear frame rails. That's one sturdy looking jig. I'm kind of on hold for a while while my wife and I finish a tiling project in our house. After that's done, I get the garage back and will set up to start peeling back the layers on my Dart and see exactly what will need replaced when I do the front and rear frame rails. I think I'm going to build a base jig out of 2x2 steel tubing, kind of a trussed box for rigidity. Then I'll weld the pinned supports in place and mount by car on it. (Sounds a lot easier said than done when I type it out). Anyway, I'll use the same base and weld new supports on it for a Camaro project that is still waiting to be done.

My car appears to have never been in a wreck, hit, or tweeked. It still has all original paint. It suffered from poor storage so the underside got a little crusty although I don't think it's sagged or been structurally compromised yet. It did have some frame caps installed that may cover some of the locating holes in the frame rails so I'll need to remove the caps caps as best I can to get good measurements for building my supports with locating pins. This would be a lot easier with a lift but like my dad used to tell me when I started wishing for stuff....."Wish in one hand and sh*t in the other, see which fills up first".

One question I had, though, and maybe you didn't see it in a previous post, but the clip I bought was removed by cutting through the donor car cowl brackets and leaving the inner fender aprons untouched, I have to drill some spotwelds to remove the bracket remnants from my donor and remove my front clip while leaving my existing cowl brackets in place (more spotweld drilling). Then I would line up the clip and weld the donor inner fender aprons to the existing cowl brackets on my car (after welding the rails to the torsion bar cross member and lower part of the cowl. Is that the typical way you do it?

 

[Oldmanmopar]

Put the clip in place leaving the braces from the rocker panels on. Without the K-member on the clip you can move the rails together to get them between the braces. Then spread the railsout and install the k member. This squares the clip. Clamp the rails back against the torsion cross snug and make them flush with the bottom. Then the align the holes at the back of the fender wells to the braces.

Install the fenders and hood before you do any welding. If possible and if the hood is on and aligned I would leave it on the car. That way you can adjust your fenders to the hood which is already at the correct location. I use self drill screws to hold things together at some of the spot weld locations .

I did this car on the lift. The front was square when we started and we attached original paint fenders I had here to make sure the clip was right, The hood was never removed not even to install the engine.

The owner had this car in the 70's and just found it and bought it back. It is here again after 2 years for Quarters ,wheel houses , trunk floor , drop downs, and rear floors. Originally he brought it to us for a cam shaft. the engine was bad and when we went to install it we saw the rails were rotted and the front floors. We replace everything under the front and painted what we installed back to the original color.

The car will be repainted the gold we put under the hood.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

 

[KCBones]

Easy Peasy.

Thanks for the explanation, a lot of nuggets in there that I didn't think about. Good idea about painting the engine compartment at this point too. I'm not making a show car but I'd like it to look sort of like it should. Mine is metallic bronze. Not a great look when it's old and faded but I've seen it freshly painted and it's pretty sharp so I'm going with the original color.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

Easy Peasy.

Thanks for the explanation, a lot of nuggets in there that I didn't think about. Good idea about painting the engine compartment at this point too. I'm not making a show car but I'd like it to look sort of like it should. Mine is metallic bronze. Not a great look when it's old and faded but I've seen it freshly painted and it's pretty sharp so I'm going with the original color.

I have a B8 blue one to do next

 

[Dhuber48]

@Oldmanmopar what is the location and name of the shop? Im not far from your location and I got frame work thats needs to be done on my 1970 duster

 

[Oldmanmopar]

My place . In Danielsville. Its an Engine machine shop. Until the move to the new location we are not taking sheet metal jobs. I have some cars here for that work now. Just finishing one Demon and about to start another. Send me pics of your issues . Or PM me your location to see the car. Steve

The one Demon here right now is a gold 340 car from Northampton.

 

[Cuda416]

If you only need one frame rail, you really aren't doing yourself any favors by replacing the entire front clip, unless there are other problems. Either way, lots of people replace entire front clips without using jigs. Many examples of this being done with nothing more than a flat floor and jack stands.

Two YT folks come to mind immediately

SWRNC - He's abrasive but he shows replacing a front clip on a mustang, the process would be almost identical to an A body.
Joe Daddy's Garage. - Actually rebuilds a mustang convertible using DynaCorn parts and the original "vert" parts, etc.

Actually, there is also a guy who rebuilds a 70 AAR cuda on jack stands.

My point is, you don't "need" a jig to replace a front clip.

Full disclosure, I built one for my 70 cuda vert because by the I am done, probably 80 percent of the car will be new. (rust bucket from hell).

If you Do build one, don't overthink it. It's basically a short box with 8 pedestals. On my cude, the middle 4 are all the same height.

Here are a couple of other examples..

66-70 B Body Frame Jig

66-70 B Body Frame Jig (Note that this writeup is to help others build their own jig - we don't build/sell these)Here's some info on the 66-70 B Body frame jig. It's constructed of 1/8" wall 2" box. The long sections are 15' 4" long and the base is not a perfect rectangle but built to follow the...

521restorations.com

Body jig like ...the one AMD uses..

Originally Posted By moparmojoOriginally Posted By 5wndwcpeHere is how I mount the car to the jig. The bolts go into the factory holes and mount and un-mount quickly and cleanly. Now your set up looks pretty smart. Can you share more pics for us so we can see the pic up points underneath ...

board.moparts.org

This is my jig. I threw together removable castor mounts.

 

[Minercar]

A question I have for all the "former drips under pressure" is how much frame rail/body twist is tolerable for an a-body street car. My 67 Barracuda vert was tagged pretty good in the passenger side before I inherited it. I had the frame "straightened" at a shop, but I notice that when I have it up on jacks, completely gutted (no engine, transmission, k-frame or interior, that the drivers side frame rail is off the jack by about 1/2 inch. Doors, trunk and hood open and close fine, but before I weld in frame connectors I want to know if further adjustment is needed.