 | Richard Smith has been in the Auto Body Industry for 26 years. He is ASE Certified Master Collision Tech, an I-Car Platinum Tech, and an I-Car Instructor. He and His wife own and operate Sharp's Auto Body & Collision Inc. located at 202 North Elm St. in Pittsburg, Kansas. He is a father of 5 children, Ex Military E-6 Staff SGT. and is active in his home Church. The one thing he enjoys doing is educating the public about the safety and proper repair of automobiles, no matter if it is a vehicle that has been in a collision, a small dent, or a complete restoration. The shop is always equipped with a skilled professional to handle your auto needs. |
Automotive Service & Repair
2011-02-01 14:17:00
Auto restoration series: Taking a vehicle from rust to the show room - part 2 - suspension (for the first article in this series please refer to the Jan. ‘11 issue)
Answer: After the body work is complete and the vehicle is painted, it is time for the frame and suspension work to be done. Our next step will depend on whether we’re doing a “frame off” restoration or just a body restoration. Frame off is where you take the body of the vehicle off the frame for restoring (just as it sounds). Body restoration is where you are simply restoring the body of the vehicle and not doing anything to the frame or suspension. In other words, body restoration is kind of like taking and repainting the body of the car (after necessary body work is complete), and only replacing worn rubber, broken glass, seals, etc.
If we are dealing with a frame off, our next step would be to sand blast the frame and suspension, paint the frame and also the suspension pieces.
After this, place the new ball joints and bushings in and put everything back together. Now we can place the rebuilt motor (or new motor) and transmission back on the frame.
You want to put as much as you can back on the motor (water pump, carburetor, air filter, plugs, wires, etc.) so you are not working over fresh paint, no more than is absolutely necessary.
Now with everything in place and put back together, we can set the body of the vehicle back onto the frame and then the front sheet metal.
