Bending downward 4cm of 1 side of a xA6x Chassis HELP ME !!!! :(

[Admiral coFF33]

Hey guys, its been several weeks now since the devistation of my RA65 thanks to my young sister who decided that crashing it into a wall was a good idea.

Anyway , the car as a whole is pretty fucked up , but only visually it could take me a little money and a little time to get it back to lookin good , and i still do love the car even though i have my soarer.

basically she has gone into a small wall with 1 side of the bumper/chassis and has managed to bend it around about 4cm upward.

If i place the bumper back on it wille sit incorrect and will stop the right hand (from drivers view) headlight from coming up. if you have forgotten the pic of it on the wall here it is:



so i went to bunnings the other day before newyears , and bought the thickest fuck off chain i could find (the width of your index finger was the size of each link) and 2 U hook (clamp thing)

i went down to the netball court parking lot down the road from me and attached 1 of the U lock things to the front tow hook of the bent chassis side and wrapped the chain around the biggest lightpole in the parking lot (made of steel not wood) and then made sure everything was set well . got in , put my belt on and reversed ........

Needless to say , i gave my self a slight bit of whiplash . i got out and had a look , expecting something ... but no . nothing.

so i repeated the same theory again.. still nothing , except for the CHAIN SNAPPING ABOUT 4 -5 LINKS DOWN FROM THE U LOCK ON THE CHASSIS.

now i could attempt this again , more whiplash , and loud noise ,

OR , is there another way ????

obviously im talking about "FREE" or "CHEAP" way to do this , so can the "Omg just take it to a proper place" answers please not be said

thanks for ya help guys! i hope to restore her to former UGLY 80's BEAUTY

[sam-131]

have you tried using a manipulator ie i big mofo hammer smalish slege hammer or shifters are you freind when you bending steel

other wise get some pics if you talking about the rad suport thats easliy fix able just go out and buy a new rad support and weld it in
thats if the chassis rail not bent

[Admiral coFF33]

read the title of the topic again matey

[Big T]

Would most certainly be the chassis as the rad support would pop right out with the chain you were refering to. Don't chassis rails require a CRAPLOAD of force to get them straight again? 8 tonnes or something like that???

I'd try and go the sledge idea if you can get a full swing in. Might have to take ALOT of crap out of the car to get a good hit in though, ie take the engine out and swing from inside the engine bay.

Eddie.

[bathurst-91]

Even though youve stated no 'get it done right' answers.. Ill just say it anyway. Get the pro's to do it.

Now thats out of the way... LOL @ the idea with the chain and lightpole. I wouldnt have thought of that simply because I cant believe u didnt bring the lightpole crashing down onto your car. (I guess you tied it at the base?)

But I really cant see a dodgy way to do this. Unless youve got an oxy welder (to heat it up) and a large sledge hammer.. and a hoist / heavy duty car rotisary.. haha

But its a case of having the right equipment. As most things are.

[MOOKIE]

try wire rope ?

[sam-131]

sorry mate but i have hand a few mates of mine tell me that there bent there chassis when really all there done is mangeled the rad support

if the chassis bent there no point in fixing it yeah it might be 4cms out but thats like saying oh theres a slight scrach in my bore 4cm's is a fair few degs out the only way is to put her on a jig and work it out from there
trying to fix any other way is fruit less the chassis will still not be square and wont drive the same as it was

or you could re body it

anyway would'nt it be a sat write off if the chassis not straight??

[Admiral coFF33]

Yeah, chassis is bent 4cm , but the way it is bent is the good thing , and the reason for me wanting to attempt to bend it myself

its only bent just infront of the right suspention like all the rest of the chassis rod is fine , but basically just under the AFM it is a tad bent upward ,

so when i say bent i mean , just a little bit ,

otherwise id say "totally fucked"

so yeah its bent from just in front of the suspention (top hat bit)

sledge hammer might be the only thing left as an option.

[Stefan]

read the title of the topic again matey

Don't be harsh on someone trying to help you. I read the title of your topic and it's hardly grammatically correct or definitive.

[brett_celicacoupe]

i once had a RA60 with front end damage....only the radiator suppor (behind headlight).

i have a boat whinch what i use for pulling engines....i hooked it up to the pole and whinched pulled the dent out to 80% perfection and i got the last bit with the hammer.



another car we had to fix which was in a similar way was a KE55 corrolla. we strapped the car to one corner of the shed (a big strap....attached to the diff). on the front we attached a 2tonne whinch. basically we just whinched the front out back to where it was before.

worked well.


the way your doing it isnt really going to move things properly and you wont be able to see if the tow hook is about to tear itself off.

so yeh find someone with a heavy duty whinch and a couple I-beams in a building and whinch away

[barned01]

not being able to see what you are talking about i don't know how useful this will be but:
if you have a bench vice you could unbolt it from your bench and put it over the bend instead then turn the bench press handle to straighten to your heart's content.?????

[EldarO]

the chassi rail is bent, on the car, from the sus tower forward.

A bench vice would do alot of nothing

we're gonna have a go at a few things tomorrow hopefully.

Eldar.O.

[lumpy]

Can you fit something like a section of steel pipe over the end of the bent rail? Try and use leverage (ie a pretty long pole) to bend the rail straight again?

Otherwise I'd suggest doing something funky with a 2 car jacks (one each side, obviously the one on the bent section placed at the very end and the other just before the bent section on the other side) and some bracing to push the rail. May be very hard to set something like this up (basically replicating a hydraulic press) but you could pump some real pressure into it with decent jacks.

No matter what you try, stopping the rest of the car from moving as you try to bend the rail back will be a PITA. Are you game enough to cut the bent bit off and weld a new section (with some additional bracing) on?

[cannonball]

The best suggestion here is the big winch method, together with a big hammer to encourage it to bend in the right places. Using a hammer alone can be a bit hit and miss (no pun intended) getting the end of the chassis rail back to the right point, but looking more like an S bend rather than a straight peice of rail, and to use just a winch can have a similar effect, or even bend the "anchored" part of the car, instead of the rail.

Just wind up some tension with the winch, give it some encouragement with the hammer (or oxy as well), then give it some more tension on the winch again.

[Starfire]

Seriously,

Take the car to a repairer and get a quote on getting it straighened on a propre rig. Anything you do to it now may compound the damage and make it difficule/more expensive/impossible to repair.

I wouldnt think that a little bending and welding would be too expensive - particularly if you offered to pay cash for it.

I would have serious reservations about the safety of the car if it has not been repaired properly, and it will never accept a proper wheel alignment or look decent unless the chassis is fixed.

Cheers,

Terry.