Bent frame

Bigbohr · 09-21-2003, 06:17 PM

I have a 914 with a frame that is not straight. The left side of the car is too flat and the right side too curved. Panel gaps - in particular around hood - are too wide, front left corner is about 3/4" lower than front right corner, and one gap at the small end of the engine cover is about 1/2" wide. The car was obviously hit on the front right corner since the front of the wheelwell has hammering marks and a magnet indicates there is some bondo in the front right area. Strangely enough this car drives straight though.
Also peculiar for a damaged car is that it has hardly any rust. Put it on a carlift last week and looks good underneath too.

I was wondering whether it would be possible to straighten the car (or at least improve the situation). The bondo would probably break but I would ultimately like to paint the car anyway.

I showed the car to a reputable body shop and was told that this would get very expensive and that you wouldn't know where it ends.

Does anybody have experience with this? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

John Rogers · 09-21-2003, 06:33 PM

The body shop is right, the cost to straighten a uni-body type of car such as a 914 is pretty high. There is only one or two benches that can take one and it takes someone that has worked on them before to do it. If it drives reasonably straight then I would just enjoy it. Good luck

skline · skline's Garage

You can adjust the torsion bars to compensate for the hieght difference.

Bigbohr · 09-21-2003, 07:30 PM

Thanks. I can try the torsion bar but both the front left and to lesser extend rear right are lower so the entire car seems warped.

Best solution would be to get another body and transfer all the pieces. Unfortunately finding a good 914 body in TX is not so easy due to humidity/rain. On the good side I can drive the car while I'm searching ...

GaryW · 09-21-2003, 07:34 PM

The correct way to do this is find a shop with a Cellete bench and the correct 914 jigs. This thread has a picture of one: Cellete Bench I've not gone through this, so I can't get a sense for cost. Brad Roberts has one - he may have Tx connections.