frame straightening?

[Flyfish]

Hey boys
I’m almost at the point where I’m ready to start cutting out the longs on my ‘75 1.8. I need some advice on how best to straighten out the frame. The rear floor, rear jack points and passenger side long are very compromised so there isn’t many places to put jack stands or blocking. I’ve seen pictures of restorations where the car sits on I-beams that run parallel to the car. It seems that the I-beams would be in the way of where I need to do the repairs. I’m thinking of blocking the car up in the front on the jack points making sure the tops of the blocking are perfectly level. Then I was going to do the same at the back of the car but using the engine mounts rather than the jack points. I’m assuming that its most important that the car is level perpendicularly, that way it should correct any twist in the frame. Are these points a good reference? I have put adjustable angle iron braces that run from the top seatbelt mount down to the speaker area that should maintain the door gaps when I get them right, I’ll worry about that when I get the frame straight. Is the I-beam technique the best? If it is I suppose I can make it work.
Thanks
Jim

[unclerichy]

I'm not a frame & alignment guy, but I can tell you that 914's don't have I-beam's. They are unibody constructed. Maybe some of the others out there more knowledgable can offer some more on how to fix your problem.

[Flyfish]

Rich
I must have gotten a little wordy and confusing. I know too well that the 914 is unibody. What I ment by I-beams is that I have seen (i.e. Restoration Design) projects where the car is resting on I-beams as a stage to level the car. I was wondering if anybody has ideas on how to do this without I-beams or the luxury of a frame straightening jig.
Thanks

[jamcleod]

body shops that work on P-cars use a frame (I-beams you referred to) called a Cellette (or similar spelling). there are attachments between the frame and the body of the car, that is, where there are bolts in the body (like for the torsion bars). the body can then be pulled straight. there are pictures with dimensions between points on the body that can be used to insure body is straight and used to straighten the body. i don't see why one couldn't construct a "celette" but that would be alot of work for limited use.

[Rich Hilgersom]

FWIW:

The Celette bench fixture set number for 914s is 153.300


http://www.celette.com/eng/uknews.php


-Rich Hilgersom

[no substitute]

You could take diagonal and other measurements from various points inside and outside the vehicle, per the factory manual. Do you have to remove the longs? RD makes a piece that goes over the original rockers. Patch rusted areas first, depending on how bad it is. If it's truly "that" bad, perhaps another tub would be a better (less expensive in the long run) starting point.

[Flyfish]

Good point about the measurements. I just found a few 914club posts that show the dimensions. I’ve considered scrapping this tub but I’m a little attached to it. I do need to replace one outer long (rocker) just because its crap. I’m going to then laminate both sides with Restoration Design’s kit. Other than those parts, I can weld and fabricate parts for the next year and it won’t cost me anything other than time, sanity and mig wire. Thanks for the imput.
Jim