Chassis on car

[DavisZR1]

Hi Father Larry, I'm a bodyman by trade, but I thought you'd find this funny. A friend of mine came into my shop with his 1990 C4 and he hit someone in the rear. I said it was a light enough hit not to put it on the frame machine, but to use a bulldozer. First of all, he said, if I'm going to have you do it, your not bulldozing my car, and he took it out. I thought you'd find this funny and you're readers might be interested to know what a bulldozer is.:rolllaugh

[fatherlarry]

Davis,

That's really funny. I guess they don't use the word bulldozer anymore. I guess some people might find it interesting so I'll explain. A bulldozer is a term used for a straight beam with a single tower that's usually on wheels with a hydraulic sleeve that you attach chains to, and at the end of the rail you would find a pin that you would attach to the chassis so you could pull frames that are swayed. Some body shops use them today for very minor work, instead of setting it up on a frame machine. When he said that the rails are swayed, he means that the nose of the car is either swayed to the right or left and the rails are part of the chassis, which is unitized on the C4. A sway is just one term used by bodymen to distinguish the type of hit and the pull and setup they need to get the frame back to factory specs. Some other terms used are sag, sway and diamond. On a chassis they used to refer to the end of the rails as goosenecks. It's just terminology that body men and technicians made up through the years. Usually a sway is not a difficult hit to repair, as long as he pulls it cold (not applying any heat to rails in order to bring it back to factory specs). He still has to set it up on a frame machine to get the nose square and the rails in the right position in order to line up the bumper to the hood, and the fenders back to the doors. He also has to measure the height of the rails. Sometimes they may have a tendency to go up in a sway, or down. I would tell you friend to check around and find a body shop that has state of the art frame machine and a frame technician. You may want to ask the type of machine they will use to line it up. Some are: Carolina, Easy liner, are just to name two. Lining up the front rails is very essential, as I said for line up of body parts and frame alignment. The bulldozer is primitive, but very effective in the right hands. I know some shops that still use it to pull out a side hit on four door cars when the rocker and the frame may be pushed in. Instead of putting it on the frame machine, they'll set the bulldozer up to make a center pull and then line their parts up, but it takes many years of experience and a good eye to operate this old timer that's called a bulldozer. I started out in the business learning on the bulldozer with the help of my father, and we also taught you Davis.:lol:


Hey Davis, why do I have to do all this explaining. Next time you can do it. I'm retired now.
:smoke:

[DavisZR1]

Thanks father. You really know your stuff, don't ya!

:nod: