I'm posting in the hope that someone has had experience with checking if a chassis is bent
I'm located in Brisbane Australia and so far have failed to find anyone who has experience with the Alfa 105 GT's obviously a chassis jig is the best solution but none of the accident repair shops have any interest in helping
Any advice /help greatly appreciated
I have just looked into it a little bit.
First you need the measurements for your car as per the factory diagrams.
I had the diagrams expanded up to poster size.
We’re getting ahead of ourselves... what’s the actual issue?
1. Chassis is obviously bent
2. Chassis is suspected of being bent
3. Chassis needs so many rust repairs that a jig will be required to ensure assembly tolerances
I’ve just done #3
Measurements can be (reasonably) checked without mounting in a purpose made or original Alfa jig - what’s actually wrong with the thing, show us some pics so we can help a little better
Probably #2 but being my first restoration I admit I'm operating from a position of extreme ignorance it is fairly obvious the car has been involved in both a front LHS impact and also a rear impact I'm just not comfortable continuing until I know I'm building on a straight chassis
The cracks are standard, factory even (age related).
The dent in the cross member is also common, given the age.
(Obviously) The important dimensions are between the suspension pickup points, front and rear. A hard knock to the front may ruin pickup point, some of it can be dialled out later (fix it now obviously). A rear shunt generally just drops the boot (arch crease telltale). It would have to be significant shunt to ruin the rear alignment.
I am sure you can measure a few thing a simply but I’d be more inclined to get some epoxy on it before it flash rusts to oblivion before your eyes.
What are the sills like?
Replacing these will require jigging (or fixing) the body so as to not lose any dimensions
I think you can check with measure lh front/RH rear and vice versa on suspension pickup points. Should give a clue. I failed to do that when buying the racecar base. When busy with welding job the body shop discovered the LH front suspension was completely 1 inch backwards due to accident damage. In the end he completely removed that part and welded in on the right position. He had a Celette . My new tecnician and his mate each measured 2 times because they did not trust what the outcome was. , they never had seen a car so spot on
FWIW, a little routine I try and remember to do when inspecting a prospective purchase is to measure the wheelbase on both the left and right sides, and look for reasonable agreement with the spec and between both sides. Don't have an exact acceptance criterion, but within 1/4" (6mm) seems like a good ballpark. Either have friend/spouse/prospective seller hold the of the other end of the tape measure, or use blue tape. For dog dish hub caps, measure between furthest points of outer circumference, as close as possible. Seems like this would at least spot gross problems that couldn't be adjusted out.
I know this doesn't help dufcan with the car in its' current state of disassembly, but thought I'd pass it along. In lieu of a chassis jig, I wonder if a plumb line from each pickup point to a chalk mark on the floor, and then tape measure between the chalk marks, would be accurate enough?
I know this doesn't help dufcan with the car in its' current state of disassembly, but thought I'd pass it along. In lieu of a chassis jig, I wonder if a plumb line from each pickup point to a chalk mark on the floor, and then tape measure between the chalk marks, would be accurate enough?
The W and X distances are easy to measure to the center of the front lower A arm mount holes back to the plane of the crossmember holes. That will give you a good starting point.
To all who have replied your help is greatly appreciated... this is a very steep learning curve for me so to confirm that I have no idea of what I'm doing a couple of questions from the responders.. horsewidower....can you explain what the "3,4,5 right angle" measurement is? and gigem 75... what are you referring to when you say the W and X distances?
See I told you I had no idea what I'm doing!
Many thanks
No problem, I went through the same thing you're going through with my car.
If you look at the diagram in the below you will see what I did. The green lines on a straight car should be parallel and thus the distances the same on each side. The green lines go through the front holes on the crossmember where the lower A arms attach. The other green line goes through the center of the holes of the crossmember brace. Take a look and I'll try and clear any questions up.
I ended up having a straight crossmember put in on my car.
For ballpark measurements one could. Everything would have to be straight and the boot lid perfectly centered. I wouldn't be cutting or pulling any sheetmetal based on what that told me.
The boot trunk location in my view is open to distortion, what if not original boot lid and or it has been repaired and to get correct fit and close it was adjusted off the center line.
Tim
I’m just fine tuning the rear end and was trying to create two parallel lines (on either side of the car) based from the body centre line.
As per the chassis diagram below there isn’t any actual central reference points that can be established on a fully built car, hence utilising the rear tail lid latch hook!
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