Inliners International Forums General Discussion Drive Train Frame inspection

My 65 Bel Air has major frame rail cancer. Rats. A local guy has a rolling frame at a reasonable price. I think I can borrow a borescope from work (airline) to help inspect the frame before I buy it, but I am looking for suggestions from you guys on how best to inspect a used frame? What to look for? Where to concentrate? I will definitely be looking at where the trans crossmember attaches as that is where my cancer is.

Also, if I buy it, what do you guys recommend for cleaning/painting? I can't afford to have it dipped....not sure I would anyway. How best to deal with the inside?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Look closely in front of the rear wheels where the lower control arm mounts. That spot carries most of the load from the rear end and is prone to rust. What will happen is the lower control arm mounting bracket will rip right off the frame.

I know this from personal experience having owned about ten different 65-69 full size Chevys. I only own one currently, a '69 Caprice. I recently finished the frame-off portion of restoration on this car. I ground out 90% of the frame welds and rewelded it all. Rust was minimal fortunately. I did make a custom connector to tie the upper and lower rear control arm attachment points together for reinforcement. These connectors are available for Chevelles to give you an idea what I'm talking about.

OK....so the frame looks to be pretty solid. Only surface corrosion that I will either blast or wire wheel and then paint. What do you recommend on the inside of the frame? I certainly can't clean it well enough for a paint type coating. Do you just spray some corrosion inhibitor, like LPS, inside it?

I believe it's the Eastwood company that recently came out with some sort of internal corrosion inhibitor, especially for use inside frames.