Frame swap

So I just picked up an 87 t-top grand national and was told the car was in really good shape and had one spot of rust. Once I drove four hours to pick up the car the first thing he says is "Okay well let me show you the problems." Showed me the rust spot in the T-top and I knew about that one, but then said when he was pulling the motor last night he noticed the front clip was welded together. I asked what he ment and he said he saw the frame was welded all the way around so he figured the car was in a little accident. Luckily I happen to have a spare 84 regal im sending to the scrap yard so the frames are gonna get stolen. Anybody have any suggestions on anything I should do while the body is off the frame. I was hoping to write a how to thread on pulling the body, cleaning/por15ing the frame, then a reinstalling it all. Ill try and get some pictures up soon.

new lines, rebuilt/new rear control arms, springs, front bushings, crossmember bushings....Get ready for a frame of resto. Face it, it's gonna happen. My frame came off to patch the driver side floor. 7 body rust holes later, 6 rust holes in the frame, 6k later it's finally painted. Drives like my old iroc and WAY faster. It f^ckin rocks. What I'm trying to say is if you are gonna do it, do it all.

Here is some information that may be of help.
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/brakes-suspensions-tires-wheels/339992-metric-frame-info.html

First thing is make sure body bolts come out with out parts of the body. The frame swap would not be my main concern.
Pull the weather strips fom t-top roof before anything and make sure roof is good. They will rust from the inside out and all the way down to inside of cowl. The weather stips kits are not cheap but its worth doing now.
As for the frame replacement make sure the bolts arent bent when they come out.If they replaced the frame section its because it was bent. How do the doors line up to the quarters and fenders? Hopefully the bolts are bend that means the body shifted and did not bend with frame. Otherwise taking off one frame and installing on another frame could be a real task. with the body off the frame measure from bolt to bolt on both bodys you have side to side and diagonally .They should be the same.
As for what to replace with body off every thing as stated by usetaboost. good luck

Well its gonna be hard to check the bolts because their not their. Looking at it last night 2 of the 7 mounts still had bolts in them, and the previous owner did take this car down the track like that. I have a shop so all the bushings can wait till later cause their not that bad to replace when you have a lift. I was planning on doing all the lines anyway. Theirs no wiring harness in the car and also no brakes so besides body mounts is their anything else that needs to be unbolted

Front parking brake cable has to be removed. Thats a little tight

Is there a VIN on the frame? I have always wondered if you do a frame swap is it still considered a GN or T-Type if the frame is from a NA Regal?

The vin is on right frame rail about 17 inches from front body bolt. It does not matter on frames they are all the same. with the body on the frame you cant see it anyway.

I'll try to find the thread but there was a pretty good write up recently by someone that pulled the body and basically did a frame of in his garage. Lots of useful info. good luck with the frame off resto

subscribed

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/show-car-restoration-body-repair/245736-my-progress-thread.html that's mine.

And so it begins (Ignore the paint, its actually in decent shape, thats all just dust and dirst that got wet under the tarp)

The worst of the rust is under the passenger t-top

Here's the terrible welds and also whats left of the wheel wells

Tire blow out? This is the quater panal lip Here's the lack of body bolts Only rust on the floor pans

looks alot worse then it actually is


Only rust on the quarters

got a better start than i did thats for sure

dont be surprised if the 6 farthest back mounts spin and you have to cut the floors open. its a common problem. also dont be suprised if the 2 front and the 4 back holes for the body mounts are rotted its another common problem. i have had at least 40 of these cars off the frame and they usually are all the same. also pull your carpet it out because you probably have floor work to do. rusted t top roofs and rotted floors seem to go toghther. good luck !

Gut the car out. In the end you will be glad you did so nothing gets overlooked