Frame Straight?

[mecaknupp]

Where would you take measuments to make sure your frame is straight. I am ready to start prepping the chassis getting it ready to spray and noticed an area on the right inside rear horn that was flattened (by the tranny), Is that suppose to be there? anyway I measured from the front upper shock mount to the same location on eash side of the rear torsion hoising. About an 1/8 of an inch difference. Let me know. Thanks

[seabeebuggy]

I never seen a straight frame. Mine is twisted all over. I tied it into the roll cage so it will not flex any more. I say don't worry about it.
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Seabee turbo buggy build
(Quote Runslikeapenguin said)
so to everyone else whos not a retarded butt pirate marine with an tacky ugly ass car covered in auto zone bolt and stick on s**t. (end quote)

A better place to talk offroad

[clonebug]

You really don't want to measure off the beam because many beams are bent.
To check my pan for square, I installed two bolts into one of the rear torsion body mounts up where the top of the shock mounts. Then I measured to the center of the firewall hump. There was a rivet hole there that checked out to be in the center of the pan width wise.

Set the pan up on stands. Having a level floor or a level table to start from makes it so much easier. Once it is level you can check the elevations from a known level point.

Checking squareness is a matter of triangulation.
I had to go thru the same thing and found my frame head was bent down on one corner.

Check out the picture below, If you look closely at the left jack stand you can see it is not touching the torsion. That was my first HUH???!!!
I did not see it until I installed the beam and it put enough weight up front to show the difference.
That was when the words flew and the tape came out.

I ended up getting a new framehead welded on.

See below.

Hope this helps.

Clonebug

[MURZI]

Tack an 8 foot pipe to the frame head where the beam sits and one across the shock towers in the rear. Measure and level...the length of the pipe will show every twist and bend. I did this on my car before we welded her up. Bent, twisted, and pulled until it was perfect.
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62 vert
2276
Tim’s welded heads
45 Dells
A1 sidewinder
Fk44 cam

[rayjay]

Many garage floors have significant humps and dips so watch out for that.

[HeidelbergJohn4.0]

I used a similar method triangulating the rear body mounts and torsion beam from the front body mount bolt hole on the tunnel of my super frame when I changed it to a ball joint pan. We established that the tunnel and rear were square and level, then we used a combination of measurements and three laser levels to square my frame head to the rear torsion and tunnel before we welded it up. Tacked it about 4 places, then gave it the final welds. We had done my brother in laws a while back with a link pin frame head and got it treaked a bit. The left was about 1/4" low at the shock towers when the beam was mounted so it is tweaked about 1/8".
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71 LWB Manx style dunebuggy
71 Beetle
71 Volksrod
Machette Speedster
2012 Passat TDI SE (sadly sitting in a buyback parking lot somewhere waiting for it's heart to be ripped out.)

[mecaknupp]

Well I place four jack stand on the floor and placed levels at all four locations and all was level. I guess they did a good job on my slab. So i placed the rear housing on a set and a pain under each end of the front horn and it all measured and leveled out ok. I guess it was the dolly I built to roll it around. Time to hit it hard!!!