66 Grande guy wrote:

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I'm curious.  What percentage of these cars end up with rotten frames in you guy's experience.  I have 5 or these (1 project and three parts cars) and 3 out of 5 are rotten behind the drivers front wheel.  These are Alberta cars.  Is this typical?

 

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This problem was common on east coast cars, Nova Scotia especially where there is salt in the air as well as on the roads.
By the early 70's on '66 Pontiacs and Chev's the frames had already rusted thru and were patched to go thru Safety Inspection. My 66 2+2 that I bought in 72-73 was already welded up and needed it again. It wasn't the exception, it was very common. Quite a few had already been scrapped due to rust out.

 

-- Edited by eeluddy on Sunday 11th of July 2010 07:27:49 PM

 Well Ken, with all the ones I have gotten here lately, the percentage is way up! 2 from you were later Alberta cars. Being from NL myself, that was always a given, except for Labrador. 99% rust free and had I been smart, I would have had many, many, many frames and parts thereof nestled away!!!

 I find that Saskatchewan seems to be the best of the 3 center provinces for rust through and with the 2 cars I got from BC, mind you, 1 from Salt Spring island and the other from Kelowna, they were absolutely shot!! But that being said, I don't know where these 2 cars spent their childhood either.....

 

-- Edited by 67Poncho on Wednesday 7th of July 2010 10:06:59 PM

 I got a 4-dr Strato from Edmonton area and the 2-dr post Laurentian from north of the 'Peg and that are both toast. The 2-dr especially. There is rust in that car that I have never seen before!!  I would say at least 67%!!!! (lol)

66 Grande guy wrote:

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My God if it's worse than the the 2+2 I dumped at your place last fall, thngs have to be rough!

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 It is pretty bad........... Not as bad as the 2+2, but bad enough!!!

 

66 Grande guy wrote:

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Yike!   Its a good thing you don't know where I live!

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 (lol) I can find you, again!!!

My 65 Impala Convert from Calgary is solid, my 65 SS hardtop from Manitoba not so good, soft at the tranny mount and rotten in front of right rear wheel, to the point of lower control arm moving. It now has a nice solid 65 Canadian Pontiac  frame under her and all is well.

The areas I found the worst on any of the '69 Pontiac or Chev Impala cars I've owned in my lifetime were always both ends of the tranny cross members where they met the frame and the dog leg on the frame where the driver's side back wheel sits. My '69 Parisienne ragtop has a really good frame in it right now as does my '69 Grande Parisienne hardtop. Mind you since I acquired them, I've kept them in good dry storage out of the elements. It also doesn't help when cars are left in fields for years and then someone drags them out for sale and of course think they're worth a mint and a half! Dirt floors are another killer. Went to look at a 2+2 for sale about 10 years ago. Ad read: "Always stored" and "rust you'd expect for a car of this age. I got there, walked in a driving shed that had a dirt floor, laid right down on the ground, looked first at the dog leg at the back before I did anything else (and the guy commented, You must really know
these cars eh?) then when I opened the front driver's door and could see the dirt floor the car was sitting on, I said to him, "How much did you say you wanted for this car?" "$5,500.00. I've been told it's worth $30,000.00 when it's restored." UHHHH---HUHHHH....."Thank you for your time
fella, hope you get what you want for it" and I just drove away shaking my head. I really don't know what the bucket seats were sitting on that they too weren't on the dirt floor! Bad enough it was on the dirt floor but the roof was all but peeled right off of it too! The springs and stuffing in all the seats had obviously been nested in over the years. The tranny cross-member had disconnected from both sides of the frame to boot; as seen through the no-floors in the front seat compartment! So all this being said makes it pretty easy to surmise why so many of these cars haven't fared well and of course, salted roads being the worst nemesis. Hmmm....so much for a quick reply on this one fellas! LOL!

GIMME A BREAK! You did the right thing Earl. Talk about gratitude or what eh?! Some people.
Like ya said, just TRY and find one that's still alive or doesn't have to be shipped for 10 times the money you were asking; if it comes from the U.S.!! No brains no headaches man!

I haven't had the chance to take a real close at the frame yet ... soon ... but I think the rear end might be a little rusty.

From what I can tell the frame on my 69 Laurentian is good.

I had a 69 Biscayne 2 dr post form AZ that spent time in Ontario; I had to replace the frame.  Around these parts the frames from cars in the north in Labrador hold up well. I put a frame from a Labrador wagon under the 2 dr post.

I also have the full frame from a 69 Caprice, North Carolina car that spent a few winters outside here, but the frame is solid.  

it means there is a nightmare of rust that lurks below the surface at anytime and anyplace and it will come to visit your house as soon as you are not lookin and it also means that the real good stuff is still out there rotting away and there aint much left

-- Edited by timbuk on Saturday 10th of July 2010 12:56:48 AM