If you enjoyed our last post, installing a trunk floor on our 1973 BMW 2002, we’ve got a great follow-up for you. In this video, we take a look at the frame rail repair on the same model.
Frame rails are pretty particular. They play a role not only in suspension, but in holding the entire car up, so you’ve got to be careful and precise with any frame rail repairs you do. They should be secured properly and installed nice and straight.
To make sure of this, we added a piece of steal and welded it to the rotisserie with the original frame rail in place. This makes it so that the frame rail will go exactly where it was before.
When doing this kind of restoration project, you want to take a number of measurements. You want to get the measurements between your frame rails, from your frame rail to suspension and solid points on the car (like the jack posts), and make sure everything is straight.
Because we plan on replacing the inner quarters in the future, when we put the frame rails back in, we just used self-tapping screws to secure it to the inner weld.
Next, we used a strap along with the frame of the rotisserie to hold the frame rail in the right position while we removed a section of the floor.
When repairing the frame rail, like most restoration projects, it’s always a good idea to remove one portion of the car at a time. With the frame rail, we removed the driver’s side frame rail first and installed that one and made sure it was in position. After replacing that side of the floor as well, we could finish installing the frame rail to the new floor.
We took care of any rust areas, then moved onto the second part of the frame rail repair.
Check out the video for more in-depth info on a frame rail repair below!