Crank Knobs

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

... Sold all of them because of rust-worn frames; they sagged in the middle.

There was a place that for about twenty years, from 1978 on, that addressed such things. I sold my 65 Volvo 1800S when I became worried about the rusty uni-body. Little did I know I'd work at Finger Lakes Fabricating 2 years later.

Most often seen were VW Beetles for uni-body/heater tubes and floor pans. Dodge Darts had their own special tricks. The area around the mount for the torsion bars would weaken and twist out. My fave was that the rear leaf springs would slice up into the trunk like a can opener when the rear mount rusted loose. Subaru et. al. shock towers were a thing, too, IIRC.

They'd fix anything that was viable if the customer could afford it, and I can't begin to enumerate all the different vehicles that were structurally restored. I recall a Porsche 914, which had rocker panel structure similar to the bug. The guy working on it wanted access, and removed the roof panel, which turned out to be what was keeping the car from bending in half. Nonetheless the repair went just fine.

One night, the door was left open on a car that was left on the lift overnight. The system leaked enough that the car had slowly come down, and because the open door caught on the steel bench on the way, it was lying in repose on its side in the A.M.

They set fewer than a handful on fire, overall. One Mercedes' interior was completely burned out by a hot MIG ball that had somehow gotten inside and smoldered unnoticed in the carpet/insulation layer. Again, a surprise in the morning... Welding spatter on glass was to be scrupulously avoided. Tiny red hot balls of steel melt into and stick to glass. It is unnoticeable until the next rain, at which point it rusts and makes your windshield red. It will also destroy your wipers.

All gone now, closed up, and the owner retired since 2011.