Quality control like this cost us the import wars

[bhays]

I got my '82 Corvette chassis back from sandblasting yesterday. It's hard to believe this ever passed quality control from a GM plant.. particularly on their 'flagship car'. Quality was clearly not job one. Go home, robot; you're drunk!

11068099_10153151799877272_2849790563165439501_n by bhays, on Flickr

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[sberry]

Not recent news but if I was doing a reman would have had the snot cleaned before it went to blast.

 

[joelowrider]

wow that looks like someone learned to weld on your car

 

[sberry]

I agree about qc though, I remember going to a tractor show and my Bud says, look at the finish difference on the American one and the Jap, especially where they thought no one was looking.

 

[sberry]

wow that looks like someone learned to weld on your car

No they didn't.

 

[Lx460]

They got better on the '83 model. I've never seen a bad weld on an '83...lol.

 

[BillK]

So .... it lasted 33 years without a problem ? What's the gripe ?? I doubt that any of the car manufacturers care about what the welds on the chassis look like.

 

[bhays]

They got better on the '83 model. I've never seen a bad weld on an '83...lol.

I'm sure you haven't... lmao.

I am going to be doing a lot of work on it with gussetting and cleaning it up prior to powder coat.

 

[jonjon1]

Thats welded like that for a reason, I just don't know what it is...

 

[PugetDude]

Sheessh... They threw in additional welds, arc strikes, and free weld wire and yer bitchin' about it...

 

[8man]

Ok, I gotta know, did you break out the grinder and the welder to fix it? Or will you leave it for another 33 years?

 

[38Chevy454]

Pretty typical unfortunately, on any old frame. Look at some 50-60's cars where it was done by hand, not much better.

Good thing is you can clean that up, or grind out and reweld some of the real bad stuff.

 

[Wizzard]

wow that looks like someone learned to weld on your car

My exact first thought.

 

[purpurite]

I'm 100% sure I could weld better than that right this second, and I have never picked up any welder in my life.

 

[Colin Len]

Wow, that's terrible looking. Reinforces why I fell in love with Japanese cars.

 

[stealthmagic27]

Im no pro at welding, but isn't this a structural problem here. Just looks like a bunch of hot welds/cold welds/hot welds, cold welds...I'd go over every damn weld if that were mine.

 

[willy (traer)]

Holy **** - I can weld better than that with a grinder!

 

[lewis26]

I'm 100% sure I could weld better than that right this second, and I have never picked up any welder in my life.

Agreed!

 

[larry4406]

Its too bad you are doing a restoration. That means you have to leave it like that to be factory correct.

 

[PugetDude]

644362_10153151799502272_4688396943362053395_n by bhays, on Flickr

Not so fast- you may have a collector car there.. I remember when McGyver welded some crucial piece of infrastructure with jumper cables and a nickel... Obviously they perfected the technique on your car before they did it on the TV show...

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

Anyone got pictures of the welds on an import of the same age?

Anyone got pictures of restoring an import of the same age?

 

[garandman]

Anyone got pictures of the welds on an import of the same age? //

No, they've all rusted away.....

From late 60's to about 1985 was a terrible time for cars. Manufacturers were devoting up to half their engineering effort to safety requirements and emissions controls.

First thing Vermont Sportscar does with their Subaru rally cars is weld every seam......

 

[PugetDude]

Anyone got pictures of the welds on an import of the same age?

Anyone got pictures of restoring an import of the same age?

Now just who do you think you are, trying to introduce logic into a Detroit-bashing thread?

 

[purpurite]

First thing Vermont Sportscar does with their Subaru rally cars is weld every seam...

Any race car gets seam welded, not just Subaru rally cars. It's for unibody rigidity, not to fix shoddy factory welding.

 

[MoonRise]

Its too bad you are doing a restoration. That means you have to leave it like that to be factory correct.

Now that is funny!!

You've stripped the car down to the frame and had the frame media blasted.

At this point I'd really lean towards making the welds 'right'.

Grind out the avian ***** material that is masquerading as welds and have it welded at least semi-competently.

You know, where the welds actually join the pieces together.

Your call.

 

[4xdog]

One could look at Toyota's ten-plus years of massive, structural frame corrosion on Tacomas to say the "imports" had their share of quality issues as well.

'Course, those frames were built in the US by Dana Corp...

... and I drive one of 'em!

 

[GN4WHLN]

I'm 100% sure I could weld better than that right this second, and I have never picked up any welder in my life.

Wow...

I could have done a better job left handed and with my eyes closed. I'd grind and re-weld all that. Even if it was structurally sound, the look of it would be under my skin.

 

[BTMSUP]

One could look at Toyota's ten-plus years of massive, structural frame corrosion on Tacomas to say the "imports" had their share of quality issues as well.

'Course, those frames were built in the US by Dana Corp...

... and I drive one of 'em!

They didn't leave the factory with the corrosion. This passed QC.

 

[GN4WHLN]

Now that is funny!!

You've stripped the car down to the frame and had the frame media blasted.

At this point I'd really lean towards making the welds 'right'.

Grind out the avian ***** material that is masquerading as welds and have it welded at least semi-competently.

You know, where the welds actually join the pieces together.

Your call.

Made me spit out my coffee...

Too funny

 

[CJM8515]

One could look at Toyota's ten-plus years of massive, structural frame corrosion on Tacomas to say the "imports" had their share of quality issues as well.

'Course, those frames were built in the US by Dana Corp...

... and I drive one of 'em!

Was the metal used...poor metallurgy.. idiots toyota are. But at least they bought them back or replaced the frames. 99-06 tundras are the same way, but its all frame replacement.

 

[finn]

The welds may not be pretty, but they did the job for the life of the car, so what's the problem here?

I don't see the relationship between quality and pretty if the structure passed the test of time.

 

[larry_g]

How early in the production run was that chassis built? For all you "I could do better.." guys lets see you do it with a robotic welder and the control systems they had back in the day. Remember this car had to be mass produced to a price point that precluded TIG welding every joint by hand.
How did it get past QC? Well the QC department does not run a beauty contest it determines if the structural needs of the joint are met. A few of those points look to have little structural needs. And as was said above it has lasted 33 years, well beyond the life expectancy of an automobile.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[rabies]

well..it least it makes me feel better about my welds


:/

 

[purpurite]

The welds may not be pretty, but they did the job for the life of the car, so what's the problem here?

I don't see the relationship between quality and pretty if the structure passed the test of time.

Just because it lasted this long (and we don't know what kind of history the car had), doesn't mean it is structurally sound.

And what's the problem? It's a CORVETTE! Would you buy the most expensive American sports car if you knew that the quality of workmanship on it was substandard for dirt hut manufacturing in 3rd world countries? The '82 was the last of the C3s and almost $20k at the time. Would you buy a $50,000 sports car today if you knew that it looked like that under the skin?

No one on this forum (or maybe anywhere) would say yes.

For all you "I could do better.." guys lets see you do it with a robotic welder and the control systems they had back in the day. Remember this car had to be mass produced to a price point that precluded TIG welding every joint by hand.

I call BS. This wasn't a Chevette, it was a Corvette. They only made 25,000 in 1982, and they were giving up on the C3 chassis completely. This is terrible production quality, by anyone's standards.

 

[Bib Overalls]

The Corvette Concours judges take points off if your chassis has been detailed. They expect to see buggered welds and paint overspray. If it is not there then it is not factory delivered. Crazzy.

 

[Stuart in MN]

if you knew that it looked like that under the skin?

This is the key thing here - the factory wasn't planning on anyone ever seeing those welds. While this particular frame looks worse than most, I've worked on plenty of vehicles (both US and foreign) that had cobby welds in places where they didn't normally show.

 

[yeldogt]

They spent all the profits on the Seville design ... no money for welds.

 

[larry_g]

I call BS. This wasn't a Chevette, it was a Corvette. They only made 25,000 in 1982, and they were giving up on the C3 chassis completely. This is terrible production quality, by anyone's standards.

I'll stand corrected, I was thinking the '84 model which was just getting a new line to run, not and old wore out line headed for the scrap yard.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[tdkkart]

Ah yes, the 80's, about the height of "don't give a ****" at GM. Lets not talk about all the late 70's small blocks that all had broken heads and flat cams at 70,000mi.

I think it was the 90's, Dad and I were sitting in a local mall where they had some cars on display. Sitting side-by side was a Toyota, probably Camry or some such, and some GM mid-size, Malibu-ish thing. The GM looked like it had been taken out and thrashed by a bunch of drunken college kids in comparison to the Toyota. Piss poor body panels, piss poor paint, totally lacking in fit and finish everywhere compared to the Toyota. It was laughable.

 

[AceofSpad3s]

I got my '82 Corvette chassis back from sandblasting yesterday. It's hard to believe this ever passed quality control from a GM plant.. particularly on their 'flagship car'. Quality was clearly not job one. Go home, robot; you're drunk!

11068099_10153151799877272_2849790563165439501_n by bhays, on Flickr

10986881_10153151800037272_6593187242927904247_n by bhays, on Flickr

10599669_10153151799627272_4950920481668548163_n by bhays, on Flickr

11037626_10153151799692272_7373218198351550347_n by bhays, on Flickr

11070480_10153151799817272_2115762330220353262_n by bhays, on Flickr

11057364_10153151799972272_947416265751855833_n by bhays, on Flickr

11065888_10153151799737272_7785600683770094326_n by bhays, on Flickr

644362_10153151799502272_4688396943362053395_n by bhays, on Flickr

Holy ****, that is awful. Even I can weld better than that and my experience consists of a single woods/metals class in highschool