RE: IML: Was About Tom McCahill, and his judgement of the car in '67/ now demo guys

["Woolf,Richard T(Contractor)" <richard.woolf@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have talked to many body shop workers, and I asked them the same question
as to which is stronger unit. Most of them said unibody is very strong when
new, but as the car ages the unibody car's joints weaken, and of course the
cars from the rust belt areas have weaken badly. Some of the auto body men
have said the body on frame is a stronger unit. After reading some of the
response from the club I guess the '67-'68 are built better than the later
Imperials from the late sixties to the mid 70's.  

My '66 Crown is originally from Pennsylvania and started to show some
bubbles of rust coming though on the lower rear quarters (I'm having the car
redone by March). The car rides very tight for its age, and has 125,000 mile
on it. 

Rich Woolf
'66 Crown
'73 LeBaron
'73 LeBaron
   

-----Original Message-----
From: dardal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:dardal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 12:41 PM
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: IML: Was About Tom McCahill, and his judgement of the car in
'67/ now demo guys

Quoting "Woolf,Richard T(Contractor)" <richard.woolf@xxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> I want someone in the club to define "tougher."
> 
> I find that very hard to believe that a unibody car is stronger than body
on
> frame. Considering the size of the frame on my '66. My '66 is built like a
> tank, and is over 200 lbs. more than my '73 which as you all know is a
> unibody car.


Have you ever looked the front subframe of a 67-68?  If you did, the answer
to
your question would have been obvious.  The front subframe on these cars is
actually bolted ont the body as if it was a body-on-frame car, plus there
are
two subframes on top of the other.  Having said that, the unibody has an
advantage over the body-on-frame design.  Instead of having a finite number
of
bolts joining the (sub)frame and body, there is a continous weld, so the
body
and subframe flex or deform as a unit.  Its like the old story
(over-simplification), where its easier to bend 10 sticks individually than
all
10 together, where the joined strength is more than the sum of the total. 
Modern body design has taken that to the extreme by building vehicles with
amazingly thin metal, and due to these weak structures, there is a
misconception that the unibody is inherently weaker.

D^2


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