Augie
Active member
Hi everyone, I recently discovered that my 71 Grande has suffered from a collision at some point in its life. I found this out when I went to install my stock shock tower braces and the passenger side would not fall into place. The driver side will go in just fine. I took a close look underneath the car and found further evidence of a wreck in the form of warped and mangled metal and non-factory welds.
I'm not sure if it was a bad idea or not, but I took my car for a quick test drive after I finished with my T5 swap.I expected the car to drive odd, but it seemed to drive straight down the road. I didn't have either of the shock tower braces installed. Is driving without them installed dangerous to handling or the condition of the car? I'm guessing it causes some flex, but is it permanent? Also, can you have a unibody car straightened on a frame straightening machine or am I going to need to replace the subframe all together?
I'm not sure if it was a bad idea or not, but I took my car for a quick test drive after I finished with my T5 swap.I expected the car to drive odd, but it seemed to drive straight down the road. I didn't have either of the shock tower braces installed. Is driving without them installed dangerous to handling or the condition of the car? I'm guessing it causes some flex, but is it permanent? Also, can you have a unibody car straightened on a frame straightening machine or am I going to need to replace the subframe all together?