<VV> A reason to worry?

[Michael Kovacs]

Worry, maybe. I'd jack up one corner of the car and see if the gaps on the dpprs 
have a significant movement. How are the rockers?.
 MIKE KOVACS




________________________________
From: Chuck McKinley <cmckinley313 at verizon.net>
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Sent: Thu, January 3, 2013 11:19:16 AM
Subject: <VV> A reason to worry?

Every so often while I'm driving my '63 Monza 900 coupe, I find that one of the 
doors has popped slightly open (~1/2 inch). It can occur to either door about 
equally. When I slam them shut, it seems to be OK for the moment. This just 
happened to my driver-side door when I made a sharp right turn at walking speed 
in a parking lot. I'm wondering if that's symptomatic of a dangerous level of 
frame flex. Is there a simple test I can make to decide whether this is a 
terminal condition such that I should finally retire at least the body of the 
car?
I can add that the floor pan is full of holes of various sizes and is patched 
several places with sheet metal pop-riveted through the original floor metal - 
not welded anywhere.
I just did a simple-minded trick of opening the door, standing on the rocker 
panel and basically jumping up and down several times. I did this on both sides 
of the car and nothing broke, for whatever that's worth. I weigh about 180 so 
it's probably not a very good stress test.
Advice is welcome, as always.

Chuck McKinley
'63 Monza 900 80 hp  3-speed