Wop-sided Chassis Help

[Pharozen]

My body has been placed on the frame, but when viewing the frame from the rear only, it's uneven (wop-sided) by exactly one inch. The passenger side sits one inch lower than the driver side. The uneven balance is in the rear arm rails only. The most expensive and time-consuming option would be to remove the body from the frame and heat up the rear rail arm on the passenger side and raise it up.

I need some advice on options to raise my passenger side up one inch, that DOES NOT compromise my rear-end, tire thread, alignment or overall suspension.

Attached is a picture of the rear of my vehicle. I desperately need a cost-efficient and time-saving solution.

 

[axisg]

so if I understand correctly you have the rear frame rail hanging 1 inch lower on one side than the other. I would be looking at the body bushings and bolts. Making sure all the correct bushings are in the correct locations ( the back 4 are all the same ), in the hole and not sitting on top of the frame. The frames are so flimsy that once the mounts are in the bolts should easily snug the frame to the body.

 

[85442/86buick]

hi
is the body mount area solid ? has it been repair ? a patch welded onto the body ? passenger side too low or the driver side have a repair that sit's too high ?

ps - after re-reading your post twice now , so is what your saying is ...that when sitting on level ground the complete passenger side frame rail sits lower than the driver's side by an inch ?
Dave

 

[Pharozen]

so if I understand correctly you have the rear frame rail hanging 1 inch lower on one side than the other. I would be looking at the body bushings and bolts. Making sure all the correct bushings are in the correct locations ( the back 4 are all the same ), in the hole and not sitting on top of the frame. The frames are so flimsy that once the mounts are in the bolts should easily snug the frame to the body.

Yes, you understand correctly. In hindsight, I remember my body guy telling me that he had to adjust the bushings in order to get the frame to fit properly with the body....but I didn't think the bushings played a factor with the rear rail arms sitting at different heights....why would the bushings affect that?
Also another piece of information that MAY OR MAY NOT be pertinent to you guys: they had to cut and re-weld about a foot of metal on both sides of my floor plans to make the body sit all the way in the frame....is that useful information?

 

[Pharozen]

hi
is the body mount area solid ? has it been repair ? a patch welded onto the body ? passenger side too low or the driver side have a repair that sit's too high ?

ps - after re-reading your post twice now , so is what your saying is ...that when sitting on level ground the complete passenger side frame rail sits lower than the driver's side by an inch ?
Dave

Yes Dave, there has been much work done too the body; both quarters, floor pan, etc.....but I guess I didn't think none of that was significant because all of my attention has been on the rear rail arms. If I measure from the ground up to both rail arms, the passenger rail arm is exactly an inch lower. And it's driving me crazy, more and more every time I think about it. It's not horribly noticeable but if you stand in the rear you can see the imbalance slightly, but you can't see it in the rear.

Are you implying this is a body issue or bushing issue and not simply a wop sided rear rail arm??

 

[axisg]

The bushings sit on the frame. The body sits on the bushings. They then bolt from the bottom, with a sleeve thru the frame and bushing into the cage nut in your body. If you have a thinner or thicker bushing the weight of the body will push the frame down. If they welded plate to either / or both the frame and body then you need washers to make up the difference.

Think of the bushing as a spacer. All 4 should be the same

 

[Pharozen]

The bushings sit on the frame. The body sits on the bushings. They then bolt from the bottom, with a sleeve thru the frame and bushing into the cage nut in your body. If you have a thinner or thicker bushing the weight of the body will push the frame down. If they welded plate to either / or both the frame and body then you need washers to make up the difference.

Think of the bushing as a spacer. All 4 should be the same

The part of your reply that peaks my interest is the part about uneven bushings can push the frame down. How likely is that? I guess I need to follow up with my body guy to dig a bit deeper on what he had to do with the bushings because he did tell me that he had to manipulate them a lot. I guess I never assumed that uneven bushings could result in a frame bending.

 

[Texas82GP]

There's nothing tying the rear rails together and the frame is pretty 'flexible' so your issues could be uneven bushings.

 

[Pharozen]

There's nothing tying the rear rails together and the frame is pretty 'flexible' so your issues could be uneven bushings.

Thankyou, and just for clarification, what do you mean by there is nothing tying the rear rails together?

 

[Rktpwrd]

Brandon, I got your PM, but these guys have pretty much covered it all here.
As already stated, the rear framerails from the rear crossmember back are very flimsy and can move around quite a bit.
In my case, I had the opposite problem to yours, after all the additional welding and reinforcing I did to the rear rails, the heat pulled them up a bit. Nothing that couldn't be fixed by bolting the body back onto the frame tho. There's enough flex in those rails that they just moved back down as I tightened the body mount bolts.
By the framerails being "not tied together" he means there is no additional bracing connecting the left and right rails together.
The only thing that ties them together from the factory is the back bumper, and it only does a mediocre job of that at best.
Make sure to use a quality replacement body mount kit and pay careful attention to what bushings go where and how, because it matters. I used Prothane's kit, and was extremely happy with the quality and fit.
If you're 100% sure all the mounts are in the correct location, and there is no previous repair that could be affecting the area, you could consider trimming the height of just the rear bushings on the low rail to level things out for you, but I would try my hardest to find out what is causing the issue first.
Donovan