Frames from Vette Products of Michigan

[Irby G.]

I've been told that the frames manufactured here are spot on exactly like the frames our cars came with (made from the same tooling) with welds, punched holes, and dimples all exactly the same. Can anyone that has judged these or has seen them confirm this or should this be avoided.
Aloha

[Joe L.]

Re: Frames from Vette Products of Michigan

Irby------

I've looked these frames over very carefully. They LOOK very good. Whether, or not, they are manufactured from the original tooling, I do not know. However, I expect that they might be since the cost of re-creating this tooling would be prohibitively expensive for the size of the market today.

Whether, or not, these frames, even if manufactured from the original tooling, are up to the same dimensional standards as-original, is something that remains an unanswered question, for me. Manufacturing the pieces to make the frame is a huge manufacturing effort. Getting the pieces assembled in a manner resembling original tolerances and spec is another thing. However, I kind of have confidence that these frames will work well for anyone that needs one.

[Jimmy G.]

Re: Frames from Vette Products of Michigan

A friend bought one for a 1965 396 and it looked good. The only issue was the lack of holes to mount items such as brake lines and gas lines. That was a 2 - 3 day project. Finished product looked very good. Call Dale Ledbetter at Motorama Classic cars in Monroe, NC for details.

[John H.]

Re: Frames from Vette Products of Michigan

Joe -

Neil has the original stamping dies, and the original welding/assembly jigs that were used by A.O. Smith - Granite City. He accumulates orders over a period of time, then rents press hours and manpower at Aetna Heavy Stamping in Detroit once a year to stamp the parts and assembles them as needed. The fuel/brake line clip holes are deleted intentionally from the piercing dies, as the routing and clipping of those lines changed from year to year. It was a HUGE investment, but he had excellent foresight at the time and we're fortunate to have the frames available, especially at the ~$4500 price.

[Dick W.]

Re: Frames from Vette Products of Michigan

I have used several of Neil's pieces to repair frames. Fit is perfect and visually they are identical. Finish your welds properly and it would be very hard if not impossible to find the repair.

[Joe L.]

Re: Frames from Vette Products of Michigan

John------

That's good to know. I figured that even if they had the tooling, they'd have to outsource the actual stamping. Unless, of course, Vette Products of Michigan is a LOT bigger operation than I thought it was. Stamping many frame components is "big time stuff". I'm also glad that they were able to "save the original tooling" before it was "sent off to the smelter". As I mentioned previously, I would think that the cost of replicating this sort of tooling "from scratch" would be prohibitively expensive for the market that exists today, as large as it might be.

I'm really surprised that he was able to get the tooling from Granite City; I figured that stuff would have been scrapped ages ago and the tooling from Milwaukee more likely to have survived.

Also, I totally agree that we're lucky to have such a vendor and product out there. There are a LOT of Corvettes that now need or are going to need frames in the future. Just about any that were regularly driven in the midwest or north east areas. That's a LOT of Corvettes. I just could never see how wrecked west coast Corvettes were going to be able to supply frames for their eastern "brethren" requiring new frames.

Also, I must say that complete frames were one of the items that I never thought we'd see in reproduction. The only other thing that I can think of that I ever also thought would fall into this category is the 60-72 aluminum radiators. I was wrong on that count, too. However, on BOTH counts, I'm REAL GLAD to have been wrong.

[John H.]

Re: Frames from Vette Products of Michigan

Joe -

Actually, he did get the dies and tooling from A.O. Smith-Milwaukee; they were used at Granite City during the midyear era, and were transferred to Milwaukee when the job moved there at the beginning of the 1968 model year. That tooling was 20 years old when the job stopped in Milwaukee at the end of 1982.

[Joe L.]

Re: Frames from Vette Products of Michigan

John------

I wonder how A.O. Smith handled the transfer of the tooling from Granite City to Milwaukee? Certainly, that would have taken some time to get "uprooted" in Granite City, shipped to Milwaukee, set up there, and "de-bugged". In the meantime, St. Louis would have needed frames to build cars. So, they must have built up some inventory of frames prior to the actual move, stored them on-site or elsewhere, or St Louis received them and stored them there to draw on while the tooling was being moved.

[John H.]

Re: Frames from Vette Products of Michigan

Joe -

I'm sure Granite City built up a Corvette frame inventory to cover the time required for transfer of the job to Milwaukee; Granite City remained in full production of passenger car and truck frames for the adjacent "big" St. Louis plant for 1968.