1964 Front crossmember depression

[Gary A.]

I have a 1964 coupe that was assembled Jan 9/10 64. The body has never been off the frame and the Vin#'s match (frame # clearly visible on Kick-up). The front crossmember has a depression. This is a 327/300 car with PS and PB. I was under the impression that the depression started with the 65 BB cars. Do any other 64 owners have a depression in the crossmember. Gary

[Doug L.]

Re: 1964 Front crossmember depression

Hi Gary,
My Dec 13, '63 build '64 roadster with 327, 375HP has a depression on the top of the front crossmember on the passenger side. It starts above the A" arm attach points and continues to the center of the X-member. The only reason I can think of is fan clearance. A rough measurement indicates approximately the same clearance on both sides (undepressed surface vs depressed surface.
Doug

[Paul J.]

Re: 1964 Front crossmember depression

Same on my October 8, 1963 build 327/375 convertible. This was covered before, and should be in the archives.

Paul

[Gary A.]

Re: 1964 Front crossmember depression

Thanks guys, that is exactly what I have. I did search the archives but did not get a definitive answer in regards to a 64 depression. Gary

[Wayne M.]

Re: 1964 Front crossmember depression

Agree that it's a depression, offset to the passenger side, for fan blade clearance; should be on all C2 frames.

Frame depression for crank pulley and harmonic balancer clearance is slightly offset to the right because the motor is, as well. But the fan depression is totally on the right, again because of the motor design to the right of the frame centerline, combined with the shallow "U" shape of the front X-member.

Don't know when the pulley/balancer depression was incorporated into the frame, but my '65 # 014xx has it, so they must have known the big block was coming in Sept '64.