The chassis and associated components is usually one of the grungiest and has the most worn out parts of the restoration you will encounter due mostly to the fact that it is out of sight to most and therefore neglected. The undercarriages are usually in very bad shape with pitting, many bent areas due to previous wrecks or hastily put floor jacks, welds showing ill gotten repairs, oily residue, cracked or worn out bushings just to name a few. All of these issues will have to be addressed on a full blown restoration and, for obvious safety reasons, even to rebuild your Chevelle into a quality daily driver or weekend cruiser.

To what length you decide to take it will be up to you taking into account whether the car will be a daily driver or a trailer queen and will also depend on how much time and money you are willing to spend on that part of the restoration. Many people will not put much emphasis on the chassis due to it, for the most part, being unseen while others will expect the same attention to detail on the chassis as what goes into the body. Even the most basic restoration should pay particular attention to suspension parts like ball joints, bushings, and especially your brakes. Good suspension workings can not only save you grief down the line but could potentially be a literal life saver.

Regardless of your intentions, keep a note book and pen handy and use it to not only make notes of your findings but more importantly make note of any parts that need to be found or purchased as you remove the defective part from the car. Digital cameras are also an inexpensive investment or even a smart phone as a last resort to assist you in documenting your work.

Assuming body has likely been removed, this will leave the chassis fully exposed for you to now start your inspection and restoration on. It is highly recommended you begin with a good pressure washing to get as much of the oily film, road grime and remaining residents removed from the car before you begin the tear down. Always keep on the lookout for any factory tags or decals and document them before you pressure wash the frame. Keep in mind where you are going to be doing the cleaning as all the removed grime will have to go somewhere and it is illegal in most residential areas to drain this down the storm drains in the streets. You may want to instead take it to the local self wash as they generally have catch tanks designed for this runoff and they are legal.

After a good cleaning and scraping and just like in all the other chapters you will want to photo document every part of the frame and its bolt on parts for component placement, damage, brake and fuel line placement, location of specific clamps, cracks, inspection marks and stampings just to name a few. Do an initial inspection and photograph everything and then again when it is fully disassembled for areas that may have been missed. You will be tempted to think …I’ll remember that condition… or …I’ll remember where that goes. Trust me, you won’t and photographs will become invaluable to not only you but if you sell the car on someday, it will be an additional selling point. Not all frames were assembled the same throughout the seven different plants so if you are reasonably sure that your frame has been unmolested, document its assembly, especially things like motor mount to frame bolt orientation, crossmember to frame bolt orientation, the different types of clamps used on the brake and fuel lines, etc.

Take special note of things like the engine frame stands on the frame. Note the orientation of the stands and how it is mounted. Some plants installed the frame stand bolts from the top while others (like shown in the photo) have the bolts coming from underneath with washers and nuts on the top of the frame crossmember.

You may find the remnants of a frame identification decal like this "XU" decal. Note that it is adhered to the frame rail upside-down. It is upside down because when chassis and suspension components are being assembled to the frame, the frame itself is upside down making the decal right-side up during the assembly process. The "XU" decal here is for a 1970 sport coupe, a 1970 convertible will have "XV" and "XX" for an El Camino.

If you are lucky, you'll find remints of the tags used for the coil springs. Typically the rear coils spring tags are black lettering on a yellow tag and front spring tags are black lettering on a red tag.

There should be markings on the frame rail with the manufacturer's information on the driver-side rear just aft of the kick up of the frame. The top example is a 1970 frame manufactured by Parish (Parish Pressed Steel) with the frame's part number, 3960733 for a sport coupe, the date, 4 14 70 or April 14, 1970, and the shift number of the day, the second shift. The bottom example is a 199 frame from A. O. Smith dated 03 1 66 S2 for March 1, 1966, second shift.

Most frames will have a partial VIN of the Chevelle it is being used in. Depending on the year and plant this could be just about anywhere on TOP of a frame rail. The idea for 'hiding' it was initially only for law enforcement to know where it was in order to verify the chassis belonged to the car in question. As restorers began breaking cars down, they found these numbers and found they were invaluable in identifying a legal car. Typically the partial VIN will have the model year, final assembly plant, and the last 6 digits of the Chevelle's VIN. Later years, 1968 on, may also have the number "1" prior to the model year to indicate the Chevrolet division of GM.

Not all plants stamped these on the frame even though it was a federal mandate in 1970. These can usually be found on a variety of different places on the rear half of the frame and usually on the top side. You may not find any or as many as three stamps. When originally stamped they were very faint even when new and after almost 50 years of weathering can be nearly if not impossible to find. Some plants did not follow the mandate and did not stamp the frame with a partial VIN. The partial VIN will not include the series or body style, such as the ‘13637’ portion of a typical VIN.

One thing to keep in mind about partial VINs on the frame, unlike the engine and transmission, the frame is formed steel so stamped partial VINs may be very difficult to read.

It is a good idea to start a separate file within your car’s main restoration file and call it something like ‘Frame and Chassis Components’ so that you can easily track all the facts and progression of the restoration. If you are doing a concours restoration and the condition allows for it, make sure to document any component parts that have decals still attached as well as what type of finish that particular component may have had.

Decals such as the frame broadcast code, coil spring identification tags, shock, power steering gear, rear axle, and many others should be documented for future replacement. The color and part number on the decal as well as its physical location on the item should also be noted. This is also a good time to do a preliminary documentation of the colored paint inspection marks commonly found throughout the front suspension and rear differential components. These are vitally important to replicate on a highly valuable collector car to bring the degree of the restoration to a higher level. A more in depth documentation can be done during the individual parts cleaning process as well which will be covered later in the reassembly part of this chapter.

Once you have documented everything that you can, very carefully try and remove all the decals. You will likely not be able to save them but can use them later as a reference and replace them with decals that closely resemble the ones you removed and save them in your car’s personal file. If you are only doing a driver quality restoration you may not be concerned with these items so use your own judgment.