Yes they do. Look on AMD under front and rear framerails. Although they are unibody, the front and rear sections are still reffered to as framerails.

 

Unfortunately its looking like I might have separated the firewall from the Unibody. If thats true the job just got a lot more complicated.... But we'll see.

I rarely drove mine in the cold, especially because it doesn't have heat. I wasn't going far and it had only been below 40 for about 2 hours before I left and it was above 40 and sunny so I didn't expect there to still be ice. Unfortunately I didn't think about the bridge over a large river where the water and winds kept it colder!

 

I own one myself. Trust me, it's a unibody.

 

It's a huge bummer man for sure. Be thankful you're not more seriously hurt though. How bad was the wrist?

 

I know it's a unibody. But the front and rear subframes have rails. They don't go from the front to back of the car like a full frame car does. But the part of the front subframe where the k-frame connects still has frame rails. That's what I'm talking about. I bent up the driver's side one badly. And I've heard from the shop evaluating it that I MAY have split the unibody at the firewall/floor seam too

 

Thankfully the wrist turned out to just be extremely banged up, and not actually broken. So after an evaluation today they let me take off the splint. So I've at least got one fully functional(of badly bruised) hand now!

 

Dude that's the best possible outcome. Cars are rebuildable and replaceable. Your wrist...maybe not.

Maybe time for a donor car and a parts swap?

 

It’s unfortunate that this happened. As for your wrist it will become stronger.

As for your car there’s nothing that a grinder, leverage, heat, and a welder can’t bring back to the table to continue with. As for the unibody part I had a 2001 police interceptor and it was the definition of a unibody, so I comprehend your troubles in making a determination of how to proceed. I see so many fabricators/metal working mechanics that put real vehicle bodies from many years ago directly onto new vehicles, and watching how they do so is really knowledge giving. Good luck.

 

Yeah, I'm more than happy about my wrist. Even a couple days without fully functional hands is enough to make me appreciate being able to do even basic things. I'm still in a sling on the left side, but this is a huge improvement.

Donor car and parts swap is where I'm leaning. I've got a lead on a 67 GTX that needs rear quarters, an engine, and tranny. The Belvedere has (reasonably) good rear quarters and the GTX has a good front end. Between the two I could end up with a solid 67 GTX running my running gear. It'd even be a bit of a model upgrade, since the GTX is a nicer submodel than the Belvedere II. I do kinda like the 66's headlights better than the 67, but not enough to quibble over it if it gets me back on the boost train. It'll just depend on what it's current owner decides he wants for it.

 

67 inboard headlights = turbo inlets. Food for thought

 

That had occurred to me I was already looking at doing something like that with the inner turn signals on the '66. But they were too small for anything pre-fab. The 67's will have a lot more options. And will look more like the '66 front end if I do that.

 

Omg, I said it was a unibody. No one is saying it has a full frame, we are saying the pieces of sheetmetal shaped in a rectangular shape that are spot welded to the floor and firewall that protrude forward and the inner fenderwells are attached to, and tge kmember bolts onto are called FRAMERAILS, a full frame has two sides connected by crossmembers and each side is called a rail. The unibody has 4 framerails, two rear and two front. Look in the service manual and the people who made the car call it a framerail. Sheesh. What are you going to call a reproduction sheet metal supplier and ask for a 'unibody'? Unibody refers to the 2 front framerails and 2 rear framerails that are connected to the 2 rocker panels by torqueboxes. I was trying to help you save your car, as I own 2 66 b bodies. But you win. Fix your unibody.

 

I think you might be confusing MrBelvedere and I nxcoupe.

I'm on the same page as you are. I know my poor beat up Bel has front framerails. I saw how badly I bent them

 

I love how people get so wound up.

Yeah, they're kind of frame rails. But they're integrated into the rest of the body. They're welded to the inner fenders. They're formed out of sheet and spot welded (poorly) into box sections.

It's the definition of a unibody construction and saying anything else is misinformation.

But I digress. Who really cares? Actually, you're right it's not a unibody. Feel better?

 

Been a little stagnant on the project while I heal up from my wreck, and deal with insurance... They finally paid out so I picked up this!

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A '66 Satellite with a 383 4-speed in it! The plan it to pull the turbo engine from my Belvedere, along with the interior, trunk pan, and rear quarters and slap them on this Satellite to get essentially the same car back up and running.

I worked hard to bring the Belvedere back to life, but after finally getting to measure things, the firewall is separated from the body, and the car is actually bent. It COULD be saved, but I'd be looking at extreme cost and time outlay. That coupled with the fact my wife is VERY nervous about me welding a car back together just to drop my monsterous twin turbo big block back in it. She has visions of the car just braking in half when I get on it...

Now I just have to wait for the broken bones to heal so I can start moving everything over to it... Which is killing me. I wanna be wrenching!

 

just gives you another reason to cage the Belvedere

 

A cage is on my shopping list already. Along with 4 point harnesses.... I'm looking at what I want to do for seats, I like the classic low backs but its hard to safely to harnesses with them so I might end up swapping them out.

 

Finally got myself healed up enough to get some work done... Got the engine pulled outa my wrecked Belvedere and dropped into my new Satellite on Saturday!
Ran into one gotcha I've gotta solve, went to drop the new 4 speed behind the engine(The Belvedere was an automatic) and discovered that the crank wasn't fully drilled for a 4 speed. I was certain it would be as the 426 is an early model ('63) and ALMOST all the early forged cranks are drilled for the 4 speed. But sometimes if the engine was destined for an automatic they half-assed the drilling. And thats how this one is.

Not to worry, there's a conversion pilot bushing for if you have this crank, but I didn't order that one. So It gets to hang out there on the hoist until I get the right bushing in so I can continue building.
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Hell yeah I'm glad to see it's coming back together!

 

Moving right along, yesterday I had some time to wrench so I got the clutch, bellhousing, and transmission installed on the car.

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Since the car was an automatic originally I had to cut the floorpans for the shifter hump, not a big deal but I now have some decisions to make. I have a Hurst Ramrod inline 'vertical gate' shifter going into the car but installing it with the kit's brackets results in having to cut a good chunk of the back out of that brand new floor hump. Not the end of the world, but I'm not sure how I'd cover the shifter if I do that. I'm thinking on shortening the shifter bracket so it fits into the hump, but with the short shifter handle it might be too far forward. We'll see what happens...