Installing Bad Dog Frame Rails

[Bartman]

So I'm preparing my car for installation of the Bad Dog Frame Rails I purchased a while back. As you can see, it looks like someone went four wheeling with my car:

Anyway, they're actually cleaning up pretty well and the existing rails look rust free! The issue I have is that the stock frame rails are deeper than the Bad Dog rails around the front of the floor pan. You can see in this pic how they are much deeper in that area:

So you guys that have already installed your rails, did you run into this issue, and if so what did you do about it? I could slice off the bottom of the stock rails, but I thought the Bad Dog's were made to just slip over the stockers.

[COZY Z COLE]

This may be way off but are you trying to fit the 280Z bad dog rails on a 240Z????

 

 

LARRY

[auxilary]

had a shop install mine, kind of a questionable job that will need to be fixed shortly (they burned through my floorpans welding them in)

 

my frame rails were a little arced, so what i did was had the shop place a jackstand under the baddog rail, and lower the car onto it, and weld it into place. the weight of the car, disperced evently over the rail, caused it to arc into the shape, and when welded in, it straightened out a little bit

[JMortensen]

I cut the stockers off entirely. Mine looked like yours but worse.

[Bartman]

This may be way off but are you trying to fit the 280Z bad dog rails on a 240Z????

 

 

LARRY

No I don't think they are 280Z frame rails as I believe the 280Z frame rails are one piece and don't have the flanges on them.

had a shop install mine, kind of a questionable job that will need to be fixed shortly (they burned through my floorpans welding them in)

 

my frame rails were a little arced, so what i did was had the shop place a jackstand under the baddog rail, and lower the car onto it, and weld it into place. the weight of the car, disperced evently over the rail, caused it to arc into the shape, and when welded in, it straightened out a little bit

Aux, I saw your thread and I will have to do something similar with mine, but it won't resolve the iisue at the front. If you look at the pic the existing frame rail actually arcs down while the Bad Dog units are flat. I don't have the exact measurements, but the Bad Dogs rail depth is around 5/8" while the stock frame rails is around 3/4" at the deepest section.

 

I thought the bottom of the stock frame rails would be flat like the Bad Dog units. I put a red line on the image to show what I expected ( may not be exactly level, but hopefully you get the idea).

[Bartman]

I cut the stockers off entirely. Mine looked like yours but worse.

I was hoping you would jump in Jon. Maybe I should just cut along the red line in the image I posted above.

[JMortensen]

I don't see anything wrong with cutting that part off. I'd pull the floor to the frame rails rather than bending the frame rails to hit the floor. Just use sheet metal screws and then plug weld the holes from the top.

[jeffer949]

a little off topic but the passanger side frame rail is rusted out.. but the driver side is ok.. should i weld in 2 new ones or just doing one side ok?? i was kinda worried about maybe it twisting wierdly because one side was stronger than the other.. ideas??

[johnc]

I've never had to cut the OEM frame rails off. My intent when installing the BD frame rails is to reinforce what's already there.

 

Using a hammer, jackstands, blocks of 4x4s, etc. I get the frame rails and floor pan straight and fairly level and then fit the BD rails. It takes a few cycles of fitting and hammering to get things correct. Once that's done I tack the BD frame rails at the firewall/floorpan junction and then weld forward up to the TC rod mount. Then I weld backwards, alternating sides from the firewall/floorpan junction to the end of the BD rail.

 

FYI... the last car I did looked much worse then what you're working with. Take your time and whack away.

[Bartman]

A small torch and a putty knife is making quick work of removing the sound deadening and then a little bit of sanding reveals nice shiny metal.

A little work with a hammer and the bad dog rails slips right over the stockers.

It's actually easier than I thought it would be, but I still need to make it fit a little better and then weld it in place.

[Cable]

This has prob been asked before, but where do I buy these Bad Dog Frame Rail kits from? I would like one for my 280z.

 

Thanks!!

[JMortensen]

http://www.baddogparts.com/

 

Can you shorten up your sig please BBZ? It's just wide enough on 1024x768 that the pics take up 2 rows. If you make it narrower they'll all fit next to each other and won't be as tall.

[Cable]

http://www.baddogparts.com/

 

Can you shorten up your sig please BBZ? It's just wide enough on 1024x768 that the pics take up 2 rows. If you make it narrower they'll all fit next to each other and won't be as tall.

 

Thanks, and done.

[auxilary]

for sound deadening removal, NOTHING beats dry ice. I spent $25 for 25 lbs, let it sit on the floors for about 15 minutes, and everything popped off with just some hammering. If you let it sit longer, it'll penetrate and detach the rust coating on the bottom

 

[twoeightyzx]

I have the same question as jeffer949. I'm looking at the MSA replacements for my 280zx but its only my passenger side thats rusted and needs replacing. I'll try and remember to upload pics of it later.

[LLave]

Is there any advantage to slipping the bad dogs over the stockers other then saving the time to remove the originals?

[Cable]

Is there any advantage to slipping the bad dogs over the stockers other then saving the time to remove the originals?

 

I would imagine that leaving the stockers would be even better since the bad dogs are just adding that much more support to the existing metal.

[Bartman]

I finally got back to installing my Bad Dog frame rails and here's what I did to make them fit over my existing frame rails.

Now I'm ready to prep and weld them in place.