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Now that the frames apart and everythings cut off inspection is a lot easier. I found 4 cracks in my frame, some reall bad, others only partly through. The worst one was behind the passenger side rear shackle hanger, this made removal of that hanger more difficult as I couldnt use a chisel on it. About a week after the tub came off I got a good deal on an air compressor so I finally had an air chisel that was used on the rest and removing the cracked rear crossmember. Let me tell you how much easier it made life. Once those were removed I traced the inside of the frame on cardboard and cut that out. |
| I rented a plasma cutter (higly recommended, thing cut like a dream) and traced the patterns onto 1/8" mild steel and went to town. Then I spent about 15 minutes cleaning up all the cuts (literally, Im hooked I want a plasma cutter now) then painted em. Once that was done and the paint was dry I cleaned up the ends to be welded and clamped them onto the frame using vice grips and stitch welded them on. This still allows for expansion and contraction and still creates a more rigid and strong frame. Then cleaned up the welds and totally forgot to put a coat of paint on em, till after it rained... ouch. Next day, I went back outside, recleaned the welds up, through a quick coat of rustoleum on cause it was going to rain again |  |
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Once that was done I cut off the origional rar crossmember, which had been drilled for so many things it looked like swiss cheese and had 3 or 4 cracks in it. I basically just cut the center section out as the crossmember had welds all over the place and 4 rivets per side. I broke out the grinder and ground off the heads of the rivets then used a cutting wheel and the air chisel to break the welds and get the rest off. Once that was off I measure the replacement crossmember Id bought and determined the center of it. Then lined that up with the center of the rear of the chassis and tapped the crossmember on with a sledge. Once on I welded it at the top and bottom and on the inside where the frame meets. Then I drilled out a 1/2" hole in the top and bottom locations and put in a grade 8 bolt in each. Once all that was done I gave her 5 coats of hammerite, definatly looks much better now. |
Thats pretty much it, cept I wanted to mention that I fishmouthed the plates to spread out stress instead of just having a flat cut, this also make the frame stronger as cracks tend to develope at flat plates. And heres a picture to give you an idea of how the whole thing looks.
