[cwcarpenter98]

Today's task: welding up the frame and making the reinforcement plate.

I've been running .025 wire with gas on my mig. That was too thin for the 3/16" frame. I needed .030 wire to use with the gas, but I currently don't have any. The welder would be on the highest setting for that wire size. Instead, I opened up the .035 flux core wire that came with the welder and set up the welder for no gas. That worked pretty well, and I think I should be ok.

After that, i removed the sway bar and steering linkage to get it out of the way. I wanted 3/16" plate to use for the reinforcement plate, but didn't want to go to the store to get something that was way bigger than what I needed. I remembered that I had a section of frame rail in the back yard. Perfect piece to cut from! I fit it into the frame, got the holes drilled, then ran out of daylight. Tomorrow will be cleaning up the inside of the frame so that I can bolt the plate up, stitch weld around the edges, and throw in a couple plug welds where needed.

The holes in the plate are the 3 steering gear holes, the bumper bracket hole, and the smaller one is for the sway bar frame bracket. I'm hoping that will be enough to tie the frame together. If not, I might take some of the scraps and weld a stand on to the bracket that will bolt to the radiator cross member. Suggestions welcome!