Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisDollins
Woo Hoo!! Door prize? Lol. Have you started cutting on that truck yet?
Chris
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Not on mine, but I've put a few hours into my guy Joes'
1958 Chevy Apache.
backstory: Its a pretty cool little truck, tho its got a pretty MAJOR quirk; its got like 3 frames...most not from trucks. The front stub is out of something else, and rear end was "backhalfed" with a freakin
1983 Chevelle Malibu rear end. So...ya. (he didn't do any of this to it)
The coil spring rear end tracks ok, but rides very harsh because of how damn low the thing sits. Its a static dropped truck that rides lower than most bagged truck's I've seen.
The issue tho, is that the welding was done very poorly by the previous owner and the transition from truck frame #1 to the Malibu rear was dangerously under welded and under built. Its made from 2x3 1/8th square tube. While thats actually just fine (and I use it for the repair also), it was not reinforced to the frame in any way.
This means shear loads and torsional loads actually caused the frame to crack along the weld and become unsafe.
The Fix
It gets interesting here. I ended up cutting out the lower portions of of the rail above, and cleaning up all the end sufraces. I trimmed back the lower c of the frame transition that had rusted out, and gave myself and easy set of "ends" to fit up another piece of square tube. I ground back the old welds flat. The few that were good I left, the others were ground out and cleaned up so I could weld them up with the new bar.
I then ran 3" stitches on both ends and both sides of the new bar, reinforcing it against the rail. I then ran larger second passes on the ends tying the new bar into the malibu and truck frames. I also came back and fixed any of the bad weldments from the first go-round. I'll put those pics up tomorrow, when I'll be tapering the rail for a cleaner fit, dressing the welds, and moving on to the other side.