With the rearend blown up and in the middle of a rebuild I figured it's time to address this PO fix of the rear frame section. It's kind of hard to tell in the pics but the welds are pretty bad and there is obviously nothing painted over for protection. My first instinct is to drop the tank, grind the welds down and clean the area up then weld over it again and paint it. The repair is on the drivers side but looking at the p***enger side, it's not looking all that great either. Sorry for the poor pic quality PO Fix How it's "supposed" to look Anybody have any other suggestions before I head down this road? Thanks, NAES
If it were me I would cut the plates out on both sides. Make new ones out of the thickness of metal of your choice. Weld them in and paint. I wouldn't trust the one the PO did. Looks like a quick fix.
I agree, start over and do it right. One thing I would suggest is to put a "weep hole" in the boxing plate near the bottom of the curved section of the frame to allow water to escape.
Is the lower part of the frame on the "good" side supposed to look like that? It looks ****ed up already.... Can't tell with the picture quality whether its rusty or bent or just the angle of the picture. The welds may look terrible but they may be structurally sound.
That has start over written all over it. Welding on his welds wont fix his welds. Even with grinding them off first I dont think you'll get the penetration for frame welding ya want.
Get it back to metal and not rust, take the time and clean it up and re-do it correctly. One less thing to worry about is the best when it comes to someone else's bad work.
All great advice. With the car out of commission for now I guess there is no time like the present. Time to get dirty! NAES
Not as busy as I had hoped I would be! It was finally cool enough to go out in the garage and play. The first order of business was to remove the bumper. OMFG was that a good time! Bolts all had to be cut off and removed. Thankfully I did that because so many of my handling issues may have some origins in the rear suspension. After removing the rear bumper brackets and seeing the other side of the frame I'm shocked that something didn't fail before the rear end gave up the ghost! I'm going to have some square tubing of the same size bent up to match the profile of the frame and graft it in. Here's some pics of my discoveries today. This is the "good" side. You can see how the bottom of the c channel frame is beginning to bow out and away from the riveted in boxing section. Here's the previously repaired side. Still as sketchy as before but the other side which was covered by the bumper bracket was toast! I can take both hands and physically twist the frame! No wonder the *** end was all over the place when I turned left! Definitely an all out blessing that the rear end blew and I was forced to remove it! Updates when I get 'em. NAES
I am LMAO . Sorry had to do that but I have seen it many times. I think the saying goes like ,,Some peoples kids!!!
Wow! I'd check the entire frame, front to rear. Looks like the metal worm has been busy on the ch***is!
Yep, seen that and worse. I bought an old parts truck that PO had patched the frame right behind the cab with two pieces of treated wood 2x4... It was his driver till I bought it.
Looks like AlbugF-l covered it for you. If you have the skills and tools go for it if not find someone that does.
If it were mine I would cut out the previous repair then the factory boxed in section and then grind the rivets off the shackle hanger to get it down to whats left of the frame. Replace any rotten or thin parts of the frame with steel of similar thickness or slightly thicker. Bolt the shackle hanger back in if it's still serviceable. Reuse or rebuild the boxing plate and either weld or bolt it back into place. There's no need to reinvent the wheel, just copy the factory stuff and you'll be fine. Hopefully there's enough access to cut/weld/grind under there.
Yeah guys my jaw dropped when I saw all that swiss cheese in there. I thought back on the long, hard miles I've put on this wagon since getting it on the road and the outcome could have been so bad in so many ways. The plan is to cut the bad completely out and graft a new boxed section that is bent at the correct angles with corrections that have been long overdue for shackle angle. No wheel reinventing, just getting it back on the road safely with another story to add to my learning curve. NAES
No way I'm going to do a complete frame swap when I can fix this part by itself. and with only around 1200 made for this year finding a donor isn't run of the mill Art Morrison stuff.
Maybe its time for you to step up and be Art. Send lots of pics. Sorry guys it is time to defrost the cold spot fridg and I didn't want the beer to get worm.
You will probabley have a hard time getting box tube bent . Make your own out of 10 gage and form to suit.
Put in some time today getting bad frame parts cut out and cleaning up the rest of the frame in preparation for the transplant. Here's a few more shots of the rusted frame. Even worse once removed. The welded in section had zero penetration at the top. Completely missed the top of the frame giving nothing to the repair. Even the "good" side didn't have much life left in it. Check it out. Here's everything cut out and cleaned up. I have 2 different mock ups of how the frame could go back together. The first is taking 2 separate box sections and having them meet at the angle shown. This would require me to join and probably fish plate them together right where the shackle and bumper brackets p*** thorough. Seems like a whole lot of work and extra welding. The second is to join the frame where I cut it out, fish plate it there and run it straight back to the rear body crossmember. This seems way easier and more straight forward. Again showing where the shackle would p*** through along with the bumper brackets. This is the way I would like to do it if anyone doesn't find anything fatally wrong with the idea. Please post up your 2 cents. I will be using .120 wall 2x3 rectangular tubing for the repair. 1/8" flat plate for the fish plates on all 4 sides. I then plan to box the section from the joint all the way forward and attach to the other boxed section, closing up the c-channel gap. Of course putting POR 15 or the like inside before I get to zapping. Thanks all, NAES
It could just be me but it looks like if you run your tubing straight that you will have to mount the spring shackle lower in the frame to maintain the same ride height.
How does the 2X3 fit (size-wise) in relation to the stock frame and crossmember? I'm asking because if it will fit up inside the open C (front) portion, I would run it up in there a few inches, which would mean having to do the miter cut at the shackle hole (which really isn't that big a deal).
2x3 is what the frame already is so it ****s up against it perfectly. I could spread the C channel to get it in there but I'm hesitant to do it that way. I figured I would fit it up and plate it on all four sides so I feel confident letting my wife or anybody else ride with me. Hopefully it's overkill but I would much rather err on that side than come up thin. As for the shackle height, I'm OK with setting it up where it fits properly and finessing ride height from there. I have 2, 3 and 4 inch lowering blocks on hand so something has to fit! NAES
Would love to know how this went for you, NAES. We just discovered our entire frame was a goner - worse than your problems, so it meant finding a whole new frame. Did you get everything ****oned up and back on the road?
After 50+ years of doing this sort of thing I feel confident to say the only way to CORRECTLY take care of this is to replace the frame. Any frame that is in this shape at this location is most likely junk. The old saying "pay me now or pay me later"was never truer. Any fix short of replacement will come back to bite you in the ***................guarenteed. If not you then the new owner and/or his family if you off this disaster on an unwitting buyer, Frank
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