lower/lift blocks... thickness?

I'm thinking of pulling some box steel from the local stock yard and was wondering if .120 wall was thick enough. Is it?

 

Yea that's nearly 1/8 inch.

I got some .125 blocks for under my parts ahuler, I did weld a piece of tube where I punched holes through for my u bolt, but if you don't have a Chebby with a trailing arm suspension you won't need to bother with that.

 

you may not be as hard on shit as i am, but i would definatly cap the ends so that it cannot collapse, that sucks. as far as wall thickness i woul think that .120 should be plenty on a street car.

 

mine are solid aluminum, drilled 1/2" holes and have steel locating pins

 

Yeah, the aluminum is what I'm trying to get away from.

 

I used 3/16 and capped the ends, might be overkill but I'd rather not skrimp where safety is concerned.

 

That's got to be what the leafs are themselves and they are that thick so they can flex. That seems like overkill for just a block.

 

wow! I really overdo it- I have always used 1/4" wall box when making blocks. I don't cap the ends though.

 

Can anyone else chime in? As it stands, I have the same amount of people telling me, .120 is fine and others saying it's not. Has anyone actually had their blocks pancake over time?

 

ok- I'll chime in, Yes they will collapse but then I tend to tighten the hell out of everything.

 

Just weld caps on the ends and you'll be fine. But be sure and weld in the locator pin on the inside BEFORE you do any capping. As for worrying about strength, imagine how many psi it would take to crush those blocks if you put them in a ten ton hydraulic press. Plus that load is distributed over at least 8 square inches if your blocks are 4 x 2.

 

thanks 19forty, that makes sense.

 

Don't misinterpret my post I just stated what I did, If you have doubts about the .120 just keep an eye on them the first couple hundred miles