Technical An unusual problem I need advise with...

I am in the middle of a project on a 54 chevy truck. I received the truck with the bed not attached. I am at the point to re-attach it and noticed an issue I'm looking for advise to get past.
The rear drivers side of the frame appears to have been smacked into at some point. floor to frame bottom measurements vary by over 4".
To word it differently, the frame rail on the drivers side sticks up 4.25" higher than the frame rail on the p***enger side.
Kind of making it difficult to mount the bed metal back on the frame and damn near impossible to put the wood on.
I've taken measurements back to forward at each piece of metal supporting the frame from side to side and the deviation corrects itself by 2" before I get to the rear axle. Doesnt really straighten itself out until the cab.
So heres what Ive considered for fixes and I'm open to suggestions. This is a ratty ole driver that runs well. This truck will be a beater w/ no paint adjustments etc. Its the truck on my member photo.
I can cut the driver rail and splice it to level and reweld.

I can cut too the rail from the last support back losing 2.25" of deviation and attach the bed wood to the rail under the tailgate. shouldnt be an issue. I'll still have a 2" deviation, but I can put in a 2" block and a faux flat rail top above the frame rail.

I can raise the entire bed 4.25 inches front to back and rig welded metal underneath and hide it all under the wood bed.

Thoughts? Remember a bed is not all that deep and this skewed rail comes up the side of the inside of the bed pretty far. its very apparent.

 

I wouldn't raise the bed. I think depending on the damage is see if there was away to undo the actual damage by heating any kinked areas and straighten any damaged spring hangers etc. You may be able to reverse enough of the damage to be able to bolt the bed on.

I wouldn't make my first move just cutting the frame rail. I bet you can m***age that rail back close enough with heat and a big hammer. Good luck

 

I guess I would try to straighten the frame before cutting and welding. I have a hard time picturing exactly how it's bent. Maybe with a heavy piece of channel iron chained so the center is at the center of the bend and a bottle jack you may be able to ease it back to normal.

 

Got any pictures ?

 

You really need to get the high side down to have the bed set properly . Whatever you have to do to the existing mounting area, is pretty much speculation without detailed pictures showing the problem.

 

x2

 

Straightening a frame like that really isn't too difficult. Far better to straighten it than hack and weld. A professional frame shop may not charge more than an hour or two since the bed is out of the way. I would investigate that first.

As an alternative, a good used frame shouldn't be very difficult to locate and ought to be cheap.......I've bought and sold them in the $150/200 range.

Ray

 

This is what I would do.^^^^
Until you get the truck square, nothing will be right. You'll have to do it sooner or later; sooner is better.

 

I have seen this happen when someone takes a long bed frame and shortens it to fit a short box. Any evidence the frame has been shortened from rear of cab to rear of bed?

 

A frame shop would be your best option. They should have the equipment and measurements to do it quickly and easily. It appears that you need to pull down on it. Unless you have the equipment it would be difficult to do.

 

Make sure you have the same number of leaf springs on both sides, same size tires on both sides, same amount of air in each than measure again. Front frame horns should be level. If ruling out frame shop (which should be first choice) pie cut, slice & dice, reweld like you mentioned in your first post.
4+ inches is a lot to throw a wrench into the equation p*** could be down 2 and drivers side up 2 giving you a total of 4 ..................................

 

I totally agree. HRP

 

Another vote for the frame shop. This is how these guys make a living, and they can accomplish in a few hours what you make **** around with for a week. Money well spent, IMHO.
That being said, if you are going to do it yourself, follow brigrat's advice. Take careful measurements to find out where its bent and do your straightening there. Good Luck

 

Yes and or yes. Without the bed in the way a good frame shop should be able to straighten the frame in a couple of hours and you are good to go.
If you have the truck where it runs and drives so they don't have to push it around I'd think a local frame shop could straighten it pretty reasonable even if the rates are a bit high.

On the other note there are no vin numbers on AD truck frames including the 54 but you would have to hunt down a 54 frame as they are slightly different over the rear axle than the 47/53 frames. Still there you don't always know what you get until you have it set up on stands and can measure it for square and being straight. I've cut a number of them up that were tweaked more than I wanted to deal with back when you could drag these trucks home for 25 to 50 bucks any day of the week.

 

here's some photos

 

I wouldn't cut or pie cut anything to straighten the rear or the rails. If you are going to straighten yourself, I'd remove the leaf springs first as they are holding tension on the frame.
I would think that with heat and hammering, you could m***age the rail back down into position.
Locate where the bend starts by using a straightedge and start there.
Also, removing the crossmembers in the back will help, as all that mis-shapen metal is holding the rail. With it temporarily gone, the rail will be easier to straighten.

As others said, a frame shop would make fast work of that.

 

Seeing those pics, frame shop. Unless you have pro installed floor pots there's no real way to correct it in a home garage. The only other option is another frame, careful measuring, perhaps a dozen times, cut out the part you need and weld it to yours with substantial fish plate use. I added that option to make the frame shop option more atractive. Their time, perhaps well under $500, but a spare frame, supplies, help, the disaster area your garage becomes doing it? Just sayin...

 

Frame shop they will do it and do it right. I just had a car done and I had everything off of it. I dropped it off 3 hours later they called and said it was done. $75. I couldn't screw with it for that price and it was right. If you don't fix it nothing else will fit and you will fight it to the end.
Tony

Sent from my SM-G930V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Yep that's ugly! The pictures should have been posted on first post so as to eliminate all the "thinking out of the Box!

 

Another vote for the frame shop. It's not expensive. Fix it once. Fix it right. You won't regret it.

 

I'd also like to add that your issues will "stack up" as you proceed if a simple bandaid fix is used. Fender to box, fender to running board, running board to cab, tailgate, etc. You'll walk up behind it some day and regret it when it ends up looking like a dog hiking it's leg.

 

That could be straightened fairly easily. The frame is the foundation of the vehicle. It should be square and even. Take the time and expense to get to spec.
Joe

 

I'm with the frame shop votes.

 

let me guess: that was dragged out of wherever it was with a backhoe/excavator type machine. hooked with a chain and dragged on an angle.
best bet a frame machine.

 

I find it kind of mindblowing that if someone posted a thread about using a cross steer box on its side with a drag link, or split rear bones, 10 street rod guys would be screaming "DEATH TRAP!!!", but no one seems to have much of an issue with this other than esthetics? More "through the looking gl***" stuff.
tb33anda3rd has probably nailed it, and yes, another vote for frame shop...
Gotta wonder what this thing tracks like when you are following it down the street...

 

You need to measure cross corners, front to back. I would suspect that you frame is no longer square. A common problem with truck frames that are hit on the rail. If it is square you can tie the ends down and jack it in the middle to straighten it. You will need a 10 ton bottle jack and a thick piece (1") of bar stock about 2 foot long and a level. A frame guy is really your best bet though.

 

Frame shop it is. case closed. Thanx

 

followup... I got help so i figured id share the results (wish more folks would) frame shop elected to use a previously unseen pie shaped rust area (that caused the issue) and close it up and weld numerous plates on all sides of it. This approx 4.24" at the big end pie shaped opening was pretty well concealed behind some other **** on the frame. metal fatigue on the top tail ( large side of pie opening on bottom) caused the 4.25" difference in frame rails. hmmm opening 4.25" and issues 4.25" weird huh.
about 30 minutes later I was good to go. Frame shop guy told me no charge he was so sick and tired of fixing japanese **** that people did stupid stuff in, it was a pleasure to see "old iron" as he put it. I brought him back a case of beer the next day and send pizzas to them for lunch. ta da fixed. so everyone knows, no it wasnt yanked out of anywhere and no its never been driven like that. thanks again for all the advise.

 

Thank you for your update.

 

Wow. Thanks for the update. Happy to see this realy worked out. The time you would had spend vs beers and lunch. [emoji106][emoji41]