Projects There are 151 holes in one 1 33/34 frame rail.

Just incase you were wondering
That's just 1 outer rail so that means there'd be 302 in the pair.

I'm not sure which ones are necessary and should not be filled but lets say that that 100 of them need to stay. That seems like a lot still though.

So a little cost ****ysis of welding and dressing 200 holes vs new rails.
With rails at 700 or so that would be about 3.50 a hole. Time, gas, wire, power, wheels, straightening, wear and tear, clean up. Almost sounds stupid to not get new rails.

That is until you contemplate layout and drilling all those damn holes

 

You're damned if you do and damned if you don't huh? That's an intimidating amount of holes to have to layout and drill...


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

I know-right ?
This was the discussion over dinner.
" so how was your day honey?
"Well, I've been trying to this out ....blah, blah, blah."

 

hate to figure out how many holes there are in a truck frame ... I will never know either .. LOL , hey if your bored want to count the holes in a 50 poncho x frame ??

 

Haha - I think it's cabin fever.
I just got the rails back from the blaster today, so all the holes jump out now. after I hit the wall on my compressor repair - well maybe I went a little OCD.

Anyway it's still a lot of holes.
A bunch are from rivets from the 2ply construction but still.

 

I'd weld em, and have a real Ford frame. Once you set your mind to it, won't take that long.

 

I think your count may be off. 151 for one frame rail sounds way high. 51 would sound more like it.

Off the top of my head, front to rear on the sides of one rail;
bumper bracket-2
shock-2
large front fender bracket-3
inner fenders-approx 6
steering box-3 (plus the large pitman hole)
rear of front fender bracket-1
running boards and brackets-about 9
body mounting points-about 5
rear shock-2
rear crossmember-2

Top of the rails have a few for the tank and several for body mounting.
Bottom of the rails have a few too. That's about 50.

If you're building a full fendered car with the gas tank in the stock location, you'll use most of these holes. I know on my build, I filled the stock shock and steering box holes and a few other holes but it wasn't that much work.
If you're doing a hiboy, you'll be in for a lot more plug welds.

 

Is there any one here that likes the frames untouched? I'm going to keep my 30 coupe high boy, frame not plugged and definitely not boxed. It sounds lazy but I really want a bare bones hot rod survivor look.

 

Do you know off hand how many rivets ?
We drilled them "all" for complete sandblasting but nobody kept track.
Ill be looking at wescott drawing to see what's what- Is that accurate ?

 

Yes, more and more every day

 

I'm sure there will be some but ,,, really ?

 

Haha

 

Top rail has #1 thru #43. 1,2,3 are the front cross member. 41,42,43 are the gas tank. I know some are for center x member rivet holes. Some of them are very small too, maybe for welding tacks? But there's 43 and symmetrical with the other side.

The Side has #44 thru #114.
Both sides are really pretty symmetrical but not exact on about 10-12 of them.
Again some are pretty small ( welting tacks?) and those are symmetrical.

The bottom has #115 thru #151.
Very symmetrical to other side.

 

Prep em, Plug em, grind em, finish em, knock the rail straight
****er em, block em.

X 200 -250 or so

Or

New rails and drill
100- 50 ?

Tough call

 

How much is your time worth?

 

All depends on what day it is and how much time I have that day.

 

this 100%
**** it, get a cold one and go at it.

 

By the time you make up your mind on what to do, you could be through filling them. Or you could buy new ones...I guess? Hell it's only a few more ones and zeros.

 

You can order the rails from ASC and have the holes you want and not have to deal with the pitted metal (especially the inner reinforcement). I have done it both ways and the new metal is really nice and makes for a nice appearing rail. If you are hung up on having Henry stuff then sit back and start welding along mixing up the Bondo.

 

Sounds about right. Fill them all except the ones you use be it a fender less hot rod or full fendered restoration. That is what I did with mine in the 70s and never regretted it. JMO.

 

i thought about a new set of rails over the original frame on my truck,orig frame won,marked every hole in frame i needed set it in my jig and welded them all up,cleand up welds inside and outside sent for blasting looks like it was never touched.truck now being painted.

 

I have filled lots of holes in mine and am going to make covers for the original rear shock mounting holes. Besides all that, after a long day of filling holes my wife told me she thought I should come in the house and do some of that.........Tim

 

sure you do not have metal termites and borers ???

 

Drop the body over the frame and you will cover most of 'em up!

 

This has got to be a non regular car frame.
I checked another frame and there's no where near as many holes.

 

it'll be spring soon. hahah, cabin fever.

 

Cabin fever or not that's a lot of ****ing holes.
I can't deny the cabin fever part.

Leave it to me to find the weirdest oddball stuff on this planet.

 

Instead of 99 bottle of beers on the wall ,it could be 151 holes in my frame rail's

 

I get to fill my stock holes plus these hack jobs. Looks like the P.O. ran his head pipes through the side rails....ugh

 

Ok - I've heard that the truck frame and car were basically the same except for a few holes.