What sections are you wanting to reinforce? What welding process are you most familiar with? Formerly working with mostly Alum. i suspect Tig and some mig.
actually mig welding.. I have one that has the spool right on the gun for aluminum. The spots that need reinforcement are the horns just above the front axle.
Not sure what the question here is. It's just a carbon steel frame. Clean it up and plate it as needed. If it's rusty then replacement horns are available. Take good measurements and weld away!
Jason T.
I had a break in the front horn once and it was right where the front cross member was oposite. Looks like a weak spot so I opted for a new frame.
Glad I did because once the truck was off the frame, I could see that there really wasn't much meat left in the frame to weld to. If I were to do this repair, then I'd probably want to cut out the old sides of the frame and weld in new ones. This is opposed to just welding in reinforcing plates on the sides and bottom.
Just wouldn't have been enough meat in the old frame to make a strong repair.
One thing that many decent chassis fixers do is to cut the patch so the forward and rear edges are shaped like big letter "U's" turned on their sides. This spreads the stress (where the old chassis is doubled up with the new patch) over more of the old chassis.
If you just go straight across from top to bottom of the old chasis with your patch, stress is concentrated along the seam and could be the location of your next crack.
--Mark
1973 SIII 109 RHD 2.5NA Diesel
0-54mph in just under 11.5 minutes
(9.7 minutes now that she's a 3-door).
Thanks for all of your comments/suggestions! Someone had mention that there are replacement horns available...I haven't been able to find any. Any suggestions on where to locate? The comment about the cutting the sidway v's into the patchwork...I'm guessing this is to accomplish more of a sheer strength?
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