You guys had some great ideas; but the winner is Bruce Michaels, who wisely
realized that the simple solution to my problem was a big-ass pipe wrench.
I cut what was left of short welds, on-top of and running perpendicular to
the frame; using a cut-off wheel, and an air-chisel. Then, I just grabbed
the spring mount, grunted loud, and snapped it off; looks like the weld
held, the metal broke off just above it.
Using Bruce's idea, I pulled the C-channel of the frame back pretty
straight. As expected, it's stretched a bit, and will probably never sit
perfectly. A little more tweaking will be required, but it's getting darn
close. The side of the frame was also bent- pulled out by the mount,
before the welds broke. Liberal application of my framing hammer did a
remarkably good job solving that problem. I'm actually surprised how easy
it's turned out to be to move this metal. Here's where I'm at with it now:
http://www.geocities.com/ryan_border/truck/step1.jpg
I've made some templates for long box sections for the frame. They'll run
from the front cross-member, to well aft of the firewall. Also, I've made
templates for custom re-enforcement plates (2 per side) to tie the back of
the spring mount to the motor mount. Getting all this stuff fabricated will
be the next step.
As I said, the drivers side was also starting to let go. Here it is before
I totally broke it down:
http://www.geocities.com/ryan_border/truck/dside.jpg
The weld was broken about half-way up the triangular gusset. On this side,
I was able to grab the top of the frame, together with the spring mount
(with the big pipe wrench again) and pull the whole thing back reasonably
straight. While applying pressure, I tack welded the bottom of the gusset
back down to the side of the frame, so everything is now pretty much in
place. After boxing, I'll get the back-side of the gusset welded down real
well, grind out the old weld on the front side, and then re-weld. This side
will get the same boxing and re-enforcement treatments.
As you can also see in the picture, the air-spring is overstretched a bit.
Unfortunately, this was the good side. I'll get them both checked out
(probably send back to the factory) before loading them back up.
Made some good progress- thanks again for all the good ideas guys.
Ryan.
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
|
