Hi Theo. I took the lead from Tom Hall, who said that this is a
problematic area. Mine were OK, but a slight crack on the left side,
just starting.
I had the crack welded up first, and a reinforcing plate made in a "lazy
L" that was welded on the inside of each side. This should do the job.
Cleaning the area of undercoating first so you can see the area is good,
as well as not providing a fire hazard, but you know this already.
BTW, I had an old CAT tech tip, that showed a templet for the "lazy L"
reinforcing plate. Well after 1.5 hours of time spent by the body man
and I, we decided we were too stupid, to figure out how the template
went into this area, so we just used our heads and made our own
template.
I are a Structural Engineer, please note correct grammar per structural
engineer grammar course, and I did not find this reinforcing bracket to
be rocket science.
Good luck.
I am going to have to get that scanner going so that the pictures can
really explain what I did.
Larry
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