tmacie

Anyone been been successful in repairing their 2nd gen frame? I was crawling under mine tonight replacing an e-brake cable and noticed my frame is looking very tender where all the crud gets trapped by the fuel tank. I'd rather not replace the whole frame if I can avoid it.


Thanks,
Travis

thumper549

Tender, What do you mean ?? ,,,,,........ rusty ? Can you punch a screw driver through it ? Or drill it and measure ? or POR 15 and call it good.......

tmacie

there are a couple 1" long spots i can put a screwdriver though. just the bottom rail tho, not on the side. I'm not going to drive it much until I can fix it.


travis

Dinner

If it is just along the bottom, you could probably get the proper gauge of metal and weld it up. Like if the spot is 1" long, I would put at least a 6" piece across and build accordingly.

thumper549

Most diff fixable....several ways...Ideal Pc of frame from donnor truck .Cut out just what needs to be cut on yours, cut out Pc from donnor and match it up.
If you can bring frame up to 600 deg B4 the weld starts.

dropped2500

Curious here....why would you want to bring the frame up to 600 deg. first?
An none of the ways that have been said are right "structurally"!

Silver R/T

that way you have weld that will really hold on there instead of "cold weld" where it will most likely break off later on cause of bad penetration/loss of heat.

renopker

Huh? preheating 1/8-3/16 turn the welder and burn it in the preheat will get there.

thumper549

Yes it will...but steel in frame of trucks according to the hand books say pre heat and slow cool.....not like sand bags and stuff just run the torch on it and bring er dwn.
I have done plenty.........no come backs

Yellow Yota

You will want to weld on some fish plates to spread out the load.

tmacie

Fish plates? Please elaborate.


Travis

thumper549

We all could go on and on..do not know what you know...Fish plate is just a cover plate to put over the weld...again the preference is on you...should you do that some will make them a big diamond shape....that is supposed to be stronger....
But B4 you weld......strong back it all up..so there is no movement and warping....again......that is just flat steel on edge usually welded 45 deg to the joint...welded on one side so as you can knock it off when done

tmacie

thanks, thats what i thought they were. since its just the bottom "rail" of the frame im leaning towards just welding in a new piece of that and keeping an eye on the rest. Everything above where it curves to go up is completley solid.

thanks for the suggestions guys and if you have more, keep them comming.


Travis

dropped2500

Yes but heat on frames cause warping! Thats why when you section a frame they tell you NOT to weld one spot for a long time. You are supposed to move around. Weld a good 3/4 to an inch long and move to the other rail to let that side cool. Putting heat to any frame is wrong, that is straight from i-car standards. I-Car is what takes the place of ASE in the auto body industry. An i know this because i have been to the classes and im certified to splice rails and weld anything on a vehicle! But like said, do as you please.

thumper549

While I am not into trump cards....all I know is all the stuff I have done (School was 30 years ago) never came back.
Some one ought to look up the exact data on frame welds...They have a certain amount of spring built into them..On all big trucks they are riveted and bolted together..the only time a weld is applied is for a accessory or a break.......later on in its life