Truck from hell

[enjenjo]

Some progress, finally! I set the clip against the frame, fit perfect! After leveling it all up, I welded it into place, jumping from side to side so it stayed straight.

I had to make a tool that would fit inside the frame to hold the parts tight for plug welding through the holes, since there was an angle difference. Sort of a reverse clamp.

[enjenjo]

Then I started boxing the joint. I mad card stock templates, and cut the boxing plates from 1/8" steel. The bottom plate sticks out 1/8" on each side. When the sides are installed, there will be a 1/8" gap between the bottom of the side, and the bottom boxing plate. This will put the weld on the side of the frame, so when it is ground flat, I won't be grinding into the weld. It also makes for less welding upside down.

[reborn55]

Nice job Frank--really shows your talent and intestinal fortitude.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

thanks for the write up and fotos ....


a very common sense approach to the problem

[rumrumm]

Nice engineering, Frank. Thanks for the step-by-step explanations and photos. This ought to make the owner happy.

[enjenjo]

Nice engineering, Frank. Thanks for the step-by-step explanations and photos. This ought to make the owner happy.

He is. He had some misgivings at first, he was burnt in the past, but he is overjoyed now.

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Nice work Frank! It always amazes me that people can find these"fabricators" that have a hard touching their * with both hands but only get to the ones who know what they're doing after much pain.

Charlie

[enjenjo]

I mentioned a tool for clamping from the inside of the frame. Here it is, hold the bar, and screw the nut out to spread the frame.

[enjenjo]

I clamped the boxing plate on with plenty of clamps, I left a gap on the end and bottom side that I could fill with weld. The front is a lap weld, and the top is welded on the inside. The ends of the different box plates are staggered, so none of the welds go all round the frame, and they are offset from the welds on the inside plates as much as possible.

[enjenjo]

After welding the plate in place, I plug welded it in several places to make it stiffer. Next step will be grinding the welds flush to make it look better.

[jaybee]

"The ends of the different box plates are staggered, so none of the welds go all round the frame"  Good thinking, and not immediately obvious.  A number of years ago a major Mississippi River bridge between Iowa and Illinois was shut down for just that reason.  The thing was built out of plates welded into a box section and a crack in a weld was caught traveling around the beam shortly before it would have dropped the whole bridge in the river.

If you have a large hole cut in one side of a frame rail, would you suggest fishplates inside as you've done here or would you butt weld a patch in place?

[enjenjo]

If you have a large hole cut in one side of a frame rail, would you suggest fishplates inside as you've done here or would you butt weld a patch in place?

It kind of depends. If the patch covers most of one side of the frame, and is in a high stress area, yes, it would use a fishplate. but you can't just weld all around the fishplate, because that can concentrate stresses in one area, and cause it to break. So, I would use plug welds around the fishplate to reinforce the area without concentrating the stress in one area.

[rooster]

If you have a large hole cut in one side of a frame rail, would you suggest fishplates inside as you've done here or would you butt weld a patch in place?

It kind of depends. If the patch covers most of one side of the frame, and is in a high stress area, yes, it would use a fishplate. but you can't just weld all around the fishplate, because that can concentrate stresses in one area, and cause it to break. So, I would use plug welds around the fishplate to reinforce the area without concentrating the stress in one area.

It certainly looks like a huge improvment, nothing like piece of mind while tooling down the hiway. Nice job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[enjenjo]

Here is one side, after most of the grinding is done. Both sides are done now, so I am moving on to the frame horns.

[enjenjo]

Since this truck had already been cut up, I could not build a jig to set the frame horn position. So I measured an intact frame that is in a truck my buddy is building. The first thing I did was to cut what was left of the old frame horns off. It was a mess.