Frame repair-anything special with the welding process?

[DownByTheRiver]

I have a 98 that's in great shape overall, except for the passenger sway bar mount and portion of the frame in that area. I cut it out the other day and everything looked good inside. I'm ready to weld a patch in, but wanted to make sure there's not anything specific to do with the frame before welding. I'm tig welding it and am confident in my abilities, but was wondering about the process of welding on a Toyota frame of this year. Is there anything special to it?

The metal i used is slightly larger than the frame metal so I could get a decent bevel and remove enough material to clear the frame insertb bar behind it better. I still have some clean up to do, but it's pretty much there.

I'm keeping this thing as long as I live (or as long as the welds hold LOL), so no worries about an unsuspecting buyer here. Trying to clean up a northern vehicle that I got for cheap (these days) and this is all part of the deal.

 

[clrussell]

Clean it up, burn it in, paint it and enjoy.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

I'm no rock crawler hard core fab guy, but I recall seeing posts when I had my 80 with guy's beefing up steering components that they plates they were welding on, they always did welds on diagonals on the frame, never vertical. No clue what it was about.

 

[DownByTheRiver]

I'm no rock crawler hard core fab guy, but I recall seeing posts when I had my 80 with guy's beefing up steering components that they plates they were welding on, they always did welds on diagonals on the frame, never vertical. No clue what it was about.

I think that's when you section a frame...always a z cut on that. I had to cut between these frame insert uprights, and there was too much area to remove in between them to cut at an angle. Hope it's okay...

 

[SkidMarcus]

Only thing that I could potentially see is the grade of material. A36, A572-gr50, etc. Even if the frame is A572-gr50, a small patch using A36 would be fine, IMO.

 

[DownByTheRiver]

Only thing that I could potentially see is the grade of material. A36, A572-gr50, etc. Even if the frame is A572-gr50, a small patch using A36 would be fine, IMO.

This was my other concern. The patch is A36 steel.

I read about high tensile strength frames, but that seemed like it was on the 200 series. Not sure how that gets mitigated...preheat or something I imagine.

 

[GTV]

You're doing better work than 99% of the people that would attempt this job

It's going to be just fine.

 

[flintknapper]

I have a 98 that's in great shape overall, except for the passenger sway bar mount and portion of the frame in that area. I cut it out the other day and everything looked good inside. I'm ready to weld a patch in, but wanted to make sure there's not anything specific to do with the frame before welding. I'm tig welding it and am confident in my abilities, but was wondering about the process of welding on a Toyota frame of this year. Is there anything special to it?

The metal i used is slightly larger than the frame metal so I could get a decent bevel and remove enough material to clear the frame insertb bar behind it better. I still have some clean up to do, but it's pretty much there.

I'm keeping this thing as long as I live (or as long as the welds hold LOL), so no worries about an unsuspecting buyer here. Trying to clean up a northern vehicle that I got for cheap (these days) and this is all part of the deal.

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Probably be fine.....but if you have concerns of strength or future cracking at the welds....you could go over your patch/repair with a fishplate of some sort.

 

[Eyedaho]

I'm sure you know this, but disconnect your battery first so you don't fry electronics.

 

[flintknapper]

I'm sure you know this, but disconnect your battery first so you don't fry electronics.

Doesn't hurt....but the issue there is usually a poor ground or not keeping your ground close to your work.

 

[sr5pickup]

Are you going for 100% penetration? Might consider back purging so you don’t have sugar on the backside but might be hard to get in there and block off the area behind the joint.

 

[flintknapper]

Are you going for 100% penetration? Might consider back purging so you don’t have sugar on the backside but might be hard to get in there and block off the area behind the joint.

Yeah, be almost impossible to back purge in that area. He's got enough gap and bevel on his parts to get near complete penetration and a good root put in place. Probably need to work from the bottom up on the verticals to keep his puddle from dropping out on him....but I'm sure he knows.

 

[DownByTheRiver]

Are you going for 100% penetration? Might consider back purging so you don’t have sugar on the backside but might be hard to get in there and block off the area behind the joint.

My main concern is along these lines...not being able to keep the inside from rusting out. I see eastwood makes an ospho sprayer that snakes into the frame, but there's probably a better way. I don't want to drag a bunch of s*** into the weld with paint on the inside that's too close to the weld either, but I've gotta do something. Anything was better than the hole in the frame I had though...awful on a vehicle this nice. I do want to put a hole in the frame where the old (on purpose) one was, so I could probably stick something in there to coat the inside I guess.

It would be hard to get that area to stay 100% argon because of all the pockets, etc. Could get some tin foil in there but I think it'd be tough to seal.

 

[DownByTheRiver]

Thank you to everyone for the advice, and for the confidence in my homeowner idiocy! I'm far from a professional welder, so any of that advice is appreciated, too.

This is one of the bases that I made for my horse barn, and a picture of the etch I did before running the root to make sure it was penetrating. I think there's chemicals made for this, but ospho worked pretty well.

I stopped on that corner because the corners and a middle section got caps, but it's definitely bad practice!

 

[SkidMarcus]

Thank you to everyone for the advice, and for the confidence in my homeowner idiocy! I'm far from a professional welder, so any of that advice is appreciated, too.

This is one of the bases that I made for my horse barn, and a picture of the etch I did before running the root to make sure it was penetrating. I think there's chemicals made for this, but ospho worked pretty well.

I stopped on that corner because the corners and a middle section got caps, but it's definitely bad practice!

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TIG welding structural material. Nice! Such a prettier weld than MIG or hardwire.

 

[flintknapper]

TIG welding structural material. Nice! Such a prettier weld than MIG or hardwire.

MIG can be made to look exactly like TIG (except on aluminum) but there is no benefit to it. It would be for aesthetic purposes only.

 

[DownByTheRiver]

Ideally those would've been done by MIG or stick, because TIG took absolutely for frigging ever. I just wasn't confident in my mig or stick skills and didn't want to chance it.

I've seen people strength testing mig like tig welds with very poor results. Really riding the line of form and function it seems.