Frame repair is coming along. sort of.

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black95

black95

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Aug 25, 2008
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127
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2,499
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Colorado
Just figured I would post with how the rig is coming along. I haven't had much motivation to work on it lately, every time I walk out into the garage I have to fight the urge to set this rig on fire. Tired of the breakages man, tired. Anyway, got the old frame corner cut out carefully, measured, then measured, and then measured again. Matched the new frame piece cut for cut, so as no to forget how I measured. It fit back together pretty well, just needs lots of reinforcement plate put in. I have purchased the Trail gear steering box plates, and they nicely fit over about half of the repair so they should help strengthen it nicely.

I had to cut off the added All Pro offroad solid axle swap crossmember as well. It was welded on too well to remove without damage, but it didn't matter anyway, because the holes that hold the leaf spring mounting bolts were wallowed out badly. There goes another 90 bucks. :mad:

Pic 1&2 - the breakage.
pic 3 - new frame piece welded in, ready for more grinding.
frame1.webp
frame2.webp
frame3.webp
 
Lucky I have a truck that serves as plan B, and it doesn't seem to break..... ;)

pic 1 - wallowed holes in the swap crossmember
pic 2 - Look at all that flex!
pic 3 - Hmmmm.......37's and no lift? half the work is already done my mother nature! :idea:
crossmember.webp
redtruck2.webp
redtruck1.webp
 
Dang, now that's a project. Is that why you missed the meeting? How are you making sure it's all straight and aligned?
 
CO_Hunter said:
Dang, now that's a project. Is that why you missed the meeting? How are you making sure it's all straight and aligned?
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I measured off of my perfectly straight garage floor.......with my beer goggles on for that perfect eyeball. :D I figure after two wrecks, six years of abuse, and a rollover......this frame is a little off anyway. I have done as much measuring as I can to get it straight, time will tell. My wife asked me "don't people usually scrap a vehicle with a broken frame?" yeah, what do you do??? just throw away all this hard work and start over. Not hardly. If it drives funny or something, I might just have to build another mild rig for long trips and make this one the Rampart Range rescue vehicle.

I missed the meeting because on the way home, I passed a girl at the bus stop in front of Wal Mart who was standing in that horrible lightning and rainstorm we had tuesday. I couldn't just let her stand there and freeze to death or get hit by lightning, so I let her sit in my work van until the bus came........it was very late. That's my good deed for the year.
 
black95 said:
I measured off of my perfectly straight garage floor.......with my beer goggles on for that perfect eyeball. :D
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:lol:

black95 said:
make this one the Rampart Range rescue vehicle.
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That would work if the repair is off.

black95 said:
I missed the meeting because on the way home, I passed a girl at the bus stop in front of Wal Mart who was standing in that horrible lightning and rainstorm we had tuesday. I couldn't just let her stand there and freeze to death or get hit by lightning, so I let her sit in my work van until the bus came........it was very late. That's my good deed for the year.
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Boy that just begs for harassment and wise cracks but I'll be good and pass:D

Good for you:cheers:
 
Got pretty motivated last night, and now I can see the light at the end--so to speak, then the welder ran out of wire. :rolleyes: Ha ha. Bad luck strikes again!! No fear, I might get some wire and avenge myself today......I will win this battle.

Pic 1: new parts!
pic 2: Steering brace I should have had 6 years ago.
pic 3: frame bracing I should have had 6 years ago. :D
frame 4.webp
frame5.webp
frame6.aspx.webp
 
Looks good! Ok, so where have you pushed the failure point to now?
:D
 
Looks like it is coming along nicely. I think one of your gremlins jumped to me. I've been having a heck of a time bleeding brakes after I rebuilt two front calipers. I have read the 80's can be tough to bleed.
 
Make sure your calipers are on the right sides. I made the mistake of getting them wrong when I did my solid axle swap. Embarrassed to say it took me two weeks to figure that one out. Bleeder screws go up.
 
black95 said:
Make sure your calipers are on the right sides. I made the mistake of getting them wrong when I did my solid axle swap. Embarrassed to say it took me two weeks to figure that one out. Bleeder screws go up.
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That's funny, but not the problem. I'll post up tonight if I still can't get it.
 
Got my frame all patched up, and got to take it out camping last night at China wall. Pretty good time, really nice to drive the big 4runner again. I think it's been almost 3 months it's been down. Happy to report it drives straight and true, repairing the frame even took care of some death wobble issues. Really makes you respect a 4x4 that size when you don't drive it that long and then just jump back into it. It's a real handful on the road. I guess I'll play with it for a week then put it back up for more work.
frame10.webp
 
Whats that black round rubber thing at the bottom of the pic?:flipoff2:
 
black95 said:
??? no straps. I think that's the inner fender well plastic you're seeing. Truck looks weird with no bumper, drives kinda funny too with no weight on the front end.
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It kind of looks like there is a strap holding the spring shackle. Glad you back up and running. :steer:
 
CO_Hunter said:
It kind of looks like there is a strap holding the spring shackle. Glad you back up and running. :steer:
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I would say it's a strap and keep everyone guessing....
 
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