Working on sliders for my Cruiser. Got the driver's side almost finished - on little snag: one of the brackets is really tight. After I did all the welding on it to strengthen it I must have overheated one side of it because it got a light bow to it and now it goes on the frame only partially before it's tighter than cr&p! Trouble is that the distance between the two uprights is only about 3 inches so I can't get my angle grinder in there... a file is not enough to make a dent in this thing - what elese could I use to remove some of the metal from inside of that bracket to make it fit again?! Really don't wanna cut it up again if I can help it...
I would try bending it first. If you have a torch use some heat, if not use a BFH and/or a pipe wrench and bench vise. If that doesn't work cut it apart with the angle grinder and a cutting disc. Reweld and you're good to go.
I've spread shackles out by using a piece of threaded rod and a few nuts and washers. The idea is to end up with a couple nuts on the threaded rod inside the forks of the part. Start winding the nuts apart so they push the legs open. You'll need to push it further apart than the frame is thick to allow for material spring-back.
You could also tack weld a couple of 3'-4' peices of bar, angle or tube, one on the outside of each leg. That should give you enough leverage to pull the legs of your part open enough to work. Then grind the tacks and remove the extra material. Then proceed with yer project.
Thanks guys... after some deliberations, I decided to just use a cutoff wheel on my grinder to zip off one side of the bracket, re-adjust and re-weld. Worked great and was fast.
Here are some pics of the work in progress:
And same one with gussets in place:
Still need to add some tube on the rail and close up those ends...
