Notching frame

[shrekmoose]

Whoever had my truck before me ran into something with my tow hook on the front and bent the frame up a little. Now as far as I can tell when everyone SASs these trucks their front spring hangers are all the way forward to the front of the frame someone correct me if im wrong. What I was planning on doing was fabbing my brackets up and welding them to a piece of 2x4x1/4 that measures to the outside of the frame rails, notching out the bent front and the other side to match and welding the cross member with my brackets into the recessed part. How crazy is this and am I way off track here as to how to go about this. This would also help keep my lift height down a little bit im only planning on going 35s, or it would im my head anyway. Anyway just trying to run it by some people who have been here and done all this before and pick some peoples brains, Thanks Guys

 

[eg30.06]

the correct way would be to take it to a shop and put her on a frame machine and give you piece of mind.

 

[jps4jeep]

^^^troof^^^^

There are other ways to skin a cat though. If you have the skills, 3 link, 4 link, radius arms, etc... issues with the front of the frame near the tow hooks are no longer an issue...

 

[Solid94]

Have you seen the episode of xtreme 4x4 when Ian does exactly what your talking about doing. With out pics I'd also say look into the front spring hanger that WFO has for our trucks. May help you out. A coil set up would be bad ass but its a lot more pricey than a traditional leaf spring set up. Post up some pics if you can

 

[4thesporty]

Good post as I have a similar issue. I was planning on heating and bending the frame straight again at some point.

 

[4thesporty]

OP, not trying to hijack your thread but since we have the same issue I thought I would share some of my pictures too. This is the passenger side frame rail:

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Driver's side is fine. I think the reason the tow hooks are welded on is due to an old grill guard that was on there before I owned it and it required the tow hooks to be relocated, or the PO just hit something hard enough and did a "field repair"

 

[shrekmoose]

Sorry its taken so long to reply, been running around non stop here lately. That is almost what mine looks like i thought about heating it but not sure if it may weaken the metal or not. my plan was to notch where its bent on the passenger side until i can make it work and match the driver side to it. Then im going to build a cross member to weld into the notched out part. I dont want to go sky high with this truck would love to keep it low enough to run a 33 with some cali lean in the stance.

 

[Solid94]

I'd just pound it as flat as possible then throw a crossmember like this on and weld it up, put a fork in it and call it done

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[4thesporty]

Yea, I'm pretty sure heating and hammering, or heating and bending with a crescent are fine as long as you let it cool on it's own.

 

[WorkinMan]

Yea, I'm pretty sure heating and hammering, or heating and bending with a crescent are fine as long as you let it cool on it's own.

Not quite. Most car manufacturers only want you to use heat as a last resort, and some say not to use any at all. If the car manufacturer says it's ok to use heat they usually give you a threshold of how hot you can go.

When making frame pulls you're best to over-pull slightly that way when the metal rebounds back (because that's just the nature of it) you will be closer to where you need to be, obviously you don't want to over-pull too much. One way to get it to straighten is to pull in the direction you want it to go and then stress relieve. What I mean by that is when you have tension on the frame hit the high stress areas with a hammer to make the molecules "re-align" so to speak. An example of a high stress area would be a bulge or slight crease where the frame actually bent at. Stress relieving makes it not rebound as much, but rest assured it still will some.

You don't have to have a hydraulic ram to make pulls though. You can use an assortment of things. Rams just work the best.