Front frame repair

Heavy metal stories...

As mentioned in a previous post the front frame was in worse shape than I'd imagined. You can see in the photos below and elsewhere the bent frame rail and steering rack mounting beam, plus the really bad work on the front chassis horns.   

The painful kink in the frame rail.

Fortunately, a few very kind folks took the time to explain to me how to approach this sort of a frame repair.

So, I bought a "portapower" on sale, and a frame clamp and followed the Eugene's directions.

And slowly, carefully, was able to pull the frame mostly straight.   Amazing! A great first step.

I also used a large C clamp to bring the box section back into square as it had been moved into a parallelogram shape at the site of the bend.

As detailed in another post, I was able to salvage he front half of a parts car. Thanks for your generosity Ken!  From this I cut some repair pieces required for Miguela. So far, the steering rack x-member and a section of frame.

 

Replacement atop damaged original.

The frame section was further trimmed to make a repair part for the recently straightened section

At this point, I was hesitant to commit to this repair, and I procrastinated as I pondered various ways to approach it.  Eugene's description of pulling would have me welding tabs onto the frame and thoughtfully straightening the remaining kinks, (probably the best and most rewarding approach) while others would have simply cut out the old and welded-in new frame sections or angles and moved on.  Finally, I decided to cut out only the worst of the remaining crease, retaining  as much original metal as possible and use my repair piece to overlap  the damaged section of frame, plug, lap, and seam welding it in place.  My hope was to get a very strong and professional looking (though detectable) repair.   This was instead of attempting a perfect fitment and perfect butt welds of a flush repair piece, as welding such a repair is likely beyond my currently skill level.