Would you mind taking lots of pics of this process? I'll be doing all these things on my frame this spring and would like to see how to do it right. Keep up the great work.
81 Oldsmopile ( G-body rust repair )
- Thread starter EME_Mack
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Would you mind taking lots of pics of this process? I'll be doing all these things on my frame this spring and would like to see how to do it right. Keep up the great work.
Well I can't promise the way I do it will be right, it will be my first time boxing a frame. I will take lots of pictures tho
liquidh8
Comic Book Super Hero
I started repairing the frame today. Spent all day on the front topside, from the body mounts forward. I used a 140 amp 110V welder and Im not too happy with the welds on the seams. If any of you plan on doing this for a performance gain I would suggest use a 220V welder. I did successfully sun burn my arms wile inside tho.
Heres some examples of the quality welds from the factory
Here you can see the not so good penetration of weld with the poor old lincoln maxed out but it made it look prettier I guess.
Heres some examples of the quality welds from the factory
Here you can see the not so good penetration of weld with the poor old lincoln maxed out but it made it look prettier I guess.
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More importantly I fixed the only bit of rot on the frame. These seem to be a pretty common place for rust to form
Here is the template I used to make sure the new holes were going to be in the right place
Then I made a new piece using some 1/8 steel, and tacked it in.
Check to make sure Its still good. Then burn her in. I marked a bunch of lines around the template before cutting out the old piece.
And here is the finished holes.
Im going to pick up some 4" flat stock some time this weekend to box the frame, but I think Ill use fluxcore to weld it in since it welds much hotter. The 5.0 vortec isn't making enough power to warrant all this effort but I still want to make the frame stiffer. This thing is about as rigid as warm liquorice.
Here is the template I used to make sure the new holes were going to be in the right place
Then I made a new piece using some 1/8 steel, and tacked it in.
Check to make sure Its still good. Then burn her in. I marked a bunch of lines around the template before cutting out the old piece.
And here is the finished holes.
Im going to pick up some 4" flat stock some time this weekend to box the frame, but I think Ill use fluxcore to weld it in since it welds much hotter. The 5.0 vortec isn't making enough power to warrant all this effort but I still want to make the frame stiffer. This thing is about as rigid as warm liquorice.
liquidh8
Comic Book Super Hero
That looks good. I prefer to do the same thing when fixing the body mount holes, cutting out the rot completely and replacing the metal. Not a fan of welding washers over rotting steel.
So I finished my frame box these last couple of days, I used 4" 1/8 plate to do the job. I cut a wedge out of the fear frame so it can weld to the new plate.
I also cut a access hole in the side so the body mount can fit in, it also let me bend the metal out to fallow the shape of the frame. You can also kinda see how the bottom of the frame kinda goes in, I made this spot a little bigger to act as a drain for water.
I sand blasted the inside and painted 2 coats of POR15, I figured it couldn't hurt even though im going to use an internal frame coating. The flux core was doing a better job getting the most penetration out of the 110v welder. The 60 year old wiring in the building allowed the breaker to pop ensuring consistent one inch welds, and about a thousand trips to the circuit board. I also added a bar to tie in the frame rails to keep from bowing out
And heres some finished pics after a bit of grinding and cleaning up the mess flux core makes.
And I also finished the control arms mounts.
With jack stand on all 4 spring mounts, I can push on a rear frame horn and the front of the frame doesn't move. Where as before boxing in the frame the front bumper mounts would twist the opposite direction as the rear and lift the off of a jack stand.
I also cut a access hole in the side so the body mount can fit in, it also let me bend the metal out to fallow the shape of the frame. You can also kinda see how the bottom of the frame kinda goes in, I made this spot a little bigger to act as a drain for water.
I sand blasted the inside and painted 2 coats of POR15, I figured it couldn't hurt even though im going to use an internal frame coating. The flux core was doing a better job getting the most penetration out of the 110v welder. The 60 year old wiring in the building allowed the breaker to pop ensuring consistent one inch welds, and about a thousand trips to the circuit board. I also added a bar to tie in the frame rails to keep from bowing out
And heres some finished pics after a bit of grinding and cleaning up the mess flux core makes.
And I also finished the control arms mounts.
With jack stand on all 4 spring mounts, I can push on a rear frame horn and the front of the frame doesn't move. Where as before boxing in the frame the front bumper mounts would twist the opposite direction as the rear and lift the off of a jack stand.
Crap I've been slackin. So I've been bouncing back and forth from here and Ontario, and my computer took a dump so I couldn't upload any pictures. But between work I've been able to finish all the welding im going to do on the frame.
I also visited several yards wile in Ontario and picked up 2 sets of tail lights, some not crumbly tan interior panels, larger front sway bar from a TA a solid nice chrome bumper and some badging and rally pac cluster from a nice fellow in Guelph.
After fixing another body mount I had to lengthen the front of the frame. The new frame was shorter between the rad cradle mounts and the bumper mount. So I just lopped the front 2.5" off the old frame and welded it to the new frame to make up for the 2" it was missing.
I've been cleaning and painting as much suspension and steering parts as possible using por15 and VHTs chassis and roll bar paint as a top coat. I also found some rims Im happy with for the time being. 15x7 front and Im going to widen some to 8" for the rear. Now If only I can find a set of Oldsmobile caps in better shape then this one I found In a pile at a yard.
I also visited several yards wile in Ontario and picked up 2 sets of tail lights, some not crumbly tan interior panels, larger front sway bar from a TA a solid nice chrome bumper and some badging and rally pac cluster from a nice fellow in Guelph.
After fixing another body mount I had to lengthen the front of the frame. The new frame was shorter between the rad cradle mounts and the bumper mount. So I just lopped the front 2.5" off the old frame and welded it to the new frame to make up for the 2" it was missing.
I've been cleaning and painting as much suspension and steering parts as possible using por15 and VHTs chassis and roll bar paint as a top coat. I also found some rims Im happy with for the time being. 15x7 front and Im going to widen some to 8" for the rear. Now If only I can find a set of Oldsmobile caps in better shape then this one I found In a pile at a yard.
The frame looks great. What kind of vehicle did the 15" rims come from? What size(s) of tires are you planning on running on the car>
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