Thank you 🙏🏽It looks awesome!
Dave,Hi Tony!
When I re-stalled my front end on a 57 Chevy, I made an assist tool to pull the lower control arm into position while the frame was on jackstands.
Here it's attached to the lower control arm by using the end off an old shock. The long nut attaches both the eyebolt and the rod:
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At the other end of the rod is another long all thread nut, three washers and a piece of 3/4" nylon:
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The nut clears the top end of the upper control arm and you can use a 3/4" ratchet wrench to turn it:
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Here's a few pictures of it being used:
First thing was to install the lower portion of the tool to the lower control arm, using the mounting location for the lower end of the shock:
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The upper portion of the tool was inserted down into the hole for the upper portion of the shock tower:
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I laid the spring into the lower control arm, and joined the two halves of the tool together. I also chained the spring to the lower arm for safety sake:
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Next, started to crank on the upper nut and pull the spring up into the frame pocket:
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I used the floor jack to lift the control arm up and used long bolts to align the rod with the holes:
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Replaced the temp bolts with the correct bolts, washers and nuts:
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Finished cranking the spring to the correct height, added the spindle, installed the nuts and torqued as required, added the cotter pins, then backed off the tool and the job was complete!
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Here's a link to the thread where i found the idea:
https://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113103
Dave
Your shop looks like mine. How did you support the body and drop the frame?Its been a while since I've posted on this thread, but I finally got some progress going on with the SS. On Thanksgiving morning I ended up removing the fenders and dropping the frame. The next few weeks I will clean it up, reinforce the rear lower control arm bracing, box in the center c-channels and notch the frame.
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My welder made sure to not stay in the same area for a long time, he kept jumping back and forth so the frame wouldn't get too hot.I want to preface that this isn't intended to be a insult or criticism. With that amount of welding I would take the frame to a chassis shop to have it checked for straightness and squareness and have it pulled if needed. Welding always causes some warpage which is why ideally major chassis welding should be done in a chassis jig or at least a flat chassis table. Moreover, back step welding techniques should be used for major chassis welding jobs to mimimize heat induced warpage. With G body frames being so flimsy they are senistive to heat warpage.
Thank you brotha 💪🏽Wow, great job on the frame Tony. Gives me motivation. 🙂 Do you need a proportioning valve if you use a disc disc master cylinder?
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