The frame rails between the control arm mount and the rear leaves was the easy part. Order it up and weld it on, it took a full weekend but it was relatively easy.
The hard part was the forward frame rails from the control arm mounts to the front of the unibody frame.
Paper template for layout of plates and hole locations. Cut 3/16 plate. Use three sections for the sides and two for the bottom. Drill lots of holes for rosette welds (about 60 per side) and all the bolt holes. The plate that went behind the coil spring was formed to fit the curvature of the unibody. Cutting this plate part way through where the bends needed to be really helped to form it.
The plates:
Setting up to weld:
Bolting the lowers in:
Bolting in the two rear side plates:
Bolting in the front plate:
Side Plates ready for welding:
Bolting in the lower plates:
Some minor adjustments (lots of these):
Inspecting again! Its 90% prep and 10% welding.
Some final grinding to clean it up:
Now it finally ready for welding. Started at 0730 when it pulled into the garage and ready for welding at 1530:
Finally welding:
Bolting up the track bar bracket. Just one thead exposed on the nuts so I need to add longer bolts. It the RE HD bracket worked with the 3/16ths plate but it took a lot of grinding to oval out the holes to so it would fit but it does, fortunately. I will tack it in after I have longer bolts for the upper part of the mount. The lower bolts were still long enough to show 4 threads.
All finished. Primed, painted and later undercoated. Part of the prep work was to prime and paint the unibody prior to welding, mark the rosette welds and then grind those spots clean prior to welding. They use a lot of salt here and I will be doing stream crossings so anything I can do to protect the frame from rust (its California XJ) I tried to do.
It probably took 10 hours to strip the suspension make the templates and reassemble it.
Another 8 hours to cut the plates.
6 hours to drill everything and clean the plates of all rust.
15 hours to strip, prep, weld and reassemble the drivers side.
11 hours to strip, prep and weld the passenger side.
Was it worth it?
Heck yes. No more cracks, no more groaning, it drives a lot better, steering is more precise and I now have the foundation for cage work.
John
The hard part was the forward frame rails from the control arm mounts to the front of the unibody frame.
Paper template for layout of plates and hole locations. Cut 3/16 plate. Use three sections for the sides and two for the bottom. Drill lots of holes for rosette welds (about 60 per side) and all the bolt holes. The plate that went behind the coil spring was formed to fit the curvature of the unibody. Cutting this plate part way through where the bends needed to be really helped to form it.
The plates:
Setting up to weld:
Bolting the lowers in:
Bolting in the two rear side plates:
Bolting in the front plate:
Side Plates ready for welding:
Bolting in the lower plates:
Some minor adjustments (lots of these):
Inspecting again! Its 90% prep and 10% welding.
Some final grinding to clean it up:
Now it finally ready for welding. Started at 0730 when it pulled into the garage and ready for welding at 1530:
Finally welding:
Bolting up the track bar bracket. Just one thead exposed on the nuts so I need to add longer bolts. It the RE HD bracket worked with the 3/16ths plate but it took a lot of grinding to oval out the holes to so it would fit but it does, fortunately. I will tack it in after I have longer bolts for the upper part of the mount. The lower bolts were still long enough to show 4 threads.
All finished. Primed, painted and later undercoated. Part of the prep work was to prime and paint the unibody prior to welding, mark the rosette welds and then grind those spots clean prior to welding. They use a lot of salt here and I will be doing stream crossings so anything I can do to protect the frame from rust (its California XJ) I tried to do.
It probably took 10 hours to strip the suspension make the templates and reassemble it.
Another 8 hours to cut the plates.
6 hours to drill everything and clean the plates of all rust.
15 hours to strip, prep, weld and reassemble the drivers side.
11 hours to strip, prep and weld the passenger side.
Was it worth it?
Heck yes. No more cracks, no more groaning, it drives a lot better, steering is more precise and I now have the foundation for cage work.
John
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