Quote:
Originally Posted by Grumpy old man
DON't beat it back to as good as it gets ! Fix it . What's a "baby beater " ??? Hopped up ? What's that mean ?
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Baby Beater is tradesman slang for a mini sledge.
Hopped up means a honest 4-500HP (2 motors) have been between the frame rails in the last 4 years. Putting enough power to the rear to bend the rear leaf springs that I installed when I first got the truck.
None of these trucks have a straight frame anymore, even if it hasn't been wrecked. Don't believe take yours to a frame shop. Even the lowly 6 bangers will have the right side rail tweaked down after 40 years. If it worked fine before you noticed it then it will still work fine tomorrow. Only difference is now you know its bent.
My personal daily driver was a brush truck for a fire department for 30 years. low milage but beat hard. At some point something was hit and bent the trans crossmember just to the inside of the support going to the upper frame rail. Most of the damage was to the crossmember but a small tweak to the frame at the rear drivers mounting bolt also happened. The rocket scientist who repaired it put 5 washers between the frame and crossmember! I beat the cross member back as close as it gets and it is almost perfectly flat now even with the frame tweak. You might get a match book cover in there if you tried hard enough. Good enough for me considering there are 10 more bolts holding it in there. No telling how many decades those washers were in there. Truck drove and stopped straight as it was so no harm in getting it as close to straight as possible. It can only reduce the stress to the frame and bolt holding it. Moral here is the only way it will be 100% correct is to take it to a frame shop and have it all reworked. Then you will find out the body it bent slightly and it wont line up correctly. Sometimes close is as good as it gets because the snowball will never stop rolling once it started.