The Kraken

[dsraven]

for the body issues also check the cab and rad support mounts for worn out, broken, missing or cracked out mounts. the cab sits on rubber at the rear but is metal on metal at the front mount. the rad support also sits on rubber. this creates a seesaw effect so having good integrity on the rubber mount material and also the steel around those mounts is more critical. my 57 and 58 both had badly rusted rear cab mounts and also really bad rubber mounts. to get the doors adjusted properly and have them last it is crucial to start off with solid doors. these doors have a habit of being rusted at the spot welds where the lower door hinge bolts on (and also the upper hinge pockets, webs that hold the inner and outer panels together etc) so what i usually do is grtab the open door and try to twist it. it will soon be apparent if the door is solid or if it allows a twisting action. next upis to have good tight hinges. i highly recommend to rebuild the stock hinges if you are using the original doors as they may have been bent to fit at the factory. i have several doors for the task force trucks, all original, and they all fit differently on the same set of hinges on the same cab. after you get that stuff figured out remove the front fenders and adjust the doors to fit the cab. then install the fenders and adjust them to fit the cab and doors. shm the front cab mount and the rad support mount as needed to get the gaps straight and even. then install the hood and adjust that remembering that the cab can be pivotted on the driver's front cab mount in order to get the hood gap at the firewall to be the same.
here is a lnk to a guy who has a youtube and explains body gaps and fitting the parts together
https://youtu.be/RgUwd9PdWiA
for the crossmember, holy cow! please post up some pics with a better reference of the material thickness and size of the cross member. was the control arm possibly bottoming out causing the stress cracks? is the material under-spec's for the related stress?