botched bed cut

[scum1]

the po of the truck i bought mentioned to me that it was a long bed originally that had been cut down to short bed, and a short box put on it. so naturally when i drove from vegas to la...... i forgot to check it out. until now. long story short. they made a vertical cut in the frame combined the pieces and rewelded. thats it. no reinforcement on the outerframe side. but on the inside they "reinforced" it with a thin piece of steel that is runnin along the frame edges. it doesnt even touch where the weld was. it pretty much made a box tube frame in that area. get it? i tried to snap some shots but i couldnt get under there and was in a rush. ill throw em up anyway. but what the hell do i do with that. just reinforce the hell out of it??

[scum1]

this is flipped sideways. its a vertical cut and weld..

[scum1]

this is on the inside of the frame rails but its such a bad pic i cant even tell what it is of, and i just took it.

[scum1]

Originally Posted by lakeroadster

Like you said, get us some photos and we can help evaluate what's needed.

Does the bed fit square and does the truck track true down the road?

If everything is square and true more than likely some grinding and then additional reinforcement plates should be good enough, but hard to say without seeing it.

the bed is missing bolts everwhere so it wobbles around, i only drove it to the u haul place to tow it. and it drove good, for bouncin on the front coils, but it really didnt drive that bad at all. no pulling to any side. im just amazed that it held up that much. it looks so weak.

[scum1]

outside frame rail





inside frame rail



another



another



under frame rail

[61_FL_Apache]

Try a regular camera, not a cell phone. Its still kinda hard to see.

[Bugeyev8]

wow..even with the bad pics I can see that is some really ****ty welding, I would grind it all down and then crank the welder up and burn a good bead over the crappy one , then grind and add a fish plate across the inside, before doing that make sure the thing is straight and correct

or the way I would do it is get another rear frame section and cut it on a bias and do it right, should be easy to get a rear frame section


I would not trust that with my life as it is

Its just metal..it can be repaired

Good Luck !!

[scum1]

Originally Posted by Bugeyev8

wow..even with the bad pics I can see that is some really ****ty welding, I would grind it all down and then crank the welder up and burn a good bead over the crappy one , then grind and add a fish plate across the inside, before doing that make sure the thing is straight and correct

or the way I would do it is get another rear frame section and cut it on a bias and do it right, should be easy to get a rear frame section


I would not trust that with my life as it is

Its just metal..it can be repaired

Good Luck !!

i agree with the not trusting my life...i think i might do your first suggestion and try and "re-do" it. cuz i would rather not cut my frame off, not by myself at least. but well see. as far as making it straight. just level and take some measurements around the frame?

[rbar]

I might just find another shortbed frame, but a plate on the inside is probably a must. I prefer a Z cut on the frame, but a little late now.

[scum1]

anyone have anything else to comment in..my plan now is to pull the bed take a closer look. get rid of that plate and reinforce both sides with some nice steel plates. anyone absolutley object?? this is a mild daily driver...

[erock805]

you got some good advice. pull bed grind out some of the junk, check for cracks, reweld and fish plate it.

[scum1]

lakeroadster, nice info im definetly going to be doing that. thanks for the help. ill be starting this as soon as i can and let you know how it goes

[jonzcustomshop]

nice post lake..
and I agree with the others, fish plating, and general reinforcing will do the trick.

[jocko]

Some additional information on fishplating the frame (a guy had a similar problem on a welding website) - not necessarily anything new on the first page, but if you select page 2, it does address recommended fish plate thickness, etc. Personally, in addition to the fishplating, I would have some holes drilled in the plate so as to have some holes to do some spot welds on also. http://www.millerwelds.com/resources...sh-Plate-Welds
By the way - for any of you expert welders - since this is a repair of something scum inherited - i.e. there's no Z, do you recommend plating both sides - or maybe all 3 internal sides (include top/bottom insides??) Just a thought. The fact that it's not Z'ed would bug me til the cows came home...

[scum1]

hey guys still working on this problem with my frame..been busy..but i jsut came across this on cpp's site..anyone know exactly what these were designed for..to box your channeled frame?? does it go on the inside of the existing rails or the outside? cuz i was thinkin i could cut out the plate on it now, make a fish plate out of it to weld on the inside of my frame rail, then add this section from cpp to reinforce it further...any info would help me out. thanks

http://www.classicperform.com/Store/...ck/6372RFS.htm

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by scum1

hey guys still working on this problem with my frame..been busy..but i jsut came across this on cpp's site..anyone know exactly what these were designed for..to box your channeled frame?? does it go on the inside of the existing rails or the outside? cuz i was thinkin i could cut out the plate on it now, make a fish plate out of it to weld on the inside of my frame rail, then add this section from cpp to reinforce it further...any info would help me out. thanks

http://www.classicperform.com/Store/...ck/6372RFS.htm

Those peices are made to fit inside the frame rails.