There was a fairly major development with my project over the weekend, I am going to be using a different frame. I got the patches welded on to my frame, my first real welding job. They turned out pretty well I thought (1st two pics, the frame was upside down when I took them, so the background is the ceiling of the shop if anyone was wondering). Unfortunately, about the time I finished, I happened to notice a fairly major rust issue that I had somehow previously overlooked. Just ahead of the frame cross-member that sits directly over the rear axle, there is a small section of the frame rails that are reinforced with a second layer of steel. I had noticed that this second layer didn't sit tight to the frame rail, but I just thought that it was supposed to be that way. However, upon closer inspection, I found that they had been pushed apart by a large amount of expanding rust! (3rd pic)
Once I realized this, I could see that the whole reinforced area was badly eaten away from the inside out, and there was a noticeable bulge on the outside of the frame rail where the rust was expanding. I decided that, since that was the only area of the frame that Chevrolet decided to reinforce, that area must pretty critical, so I had better do something about it. I am very fortunate that, despite my attempts to sell it, I still have the spare frame that I bought for the trailing arms. It is a 1965 long bed half ton frame that is missing the parking brake and transmission support cross-members, and the rear cab mounts. It had a crudely fabricated cross-member that was designed to support the tail shaft of a TH400 and two steel plates welded to the to of the frame rails and the front axle cross-member to serve as motor mounts for a Oldsmobile 350. Modifications aside, It is in very good shape, better than my original frame, in fact. There is a lot less pitting, and of course that rust issue with the reinforcing plates is not present. I had actually thought about using it earlier, but I didn't think my original frame was all that bad, and I wanted to keep as many original components on the truck as possible. So far there are 4 different VINs associated with my truck!
I spent some time yesterday and today removing the brake lines, rear springs, front axle suspension, and steering gear (with a nifty little ball joint separator I picked up at harbor freight) from the '65 frame. I also got a good start on grinding off the homemade motor mounts before I ran out of daylight (This frame is at my house, and not my grandpa's, where the rest of the truck is, because I was originally planning to sell it, which is easier to do from my place). I hope to get the '65 frame wire-wheeled and cleaned, and get a coat of POR on it by the end of this week. I will then transfer the two missing cross-members and the rear cab mounts over from the '63 frame. At least I get to use
some of the welding I did! I am not sure whether I should use bolts or rivets to attach the missing cross-members, I believe bolts don't hold as firmly, but I'm not sure how one goes about installing such monstrous rivets. I could probably get by with bolt on the parking brake cross-member and the cab mounts (I noticed in the LMC truck catalog you can buy repro rear cab mounts, which are installed with bolts) but I'm not so sure about the transmission support cross-member.
I am not sure what I'll do with the rest of the '63 frame. I don't think it's completely irreparable, but it's beyond my current abilities. I guess if anyone is interested in it they can PM me, but I'm thinking it's just going to be scrap metal. I wouldn't mind hanging on to it until I have the time and skill to repair it, but I don't think it's really worth storing, as it would probably be at least 3 or 4 years until I could get to it. As it turned out, even though I spent a great deal of time doing a partial sandblasting job, I really didn't loose more than a few days by switching frames, as I was going to use POR-15 rather than finish the sandblasting anyway. That stuff is the greatest thing since sliced bread!
Well that's all for now, hopefully I'll have some pictures of a fully painted frame by the end of the week!
