That looks like it was damaged in transit, maybe because of how it was chained down. I would file a claim with the freight company and at least get the cost of the parts covered. They probably looped a chain around it and cinched it down too tight. More modern vehicles have tow/tiedown points built in to avoid things like that.
Wheel alignment will likely be messed up, too, so it's probably not a good idea to drive it until it's fixed.
Managed to get under it this week, sadly the lighting on this photo makes it look like fresh damage, but its the flash reflecting off the shiny paint. It doesnt look this bad under the truck, In all honesty I think these can be made right without the need for new ones atm.
Ill be doing all of this in time anyway, my main goal now is to just get it safe & registered, the welding on the chassis is looking around the £1000-1500 mark, so I think this is repairable.
Will you be able to get a MOT, even if you get a good control arm? It would add insult to injury if you still can't pass inspection after paying for new parts. Same with the air bags; are they acceptable? You might have to rethink the entire suspension system; maybe go back to stock. The workmanship on the suspension mods make me wonder what else is wrong. I think that the first thing you need to do is take a good hard look at the entire truck and make a list of deficiencies.
Yeah as far as i'm aware, I have a MOT tester who ive used for year locally & with me being able to take the truck anywhere he's already seen the pictures etc & will be popping up to view the frame & air ride over xmas so I know what I need to do 100% and what doesn't need doing.
List is now hefty & i've started buying parts, with the American/Canadian fuel being way off our standard & different anyway, fuel tank is being internally cleaned & re sealed, just grabbed all the R9 Ethanol resistant fuel hose, radiator hoses, re doing all the copper brake lines etc etc, most of this is welding still, checked everything possible on the truck & apart from these bits it should be good to go, some of what i'm doing is for the sake of it anyway & wont affect the MOT.
Judging by some of the other photos you've posted of the suspension, I'd suggest removing the entire air bag system and starting over with properly fabricated mounting brackets. The stress on those mounting points on even a moderately rough road is incredible, and there's a multiplier effect as the speed increases- - - -basically, as speed doubles, the load squares. 10 pounds of force at 20 MPH becomes 100 at 40 MPH, etc. One of the rules of thumb we used while dirt track racing went "Build it twice as strong as you think it needs to be, and don't be too surprised if it breaks!"
Jerry
That's it man, the plan is to re-model the rear brackets, fronts are fine, but the backs need pushing out and dropping down a little bit to make the bag sit flush. Since I posted all of these things I was still raging at everything, but after popping the unit a few nights this week to look over the truck, I'm alot calmer & this isn't generally as bad as it seemed, the shipping company doing the MOT honestly went overboard & tried to make up as much stuff as possible to make as much money, so it is what it is. Appreciate the loading specs, I will now to thickening up the rear backets & overly reinforcing them to make sure they hold their own!
Thanks for the help guys, will keep this updated over the course of JAN / FEB whilst its all being sorted. Plan is to have it finished before end of FEB
