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I worked on the Donor frame this past weekend. The plan at first was to use the Donor frame completely, with the damage to the front frame horns that was now out of the question. I measured the areas on the original frame that needed to be replaced. Cutting the needed portions from the Donor seemed like the best solution.

I had purchased a Plasma cutter a short time ago, this would be my first chance to try it out. I have never used a Plasma Cutter before, Jay (Lugnutz) provided me with the information I needed to get started. I spent a little time playing with the Air and Amperage adjustments to get a feel for using it. Once I had it close and was able to make a few cleaner cuts, I was ready to start. The Plasma Cutter made short work of sectioning up the frame.

I cut the rear frame rails off just in front of the bed support. This should give me more than enough material to join both pieces together and have room for some plating. As the rear section has no real load applied it should be more than sturdy for the bed and bumper mounting points.

I cut the entire center section out of the Donor frame, this will allow me to use just the pieces I need. I want to remove the Trailing Arm mounting points as a whole. I plan to cut the Mounts out of the original frame at the factory welds and leave as much material as possible. Fitting the donor pieces back into the original places should be fairly easy. From there it would be just a matter of welding it in again at the factory weld points. The final fitment and welding will be done on a rotisserie to keep everything square and level.

I will scavenge what is usable from the remaining section and scrap the rest.