The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Square frame on a 55 2nd?

Hello everyone -

I have removed everything off of the front frame (cab forward) except the suspension/axle. I am prepping it for an IFS kit. I need to check the frame for square and locate the centerline of the axle.

The diagonal measurements I have made are close (no more than 1/8” varieance). How close is close enough on a 1955 frame, in order to continue?

Are the outsides of the frame rails supposed to be “dead on” vertical? Mine are barely tilted inward.

Any advice?

Thanks!

Ross

dont know about a 552nd but on my ad when i was doin the rear kit i had to beat the bottom rails up to bring em into square.as far as my front suspension goes when we put a tape on it,it was about an 1/8 off from one side to the other.it was already welded so i figured close enough...........dave

It's been a while but I believe (assuming you're going to buy a MII kit) the rails must be vertical for the crossmember to fit.

1st, YOU SAY THAT YOUR FRONT FREME HORNS ARE TILTED INWARDS.
YOU NEVER REALLY KNOW IF THE TOPS ARE IN OR MAYBE THE BOTTOMS
ARE OUTWARDS. IF IT IS A LOT, LIKE 1/2'' OR SO, YOU MIGHT
TRY TO FIND ANOTHER UNIT AND MEASURE IT, ''OR'' YOU MIGHT
BE ABLE TO FIND A FRAME STRAIGHTENING SHOP IN YOUR AREA AND
GET THEM TO LET YOU COPY A PAGE FROM THERE FRAME MEASUREMENT
BOOK, AND THAT WOULD LET YOU KNOW FOR SURE. LUCK TO YOU!!!

Thanks to everyone!

I have spent hours leveling, measuring, checking, and re-checking. I finally got everything squared off and the frame is VERY close to straight and level. I spoke with a tech at No Limit Engineering and asked him my questions. He thought everything will work out fine. I am having a hard time with what kind of tolerances are expected.

I was also able to finally find the true axle centerline and got it transfered to the frame.

I keeping looking it over, my IFS kit will be ordered at the end of this week. Looks I am ready to take off the leaf springs / front axle and move on.

I am nearly in the same boat. Have my front clip off and have been measuring on the frame. Mine looks pretty level from side to side, but I still have some more measuring to do as far as confirming it is square.

If you look at them, from the front crossmember forward (the frame horns) don't have much support. The bumpers and bumper mounts are bolted to them pretty rigidly, so when the bumper takes a hit, I assume the frame horns bend pretty easily. I could eyeball where my right frame horn was bent to the right (outward) a bit, but none of the sheetmetal looked like it had ever been dented up.

All this to say I think the squareness of the front of the frame would be most important in the area between the front xmember and the trans xmember, as the frame horns don't make much difference except on how the bumper sits. At least that is my perspective.

I assume the No Limit front end requires you to box the frame, I found some boxing plates online, I may buy some to just save some time fabricating.

I am looking at Fatman's, their literature says if you don't mark your axle centerline, use the 1/2" hole on top of the frame. I've eyeballed mine and it looks to be at least an inch in front of the centerline. I'm going to ask them about that, maybe they use it in case someone never marked their centerline. I am going to drop a plumb bob down to the hole on top of the axle to spring mount that should be exactly the centerline.

I did pull the e-brake lever off the frame. Centerpunched the rivets, drilled an eighth inch pilot hole, then a 3/8 hole down to the frame. Then took an air hammer and cut the rivet heads off, then an air hammer with a punch and punched out the rivet body. It is nice to have two air hammers. That technique didn't work too badly, but I did have to grind a bit on one of them, so I will keep the 4.5" Milwaulkee grinder loaded with a flap wheel handy.

I am still wanting to make sure I have a square frame before sinking the money in the IFS. I wish I had the cab and bed off, but really don't have room in the shop. Do most people only square off the frame from the firewall forward?

Also, another question I have for Fatman is that I don't plan to have any rake in my truck, I wanted to leave it with zero degree rake as I believe that is close to stock. So right now I don't have any degree of rake on the jack stands, it is dead level front to back. I don't know if the anti-dive angle built into the front end will work if I don't tilt it 3 degrees down in front...

PO cut the trans xmember on my truck out with a torch. A small transmount was bolted in, but it doesn't look adequate to me, looks like one inch tube. Any suggestions on that?

Finally, is there any market for the old front ends? I guess I can haul it to the recyclers...

Not trying to steal your thread, Ross, it just seems we are close to the same spot on similiar projects.

R-bo -

No Limit said the same thing about the hole in the frame being the center of the axle. My centerline also looked different than what those holes would have given me.

I ended up making sure the axle was perpendicular to the frame rails, than ran a string from the centers of the king pins and then transferred that up to the frame. No limit said this would also work. I am hoping they are correct. It looks good.

I just removed the front axle and suspension from mine yesterday. Scary step for a beginner!

I am trying to clean up the frame now in prep for the IFS kit. I am ordering it and all of the bed parts this week, so I am getting pumped up! This is going to be a great summer!

I used Zero rust on the rear frame behind the cab then top coated it with Eastwood’s Chassis black paint. It looks awesome! Now I just have to figure out a way to remove the cab so I can finish underneath.

Stay in touch as you get your stuff. Maybe we can trade some advice here and there.

Ross

Ross,

I just pulled my front axle a couple of days ago.

Not too bad, I hooked to it with my engine hoist, pulled the bolts, took a hammer to them and knocked them loose, then lowered the whole assembly onto a dolly.

Last night I pulled the steering column. That was probably the most trouble of the whole thing so far. You have to pull the steering wheel, I didn't have a puller and had to fab one up. That thing was on there tight! Scrounged through my bolt box and had a 10mm (17mm bolt head) Mazda suspension bolt through the center of it and had to put the air impact on it on high. I bet when they put that thing together in the 50's they never thought it would be taken apart with a bolt made in Hiroshima.

Are you going to try to use your original steering column? I would like to use the original column and steering wheel simply because my look is "old truck" with modern running gear.

I am going to run over to Fatman's Wed. morning and ask them how they square the frame if the cab is still on it, and a couple of other questions. I want my rake to be zero (old truck look again) and their kit is supposed to be designed for a hot rod look of 3 degrees of rake.
I also want to ask them about LS1 engine mounts as I am leaning towards a GenIII smallblock due to less cost.

I still need to pull the old brake master cylinder, level out the frame for good, weld in a brace, then start taking out rivets.

Let me know how your is going.

P.S. As far as that 1/2" hole being the axle center, do you know if they are measuring from the front, center or rear of that???