The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Frame boxing

I was just wanting to see if anyone out there has boxed the frame on their AD truck. On trucks that are 50-60 years old, I can't help but think that boxing the frame is a good thing. After years of rust and abuse, I'm sure there are plenty of stress cracks and stress points that you may or may not even see. I just want to get someone else's take.

If stress points are present due to cracks, boxing isn't likely to make them go away. The frame was designed to flex to some extent, and making it totally rigid will increase the possibility of a break, IMHO. I can see the advantage of doing some limited reinforcement at stressed areas like add-on motor mounts or crossmembers where they weren't originally engineered to be, but I doubt that doing a full boxing job is necessary. If you're installing something with a massive amount of torque like a big block V-8 or a high torque Diesel engine, why not just fabricate an entire frame out of rectangular tubing, using the original frame as a template?
Jerry

When my son and I was restoring the '45, we had it completely striped to the bare frame. Although there was no issues with the frame, I was amazed how light and flexible it was. We actually picked it up and flipped it over by hand to work on the underside and it seemed almost flimsy.

It only resists bending strongly in the vertical plane, not racking or twisting.

another thing to always consider when discussing any frame alteration is the condition of the frame. As Whitedog states "after years of rust and abuse" your likely to do more harm than good. ALL the rust needs to be removed for any proper welds amd it is doubtful you'd ever get it that clean. If the frame is that weak then bolting a 12 gas angle to it would be a better fix where it is needed. 12 ga? So you think that's too light? It is probably heavier than the original or close to it.

Believe me boxing will gain you nothing except weight and too much stiffness in all the wrong places. If it's lasted 50-60 years don't get excited and think you must re-engineer it. It will be fine,

My problem is that I watch too many car shows. Stacey David, The guys on TRUCKS, and Extreme 4x4, seem to box in everyhting. I'm not planning on a big block build or rock crawling. I may do some suspension upgrades and that's abou it.

All I can say is my first bolt was a 49 with an Olds Rocket in it and no frame work. When you jumped on it, it felt like a Flexi-Flyer. My current build is another 49 with a small block and Camaro clip. I have boxed it to half way back under the cab.
We'll see how it handles.

im going to box mine front to back. but its getting a M-II front end a big block and a mosier 12 bolt rear connected by a 4 link.