Black954's 81 Silver Lake sand dunes build

Tchajagos · Post by **Tchajagos** » Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:59 pm

I would not weld them. If the brackets ever broke (and they do) it would be a pain in the butt to replace them. The bolts hold them in place just fine. It doesn’t matter if they are welded on, if the crossmember is gonna crack, it’s gonna crack.

black954 · Post by **black954** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:30 am

That's kinda what I was leaning towards. I think I will replace the hardware and just swap back to stock length when I go extended C&T. I am currently welding up the front crossmember and boxing the frame so that's why I asked. It would be easier to weld the drop brackets now with no engine/transmission in. Thank you for the input. On a side note, these Rancho drop brackets are waaaaaay beefier then the stock brackets! I looked at Autofabs stock replacements and they are pretty beefy as well. I'll probably wind up using theirs.

Tchajagos · Post by **Tchajagos** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 6:05 pm

Are you caging your bronco? I only ask because there is a chance of the frame cracking from being boxed without a cage. The reason is these frames are meant to twist like crazy. I’ve seen frames crack from being boxed. A cage would stiffen it up considerably and you wouldn’t have to worry about a cracked frame.

hollandermotorsports · Wed Apr 18, 2018 7:29 am

I would bolt the brackets on but also add a couple .5" to 1" stitch welds that is easily accessible with a cut off wheel. I say this because these beam pivots take a lot of torque especially with the added leverage of a drop down bracket. Unless the holes are overlayed and reamed for perfect fit with properly shanked bolt any movement will damage holes for the future. this is just my .02 cents.

black954 · Post by **black954** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 7:51 am

Tchajagos wrote:Are you caging your bronco? I only ask because there is a chance of the frame cracking from being boxed without a cage. The reason is these frames are meant to twist like crazy. I’ve seen frames crack from being boxed. A cage would stiffen it up considerably and you wouldn’t have to worry about a cracked frame.

Yes I will be putting in an extensive 4340 cage. I have over 300’ of 2” and 1 5/8 .120” and .095” tubing to work with. I have the early Swiss cheese frame so it will need the extra boxing for sure. I will wind up cutting the roof off to weld the cage. I am also going to run a soft top to eliminate weight. I’m hoping to keep the finished weight under 4,500lbs.
Right now I’m working on installing the solid body mounts. Not very hard but pretty time consuming.

black954 · Post by **black954** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 7:53 am

hollandermotorsports wrote:I would bolt the brackets on but also add a couple .5" to 1" stitch welds that is easily accessible with a cut off wheel. I say this because these beam pivots take a lot of torque especially with the added leverage of a drop down bracket. Unless the holes are overlayed and reamed for perfect fit with properly shanked bolt any movement will damage holes for the future. this is just my .02 cents.

This is great advice, thank you. There are plenty of spots to stich weld them that are easy to get to with a wafer wheel

black954 · Post by **black954** » Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:52 am

Here's a couple pics of the solid body mounts. I used zinc plated fender washers underneath the frame mount but I just received some thick stainless body washers to replace the zinc plated ones.
Also, I finally got my plasma cutter this past week. I was waiting on it so cut out the plate used to box the frame.

Tchajagos · Post by **Tchajagos** » Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:12 pm

Nice. When I remove old body bushings I found an easy way to get them out. Take out the stock bolt, I put a 2x4 on a jack and jack up on the body bushing nut from underneath. This lifts the metal part of the bushing enough to get a sawzall blade in between the metal and rubber parts of the bushing. That way you don’t have to cut through the rubber.

Another way to get some of them out are to get a long bolt that fits the nut. Remove all body mount bolts and thread the longer bolt in. If you give it a few really really good whacks the bottom of the bushing should pop out. May take some really hard hits.

black954 · Post by **black954** » Mon May 14, 2018 11:37 am

I hope the rest of the body mounts I can try those techniques. On mine, the bolt is rusted to the sleeve so I cannot remove the bolt. Instead I had to sawsall through the sleeve and bolt at the same time.

black954 · Post by **black954** » Mon May 14, 2018 11:40 am

Got a little more progress done over the weekend. I removed the factory frame motor mounts. Then I was able to weld the engine cradle to the frame rails everywhere I could. It actually welded better than I thought it would being that it has 37 years of oil and crud in all the seams.

black954 · Post by **black954** » Mon May 14, 2018 11:42 am

I did find a crack behind the steering box. So next I will be removing the box to weld up the crack. Then I can weld in a reinforcement plate to the steering box mount to hopefully stop it from happening again.

black954 · Post by **black954** » Mon May 14, 2018 11:44 am

I spent some time making a template for the frame rails. Next, I will transfer it to plate and cut it out with the plasma. I'm still undecided if I will cut scallops on the bottom of the plate so that sand and water doesn't get trapped inside the frame causing rot.

black954 · Post by **black954** » Mon May 14, 2018 11:45 am

I also filled in the 2 1/2" holes on both sides of the frame rails above the front leaf spring perches.

black954 · Post by **black954** » Mon May 14, 2018 11:47 am

My new cordless Milwaukee 4" grinder is MUCH better than I thought it was going to be. It's got more power then my other corded Milwaukee 4" grinders and it's quieter.