Your right. I wouldn't use it for an exterior surface. Like you said, its for overlapping and more importantly for areas you weld. The high nickle content of the primer keeps the actual weld from being susceptible to rust. I used it on all the holes I filled to protect the weld and the larger holes I cut a patch to fill the hole and had metal to metal contact. By the time I was done spotting all the welded areas I just finished it off with the weld through. Once its all said and done and all the new crossmmbers are fabbed and welded in, and I'm totally done welding, I'm going to use Internal Frame Coating w/Spray Nozzle | Eastwood. I've used it before and it works great.

 

That eastwood stuff is what i was talking about. I'll have to order some. Thanks

 

Amazing work. Very nice !

 

Here's a tip for those reading along: rather than trying to hold up and trace the pattern onto a heavy unwieldy piece of metal I'd suggest using inexpensive sheets of poster board available with the school supplies at the big box discount and office supply stores as well a many larger supermarkets, as pattern making material. It's stiff enough to easily trace against, especially if you get a pack of 1/2" diam rare earth magnets to hold it in place.


If you want an accurate pattern of the inside of the frame for example do like we used to do when making custom paper gaskets: stick the poster board over the area, then rub over the edge with a hard smooth tool, like a 6" 1/2" drive socket extension, or screwdriver handle to leave an impression in the poster board, or tap along the edge with a small (10oz) ball peen hammer just hard enough to cut the poster board. Tapping over a hole with the ball end of the hammer will cut out a perfect hole as well.

 

Ax, I'm going to refer you to REMA. Rare Earth Magents Anonymous. I think you have a fetish for them .

 

lol... I looked at the picture and saw the magnets and wondered if he was going to mention them.

I will say this, thanks to AX, I have learned a bunch about welding... and a little about rare earth magnets.

The poster board tip is a great one though. I dont really think there is a better way to do metal work templates

 

Well that was tounge in cheek. Hope it came across that way ha ha. I like to make paper templates too. I like rare earth magnets. Honest I do.

 

Busy weekend, lots of OT. Not a bad thing. Had a little time to work on the frame. I welded nuts for the bed bolts and mocked up the fuel tank and drilled out for bolts. Still need to weld some nuts for those. I'm getting reasonably close to closing it up. Still waiting for a few orders to come in. I need the fuel filter and vapor canister so I can mock those up.

One thing I noticed after some measuring is that my frame has some inconsistent areas. The bottom of the frame rails are closer together than the top in spots. I'm thinking the PO reefed the leaf springs inward to attach to the half asssed axle install that was in there. Chevy something or other *GASP*. Even with all the cross members removed there is still this "twist". Its not severe, but worth addressing. With the frame upside down, bottom up I carefully leveled it front to back, side to side. Then checked diagonal measurements in a few spots. Once happy with everything I used my screw jack spreader mentioned earlier. Then spread the bottom of the frame out to the correct 34" outside to outside. I tacked in L channel in a few locations to hold it.




These are the bars tacked in on the bottom side. Its important to get everything level first. Its a good idea to start at the closed end, where my front cross member is, then work to the open end.





For now I'm done doing everything on the bottom of the frame. So I flip it over and very carefully level the frame in all directions once again. Once I box the frame any twist or defective measurement is there to stay. Leveling takes time and is pretty boring. But its really important to spend some time doing it right. Now top side up I check the measurement frame rail to frame rail. Just about perfect!

Because the frame has the L channel is is pretty stiff, so lifting up on one corner to level it will raise the other side slightly off the jack stand. Because I don't have a frame table, and am just a suburb garage builder I hang some weight on the frame to help me level it out very exactly. Looks sort of red neck. But works well lol.




Now I'll wait for my orders come in and get my boxing plates outfitted with welded nuts for everything I can think of. I want to get the boxing plates compete and adjusted before I install the top L channel just for some more room to work. I should only have to tack in one or two L channel on top of the frame. I can use the bed channel for the rear. For the top I'll have to squeeze them together a little. I'll use a come along.

Slow but sure. Plan the work and work the plan. And drink lots of frosties thinking about what's next.

 

Good attention to detail! The exercise weights work well, less redneck than piles of bags of sand or concrete mix I've used in the past. Might strap em on with some ratchet straps for safety. Again for others benefit, you obviously did it right, when checking the frame for twist be sure to measure from outside corner to outside corner, not from edge of horizontal flanges. the width of the horizontal flanges vary along their length and vary top and bottom width. Best to use a level against the outside vertical flange after leveling frame. if the rails are twisted or splayed, one or both vertical flanges may be splayed pulling them together without checking for verticality can make it worse not better. You can end up with a frame that have perfectly parallel rails that wiggle side to side like a mountain road. One trick is to make a checking jig by bolting two small squares to a straight bar so the space between is the target dimension of the outside of the frame plus a known amount say 1/4". Set the jig across the frame and check that the squares sit against the frame on each side, easy to see if one or the other or both rails are splayed, and seeing if a piece of 1/4" bar fits between one square and rail will tell you if the rails are equidistant apart. The 53-56 frame is especially easily checked with a jig since they are (supposed to be) straight and parallel end to end.

 

For the fuel system I'll be using NoLimit 17 gallon fuel cell with a 255 lph in tank pump with 3/8" pressure, 5/16" return and a 3/16" brake line for the rears. Having the build completely planned out ahead of time helps when it come to boxing a frame as all this stuff is needed to mock up attachment points. These are the line clips I'll be using. The nuts are welded inside the boxing plate.





With the line clips mocked up I tacked the boxing plates in a few spots top and bottom. Then I installed the bracing on top of the frame. I had to spread in one spot, and squeeze the frame together in a few others. It was close, only about an 1/8"- 3/16" adjustments were needed.





It should be mentioned that the bracing is only there to get the frame perfectly square so the boxing plates keep it that way. They won't help at all to keep the frame from banana-ing if I was to over heat it while welding. I have had good results welding between 3-4" at a time. I skip around and take a few breaks. In the pic there are 6 weld strings 3 on each side.





The weld lays nice in the open corner and it can be cleaned up easy with a flap disc. I like to grind them down to make a hard 90° angle. Later I will round the edge over with a file. It will just take a few passes. I just want it round enough for paint to stick. Here is a pic of the weld cleaned up.





At this point both mid plates are welded on the top of the frame. I'm working on doing all this same stuff on the rear plates. Once all the plates are in I'll flip it over and weld the bottom. Welding upside down is not for me, gravity helps lol.

 

Rear boxing plates tuned up and clamped in. I installed the fuel level sender and mounted the fuel cell. I'll be using Dakota Digital gauges, so I got the sender from them. There is going to be quite a bit of support back here, and things in the way. The upper shock mount bar will pass through the frame, as well as the high mount sway bar. Just X'ing out the spots where wires and lines can't go.

Also the TCI 4 link brackets will be welded in rather than bolted. So I needed to drill through the frame for the bolts that hold the top link bars to the mounting bracket. One on each side. The top link bar would normally be bolted through the bracket and the open C frame. It is a 5/8" bolt, so I drilled through the boxed frame, then ran a 7/8" DOM 1/8" wall tube through. Lots of measuring, and was rewarded with the 7/8" tube sliding cleanly through both frame rails. Cool. I'll cut out the part between the frame rails later and the bolts will slide snug through. There would be no way to do this after the brackets were welded in. i used a common magnet to get the drillings out of the frame.


Done working on er for tonight, my beer light is on.

 

I tacked in the rear boxing plates and made a replacement upper shock mount. The one that came with the TCI kit was fine for an open frame and designed to be bolted in, but I could do better for my boxed frame. So I copied the TCI mount just made it longer to go completely through the frame. I used 1 3/4"-1/8" wall DOM tubing. One easy trick that I've learned is to use 90° L channel to mark a perfectly straight line on a round tube.





I need to drill two holes in a round bar on an even plane, and perfectly straight through for the shocks to attach. The shocks use a 5/8" bolt, so I'll install 7/8" OD 1/8" wall tubing for the bolts. Drilling straight even holes through round tubing can be a challenge. I have a JD squared Notchmaster I use for making notches in round tubing for mating tubes together like on a roll bar, or motorcycle frame. It can also used for this type of thing. Great super handy American made tool. Makes the job super simple.

JD Squared Notchmaster:





I measured the spacing of the TCI shock mounts and transferred to my new tube. Then set up the Notchmaster at 0° and level to 0 and clamped in my tube. It uses typical bi-metal hole saws from any big box store for under 10 bucks, and a decent drill. I use a rechargable Dewalt drill just fine.




It punches nice straight holes in very little time.





Then I cut the 7/8" tube for the shock bolts:





The TCI shock tube is on top, mine on the bottom:







To mount the tube through the frame I drilled 1 3/4" holes through the frame. Measuring is really important. Here is the shock tube mocked up:




I also drilled for the TCI splined rear sway bar:








Now I have a nice mix of drilling oil and steel shavings in my frame. I'll cut off the tack welds and remove the rear boxing plates to clean out all the gunck. Now that I can visualize the location of these pieces I can weld in some more nuts for attaching things.

 

Once again it's a joy to watch your progress Nicholas. Great job

 

Thanks John.

 

That is the first time I have seen anything like that Notch Master... it makes so much sense.