Stock Frame Reinforcement?

[Ford_Crazy]

While I have my Tiger upside down I thought I might add some reinforcement to my stock frame. I already reinforced the front cross member and plan to add some metal to the front spring hangers (not cracked). Anything else worth doing?

 

[cadreamn67]

It would be interesting to know what you included in your front crossmember reinforcement. There seems to be several different lists of things to do, so it might be helpful to know what was done to see if anything was left out. For instance, did you reinforce the 4 tube nuts used to attach the crossmember?

Were this my project, I would take advantage of the body being on the rotisserie to enlarge and reinforce the exhaust pass through holes in the X member. There is a TigersUnited tech tip on how to do this. They recommend crushing a piece of 3 inch conduit to oval and welding it into a enlarged hole. The guy that fixed my rear spring front hangers recommended not using the conduit because it is galvanized and would give off poisonous fumes when welded. Stripping the zinc with muractic (sp?) acid or something like that would the only way to use the conduit. He said a piece of 3 inch exhaust pipe crushed to oval would be just as good.

I think the tech tip spoke of using a die grinder to enlarge the hole. My guy said a plasma cutter would a lot better.

While not part of the frame, I would expect the upper A arm ball joint mounting rings to be on your list of things to ultimately reinforce.

Cheers, Gene

 

[michael-king]

APart from adding some more welds to the X brace and floor, you might look at bob webbs (65beam) alpine restoration pictures, i believe you can see a filleted peice that is added to the area where the X member and the front guards/rails meet that stiffens that whole area and would allow for a safer jacking point for a trolley jack... looks like a good mod.

 

[0neoffive]

A Big Hole

Here's what our 4" oval reinforced exhaust passages look like.

 

[65beam]

reinforcement

he also adds welds to all the area under the car. that includes the X frame,the small boxes at the front of the sills, spring mounts,etc,etc. he also makes sure the area where the outer rockers meet the inner rockers at the bottom are cleaned and together. if you look on an untouched car,you may find some swelling open of the area between the original welds where the two rockers meet. usually due to minor rust. he adds the jack brace to all the beams that he does. all of this makes for a strong chassis.

 

[Ford_Crazy]

Thanks for the tips. Enlarging the frame exhaust holes sounds like a great idea. My crossmember reinforcement included welding the upper a-arm mounts (top hat) all around and welding a reinforcing plate into the hole in each one. It's not going anywhere. I also plan to reinforce the upper a-arm ball joint rings and add some gussets to the front of the rear spring mounts. My crossmember nuts are solid, but I may run a weld around them also. The bottom of my car is pretty good. It's had some work done in the past. The welding was sold, but not too pretty. So far I haven't found any chicken wire with bondo..

 

[cadreamn67]

RE: Crossmember reinforcement. The shock tower work looks excellent.
Did you also run beads around the lower fulcrum pin mounting points so they are welded on all four sides, and reinforcing beads along the two welds cross welds near the center of the member?

There are a number of additional strengthening welds recommended in the old CAT Shop Notes (Supp. Sec. F-17), including the above you might want to consider, if you have not already done so. I could not really tell from the picture you have on your resto site. If all that stuff is already done, that is great. Just thought a few words in an abundance of caution were worth mentioning.


Cheers, Gene