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Crossmember Reinforced-
We are in the process of doing some work to the front end now. The dog house was removed. The decision has been made to go to 14.5:1 Compression on the engine this time around, so, the front crossmember will made removable… because at that compression ratio my rod bearings just became a regular maintenance item. I’ll post more pics soon.
This first image shows how we ran tubes on each side of of the front stock frame rails. These tubes will direct load towards the crossmember, and share load of the chassis on front bulkhead where tube chassis dead heads into stock frame rails.
I cut out the center of the front crossmember and made endcaps for each side. We used hinged clevis’ with 1 5/8 tubing. This will allow me to pull bolts and remove the crossmember, then oil pan for Main/Rod bearing access with the engine in the truck. We have ordered a threaded bushing for the passenger side rack mount. Bushing will be notched to mount to our crossmember and a shorter bolt will slide through the rack and thread into bushing, supporting that side of the rack.
This truck has some hideous frame rails, so I used some posterboard and made some templates. The thin sheetmetal was made 2″ taller than the rail. We then put the peices in the break and bent the 2″ section over 90 degrees to cover the top of the frame rail leaving a seamless corner. These thin sheetmetal veneers make the rails a little easier on the eyes. The sheetmetal veneers along with the rest of the front frame rails and suspension components will be painted the same color as the tube chassis.
We re-installed all the suspension and set it back to the ground. We then decided to weigh it just to see where we stand. As of right now… minus doors, hood, fenders and glass weight is: 1,140 lbs.
