Rusty you not only hit the nail on the head you drove it in with a 20 lb sledge!! Some bitch " traditional "!!! You give it to em and it's not pretty and shiny enough! Those welds ain't going anywhere. Lol!!!
I wouldn't worry about the strength but would worry about warpage. It could have made a lot of passes in a drag only car with no noticeable wheel bearing issues but that might not work if you take off on a long road trip with the housing warped. A couple of hours with the grinder/flap wheels/ carbide bits and what not might make it reasonably presentable. The other option is buy a bare housing and put new mounts on and keep on keeping on. A bare housing might not be much more expensive than the grind wheels and flap wheels you will eat up cleaning it up.
I'd like to see what it looks like sandblasted clean, see what is weld and what is torch cuts and rust barnacles. To me, it looks like it's pretty clean looking stick welds. If it's not warped, I'd use it. Once it's blasted clean you can do a bit of grinder smoothing and touchups if you really want.
Everything looks stout and I wouldn’t worry about strength given the thickness of the metal. Have it blasted and see what’s going on. I think 20 minutes each side with a flap disk and a power file will have it looking fine. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I’d smooth them up a bit, hit them with some black semi or flat paint, and run’em. Probably twice as strong as they need to be. You’ll pull the axle tube in two before you’ll break one of them. The stud would be the weakest link.
There isn’t much weld holding the OEM spring pads on a tri 5 cheebie anyway . I had one in 37 coupe , they were 10 gage at most . What you have will stay till the cows come home . Look good ? Clean them up as suggested and don’t worry about the small stuff . If the housing was warped , I thing it would have been tossed way before you got to tinker with it .
That looks better than some of the crap people do today. Run it if it will fit your application. Grind it smooth if its too crude for you.
Thanks for all of the input guys. I will get it blasted and then clean it up. At that point if I'm not happy with it I can still cut them off.
If you do cut them off for some reason; remember the heat generated can warp the housing same as welding.
Just curious, but how would some of you recommend to check if the axle is warped? I don't need the info since I'm not in need of shortening any axles. I just kinda want to know for curiosity sake. My bother works at a machine shop, so when I shortened the axle on my 35 Ford PU (sold it long ago) I had access to a piece of solid steel rod that was the diameter of the axle bearings, and we used a 8 ft level to ensure it was straight. We used it as jig to weld the bearing cups back on the axle after shortening it. Then I sent the axles to Moser Engineering for shortening and re-spline. I guess what I'm asking is: what other methods would a home builder do to check for warp-age of an axle housing?
I assemble the rear with wheels. When you rotate the housing, any warpage will show up as the wheels rocking. I use a dial indicator to measure the movement and then heat opposite of the welding.
Squablow hit on the head. Hell if you wanted to you could clean it up and wipe on some bondo with your finger and you could make it look like a street rod part.
WAIT! Look again at the photos, esp. the enlarged #one @Robert Palmer showed: This photo illustrates a formed 'pad' (or, 'glove', as refered to in weldors' jargon) carefully fitted to the axle housing, THEN the stalk fitted and 'pedestaled' appropriately. This was obviously done by a skilled professional, albeit weld isn't 'tig-like'! But it's burned in, and quite proficiently. If sandblasted in just this area, a mild 'cleanup' will be in order. Evidently, the operator was bound by time, and not cosmetics. These will clean up nicely, as a closer look (and wire-brush cleanup, even) will show. Give the pre-'60 operation a chance, please. And DO 'finish' the edges, the finish paint will reward your efforts.
Yep, I'd blast it, bolt a couple backing plates on it and get the tape measure out. A little tidying up on the welds and I'll bet she's good to go.
I like the look of these brackets. They are made of heavy enough material, gusseted and fully welded. So many people today want to build light weight almost decorative brackets, mounts ect... There are places to save weight but I want mounts and brackets to be strong so I do not have to worry about failures or crashes.
Definitely break the edges so it takes paint better. After you have tidied it up follow the advice on post 44 and give it a very light wipe with a tiny bit of bondo Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Best 2 posts in the thread. If someone is building an "honest to God" traditional car, this is the ticket. If someone is building a car that looks traditional (but is really MIG/TIG welded and beautifully done), these parts wouldn't cut it. Both styles of cars are cool but VERY different. If you weren't going to use the rear end, it would be best to sell it IMHO. Modifying this rear axle will only make it lose it's flair. It will only be the relic it is now until another author has his/her way with it.
One of the reasons that brackets like this weren't tidied up was that it would have to have been done by hand with a file. It would have taken hours and would have resulted in broken nails and bloodied fingers. They didn't have grinders, flap wheels or power files. After blasting and 20 minutes of grinding, that bracket would look very nice indeed. Sent from my moto g(6) play using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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