I finally got around to stepping my pickup frame. For months I had gone back and forth between doing a Tardel step, with spring on top or extending the frame and using a spring behind setup to get the back end a little lower. I decide to extend and step the frame. This will be going under a 1930 unchanneled pickup body. Using my CAD program I drew a 2 ½ step and 7 ½ frame extension to use the spring behind brackets I got from RJays. Figured I needed an 18 degree cut at each end to get the 2 1/2 “step plus the frame extension. That old adage measure twice and cut once must have been lost on me today….finished cutting and chamfering the edges in preparation for tacking and welding. I tacked the cut pieces to the frame and took a measurement from each face…..shit…. 7 ¼”. I was pretty bummed by that point , but I guess in my excitement to get things done I neglected to account for the kerf from cutting and not double checking my face to face measurement. But here’s where things turned around…the brackets I got from Rjays are for a 3” OD axle tube. My 8” Ford turned out to be 2 ¾”. So.. I laid the bracket against the housing and measured from the centerline of the perch to the centerline of the housing…7 ¼” . Got back the ¼” mistake I made. The Hot Rod gods were with me today!! Tomorrow I work on pie cutting the frame and pulling the rails back in to match the frame rail taper.
I can take the cut halves and slightly pinch them down in a vise closer to the radius I need. Thanks!
My concern is for the extra heat that will be concentrated in those two places and the very real possibility of warping the tubes.
Blacknwhitedog , I have to ask..... what is that airplane engine , in your avatar, doing in a pile of bolders? Bones
In my late teens and early twenties I did a fair amount of rock climbing and mountaineering in Yosemite and the Eastern side of the Sierras. I quit climbing in 1979 after a good friend lost his life in a fall below Mt. Whitney. The photo was taken midway through Tenaya Canyon, directly above Yosemite. I was thin and had a full head of hair back then...my how times have changed. LOL Story goes that in 1959, a three plane navy training mission was flying at 8000 feet in heavy cloud cover, and suddenly came upon the end of the canyon. Two planes were able to maneuver out, but the squad leader hit the canyon wall and crashed. The wreckage is still there, never recovered.
Finished tacking up my frame step today and pie cutting the frame to pinch it back in. Just tacked up for now, need to do some cleanup before I TIG weld it and box the frame.
That's always been a concern of mine as well...funny, when I split the bracket and pinched it back down I can get a nice consistent gap all around. I may still send it out to get checked after I weld in the ladder bars and shock mounts..thanks!!