Damaged Frame

These are two pics of the front of my frame. 67 cj5. Me laying on back looking up at bottom of frame. On both sides the bottom of the rail looks like it was torn off and the plate welded on to connect it to the front part of the frame. Looks terrible but it is all attached. Has anyone had similar issues and/or any suggestions on where to take it if I wanted to improve it (looks and integrity) A little concerned the leaf springs are attached right where the splice is.
Thanks
Rob

 

Likely that's the steel that the repairer had on hand. As mentioned, it's less than ideal. The transition from thick to thin creates a stress focus, due to the different rigidity of the connected steels - so it's likely to crack at the end of the thick pieces.

If it were mine, and I could make any repair I wanted, I would remove the thick steel, remove the front hanger and bumper, and cut out the bottom frame rail back a ways from the hanger. Then I would weld in a new bottom rail from all the way in the front, back to a joint that angles across the frame rail. Ideally you do not weld perpendicular to the rail, but if you have to, the larger the angle is, the better. Welding along the length of the rail is fine. This would repair the frame steel. Then I would consider adding a little more steel, maybe a vertical piece that transfers some of the twisting motion from the spring hanger to the edge of the upper frame rail, boxing the channel. I would also consider adding some steel of the same frame thickness or a little thinner along the inside of the rail, laying flat over the repair joint and extending a little beyond it.

The alternative is to leave it alone. It looks like it's been in service for a while, and it has not broken more, so structurally it's probably ok for normal service.

 

Thank you both for your replies. Tim, thank you for the step by step recommendation. Really helpful and makes sense. I am going to put it on my welding to do list.

Rob

 

Hard to tell from here Why or What was going on with the notches and repair in the bottom frame rail...........and you say its that way on both sides?

In either case the integrity of that repair bar and it's relationship to how much strength it adds while laying on top of the bottom rail would obviously be questionable...........

Not sure of your fabrication skills but if I was to fix that I would jack it up , support the area on both sides of the repair while also taking the weight off the repair area , remove the top bar and then have a 3/16" -1/4" plate bent like an angle with the correct inside radius to exactly resemble the inside of the frame rail.........that plate should extend forward beyond the spring hanger and to the rear 12" -18" to where the next cross member resides......height wise half the height of the current frame rail would be fine and width wise about 80-90% of the bottom flange...............in order for the plate to do its job it must fit tightly within that corner...... some holes should be added to the vertical flange on the repair plate to rosette weld that flange midway...........the ends of the repair flange should also be angled to relieve stress and add strength............once welded in place your good to go and will not have to worry again about your front suspension.

 

Thanks Tarry