Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I have a slightly bent chassi I believe from welding on spring mounts without having my truck supported well enough. Its an FJ73 and I have the will and the ways to get it straight but am unshore on where to start to check and measure it for straightness. what is used for a reference to start to check from. No I neither have cash or the desire to take it to a smash shop to have them fit it close enough is good enough in my book I just want my doors to shut properly again. Anyone in the industry got some incite and or done this before?

Thanks Nathan


V8P

chassis?

You bent your chassis by welding on spring mounts? pics?

Faaark! Bad enough you can't align the doors??? I've done masses of chassis welding on sierras and haven't seen anything like that!

Oh well - you need a service manual. They typically have all the chassis dimensional info in it.

Park the car on a level surface, and using a tape and plumb bob start working out where the bend is.

We recently straightened a sierra chassis by bolting to the floor and the ends and putting a jack under the centre and jacking away with levels on the crossmembers until we got it straight. (only one rail was bent) We got a good result.

I know a cruiser will be harder, but that's how we did it on a sierra. a cruiser might need some wedges and a porta power, but do beware, they have LOTS of spring in them- our chassis sprung about 150mm before it started to take the bend out.

Steve.

sorry... chassis... I did a shackle reversal with and put a 5 mm plate on the inside of the chassis on both sides to brace the mount and boxed in the mount back to the chassis to strengthen it up. But when the old mounted where cut off and the new welded on the truck was only on two jack stands just in front of the gearbox cross member and so all the weight was hanging over the front so when this was all done it must have pulled down on it. Yes the doors still shut with a slam but the top of the door hits the window frame. Gwagensteve did you loosen the body when this was done?

sort of.... the body was sitting on the ground next to the chassis.

We worked with the chassis bare only.

Steve.

well you know it is bent from where you welded it so all you need to do is weight the oppersite side / put jack under the other end of your car and tie down one end heat up the afected area and use a spray bottle of water and slowly pull the chassis back the other way

go slowly until your doors realign properly

I wouldn't recommend that. The chance of embrittlement would be high. (there's already been PLENTY of heat in that area to induce embrittlement from the sound of it, pumping more heat in and effectively quenching it might pull the chassis straight, but I'd be very worried about cracking later on.

Steve.

1 This is what scares me about guys with no idea about chassis welding playing with the cars they drive beside us on the road.
2 Last thing i would do is try and put more heat into it as if its been hot enough to start bending that much chances are the metals been fooked with and it will crack or bend even more when its being used offroad.
3 easiest solution even if it sounds dodgy, space the front body blocks up a little with some big washers until the doors shut nice again. easier and safer than heating the chassis again

is the gap enough to adjust it out with adjusting the doors?

badger settle down! Im a sheetie so I do no a thing or two about metal.its been mounted on there better then stock just I did not take something into consideration. Its not that it so so hot that it distorted it moved because when the work was doing it was not supported from the gearbox forward. So no its not going to crack or bend when off road it all sound. But I not keen hot heating and cooling to move it but chaining and jacking and yes it sounds dodgy cause it is I would be more worried about people compensating but unevenly spacing there body for chassis issues.

Sorry hiluxmad i dont understand?

Hi all...If you now a bit about heat shrinkage,you dont have to use water to cool it to shrink it.You can also use low heat without affecting the steel to much,If you know what your doing.

HANCOCK wrote:badger settle down! Im a sheetie so I do no a thing or two about metal.its been mounted on there better then stock just I did not take something into consideration. Its not that it so so hot that it distorted it moved because when the work was doing it was not supported from the gearbox forward. So no its not going to crack or bend when off road it all sound. But I not keen hot heating and cooling to move it but chaining and jacking and yes it sounds dodgy cause it is I would be more worried about people compensating but unevenly spacing there body for chassis issues.

Sorry hiluxmad i dont understand?

Actually the "shimming" the body mounts is quite safe and far easier that all the rest of the screwing about with further work on the chassis.