Frame restoration

[Farrell In Vancouver]

Hello gents!
Well I have been a bit of a lurker here while searching for a new project. Last Sunday I secured what I am told is the running gear-drive line of an early 131.5" 1931 Frame and running gear. This truck has the tapered frame rails and a lot of years of abuse. To me it looks like she may have carried a few different type of deck or boxes. There are interesting witness marks on the frame showing where the U-bolts rubbed.
The drivers side Rear sprting pivot is bent out board and the top of both rail hammered up pretty bad.
I was looking for suggestions and tips on frame restoration and ideas on what to look out fot. This is no Model A and I feel like a fish out of water.
All welcome to chime in. Pictures soon.
T.I.A.
Farrell.

[gunmetal]

How about some pics.

[Drew Mashburn]

Farrell:

What's your game-plan? Are you going to use this chassis to build a truck from other parts that you'll be acquiring? Do you have ownership-papers for this chassis? Will you be able to get the chassis titled in your name? You might want to consider this before you dump any money into your project. Just some thoughts that, hopefully, are of help to you.

-- Drew

[Chris Haynes]

What are the numbers from frame and engine?

[Farrell In Vancouver]

Gunmetal, Pic will come soon, I have not had a chance to do anything since dragging her home, and I am taking the Wife and Kids on holiday into the Exited States of America for two weeks.
Chris, no Frame No.s as she is a typical Canadian. Engine number looks low for a 31 but have not cleaned it enough to read all digits so all I have is *CA3X9X, so I believe its and earlier replacement block.
Drew, The plan is to restore the running gear and Frame, aquire a rebuildable cab and doors etc. then decide on a deck type. Registration will be an assigned VIN once she passes saftey, issued by the goverment.
Thanks for your advise gents.

[russ]

Howdy Farrell In Vancouver. Generally speaking, these frames aren't rare so if yours is kinda beat, finding a nice replacement might save ya a lot of time and effort.

Best, russ

[scl009]

auugghhh come on guys...

If your not trying to build a show truck I say give it a go. Both my rear spring pivots are bent off the frame with coreesponding cracks in the frame. First I'm going to drill holes at the edges of the cracks so they don't keep running. Then I plan on cutting some 3/8 plate about 8 x 8 or 6 x8 and making a sandwhich with the frame being the meat. Then I'm going to run bolts through the three peices, tighten them up, then take the sledge to it, tighten the bolts and repeat. Finally weld up the cracks. I figure I'll have to leave the inside plate on the frame, maybe welded for reenforcement. I let you know how it goes.

My bad, if I didn't read you right but I think you have the same problem as me. If nothing else, wailing on this old metal with a sledge is very theraputic.

Scott

[russ]

Mornin' Scott. Nuthin' wrong with Farrell salvaging the frame as best he can as you say.

That's usually what's done when a hard to replace part or valuable part has been damaged.

But these frames are neither hard to replace or valuable. Being that they're cheap and plentiful, i thought boltin' up a fresh straight one would be a simple solution and a fair suggestion.

I'm thinkin' using a hammered up frame with a damaged mounting point would be a second choice for the truck if Farrell were able to locate a replacement locally and easily.

In my garage, undamaged is usually preferrable to repaired.

He did say...."All welcome to chime in" so i thought i would.

Best, russ

[scl009]

I got ya, was just joking around. It's awesome that in some parts of the country these frames are readily available. I had to drive almost 600 miles to get mine, but it was worth it. And your right about them being pretty cheap, got my 157" dual wheeled for $400. Probably could have gotten it lower if I could have kept the enthusiasm from showing on my face

[Brady]

It''s a truck... pound it to fit, and paint it to match. Get it out in the wind- time is short, and the more you waste on persnickity details, the more you lose of cruising the roads, waving to the fans, and relly enoying the ride. It's all about you and the truck. the fans are either nostalgic or stupid - they'll show the same interest in a damn Chevy

[Farrell In Vancouver]

OK back from holidays, now I would like to post some pictures and perhaps recieve some wise council or derisive laughter.
Anyone care to tutor me on how to post snaps?

[elfox]

Farrell -

This is how I post pics. I think this is the best route, since you can post full-resolution pictures.

The first thing you will want to do is create a membership on the photobucket website located here:

http://photobucket.com/

Then, you need to upload your pics to your photobucket account. Once you have that completed, if you move your mouse cursor over the photobucket picture you want to post here on the AA forum, you will see a pop-up box appear. Click on the rectangular box to the right of the words "IMG code". It should momentarily say "Copied" right after you click on it. Next, open a thread here in the AA forum. When you are at the exact place in your text that you want to put a picture, you can either right click and select "paste", or you can press the "Ctrl" key and the "V" key at the same time to paste.

You should see something that looks like this:



This is the code that the forum software needs to post your picture. Don't change it at all, or it won't work. You can post multiple images in one thread - just repeat the steps above for each picture. To check if your picture(s) posted the way you want, just click on the "Preview" button at the bottom of the screen to see your work. You can still make any changes at this point. Once you are done, just click the "Submit" button at he bottom of the page, and you are done!

Hopefully this helps!

[Farrell In Vancouver]

Here's some pix of the beast. Looking at the laft and right side of the axle you can see the axle carriers are canted at different angles. Would this be due to a bent spring?

[gunmetal]

Nice find good luck and have fun with it .