First time poster, question for the frame gurus out there.

Hi folks, I'm Jeff.

2008 DCSB, 4wd, 4.0, 6 speed.

First off, this forum has been a great resource for me, I'm appreciative of you guys and gals. I'm newish to Tacos, but not to working on trucks or Toyotas, I also have a 94 22RE turbo I've owned for 22 years. I bought this truck a year and a half ago, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't catch the frame rust. It was all hidden under that CRC crap. Truck has spent it's life in the rust belt. So it's basically a frame-off at this point. I am an experienced welder and fabricator. 1/8 and 3/16 stock and Saf-t-cap sections. I'm trying to do this right, frame is completely stripped, sandblasting it, welding the repair metal in, etch and paint between sandwiches sections and inside the boxed portion. I'm doing this in my driveway, not ideal, but it's the only place I have. So my question is this: after welding in the first section on the boxed area on the driver side, the frame/repair section is a little warped. As in if you're looking down the frame rail, it's twisted, I'd say 1/4-1/2" out. It's the area where the transfer xmember is, to the end of the boxed area. It straightens back out after the boxed area ends. The thing is, the transfer case xmember mount is cut off the frame right now(was pretty well rusted between it and the frame), I'm going to clean it up, reinforce, and reweld once the PS is done. Do I need to try and straighten the warped area? If I'm going to weld the xmember mount back on anyway, using the trans and xmember as a guide/jig, will it matter? Is anything else going to be affected? It's also getting new middle body mounts. Getting a new frame isn't really in the cards. Neither is getting rid of the truck, especially since everything else is in great condition. Toyota states to not use heat for frame repair, as it's high tensile steel. I could get a porta pack if I need to, but I also don't have anywhere to anchor to. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Thats an interesting statement given the amount of welding toyota does on the frame.

 

Always weld (tac) pipe or angle or something across the frame where you think the welds will contort the frame, and if you don’t know where that will happen, then tac a lot of supports and keep its spacing pieces before welding on the frame.

 

There's a thread on here about it somewhere. Apparently Toyota says welding is ok but heating is not. I agree that it doesn't seem to make sense.

 

Here’s what I would do.

Cut the welds off the section you welded on. Hopefully it springs back to straight. Use pieces welded across to hold everything from warping again.

If it didn’t spring back to straight, it may take some doing to get it straight again.

When it’s time to weld on the repair sections, minimize heat going into the frame. Tack weld everything, short welds switching around so it has time to cool.

Before you start, put it on paper. This is what I loose if I scrap the whole ordeal now. This is what it would cost me to fix it. Pay yourself what you think your time is worth. On top of that add incidentals. Unforeseen problems others have encountered after a frame swap and such. Also consider the value of the finished project.

I applaud you for attempting a project this size. It’s bigger than I would, but I’m lazy. Best of luck.

 

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it. I did weld in sections and tack, to keep things cooler. When I cut the trans xmember mount off, I do remember noticing something kicked out somewhere, so may have been bent already. I'm not sure. My plan as of last night screwing with this is basically what you said, I'm going to carbon arc the welds out and try and pull it straight from there. Brace the shit out of it and reweld. This isn't really how I wanted to spend my time and money with this truck, I wanted to throw some mild suspension on it, load up my wife and mutts and go exploring. Planning to heavily increase the frequency of Fluid Film applications after all this is done.