Thankfully no cracking found in front part of chassis. I'm bloody glad too, after all the horrors you have told me
I had been rethinking about removing the rear little bit of chassis rail. In fact I thought about having that piece cut off but replaced by the engineers. The pintle brackets will obviously be on this area, and I have reservations about loading forces on replaced sections, in eventuality that I do use to tow something. What do you think? I won't attempt repair, but would direct replacement of last foot or so be sufficiently solid to tow anything?
When I removed the very front cross member, I noted that the radiator support plate was welded to the chassis rail on driver side, and both sides of the cross member were welded to rails in two places each side. Is this normal? It was actually quite neat work, and not in fitting with the other very sub-standard work displayed. Of course there may have been more than one 'welder' over the trucks history. The reason I wish to know this is so I know whether to re-weld these areas again (not
literally me).
One final point, regarding rear springs. I had previously disasembled both rear spring sets for blasting, but am now thinking about using the springs off my other vehicle. My chassis does not have the spring over-rider holes in the rails since it had been shortened. The springs off other truck DO have the over-rider leaves on spring sets. In light of what you had said, Tony, regarding the lack of weight in rear = very hard springs, is there any point in including these overrider springs on the finished product???? It may be more of a correct look, but is there any purpose to having these retained? I won't be adding anywhere near the weight the vehicle was designed for, even if I go ahead with the 40mm BOFORS idea. Remembering my version will be a much lighter replica.
What do you fellows think? All comments welcomed!
