[Bob Carriere]

Since the cat is almost toasted out of the bag here goes......

Again some will swear blasphemy but bottom line it works.

My truck originally had a massive snow plow.... made from half inch boiler plate and still included a joint line with huge rivets. That in turn was heavily bolted and welded to the frame with U channel under the axle jointed at the frame behind the wheels..... made a good deal on the scrap value.

Well when I did the frame..... blasted....grinded to remove some welding a small crack appeared on the driver's side where a brace had been welded. It was all the way through the frame in the bottom curved section ...partly on the vertical side partly on the underneath. When washing the frame with gasoline ,the crack sucked dirt with the gas and was quite visible. I enlarged the crack with a diamond bit in the Dremel to increase the weld penetration. Welded and grounded both side using the MIG at a hi setting. Coated with POR, primer and paint and forgot about it, The heat applied "may" have contributed to the out of allignment... not sure.

I also replaced the front cross member and the second engine support cross member as mine had rust holes. In the process, I drilled and drifted all the factory rivets..... installed the good crossmembers pirated from other donors at the barn and re-installed using grade 8 bolts all around.

Well the engine eventually went in.... the the arches.... and the bumper radiator ect. and looking at it from the front the alignment was off.
Preliminary measuring showed over an inch difference.... the passenger side was higher from the T-case crossmember to the bumper horn.

Talked to an old guy that gave me some good ideas..... one was to insure I had a level playing field and to take serious measurements.

So we poured a 1 1/2 inch top coat of cement on the barn floor roughly 4 x 8 feet perfectly level......

Rolled the front axle over the slab and took measurements..... but the tires... all four of them 9:00 x 16 had different heights.... as much as almost 2 inches difference.... all new but different brands, except the two good year that were 1 inch difference ...... I needed more accuracy.

Jacked the from axle and using the only machined surface on the front axle took the front tires off the ground..... in fact removed both front wheels. Rested the axle joint line for the egg cup on the axle stand.

...and to be sure.... we replaced both rear tires with the new 10:50 x 16 on the rear axle. Now the rear frame was even.... level within 1/8 of an inch.... whcih to me accurate in CMP language.

Front frame horn now showed about 7/8 honest difference still with the pass. side to high.

Again trusting the old mechanic / exframe fixer upper..... we removed and or loosen all the grade 8 bolts in both front cross members...... still uneven.... despair set in..... while working alone with no one to correct my illfated courage I tried to jack up on side of the frame.... that frame is so stiff that even with all the loose cross members both side went up and..... well it fell off the jack stand.... only my pride was damaged along with a very flatted jack stand which I will keep as a reminder to stupidity.....

Ok back on a new spare stand...still crooked.

Weeks later..... you never know when someone unexpected will walk in and help you out...... if you just listen...

The Steam Guy (MLU Member) from down the road paid a visit with a Winnipeg friend of his. I was immediately impressed when he looked at the cab 11 radiator grill and said..... that's a CMP ford grill...... hum..... what else does he know.

I explained about my frame puzzle .......... a few grunt later..... he said... Worked 35 years in the CNR / CPR yards in Winnipeg...... we use to chain the coal cars to the tracks that had developed a pregnant sag in the middle from years of abuse. Once the top body bins were removed we use to straighten the massive U channel beams using blow torches. The trick is to heat up a triangular section of the frame from 3/4 from the top to the bottom.... cherry red...... and let it air cool..... no water to speed up cooling or you risk crystalizing the metal. Sometimes two or 3 heat sections was needed.... they will self correct on there own by shrinking.

Having looked at the 1940 frame and said these are not heat treated frames so it should not do any damage. You got a lot of old frames.... try it out you will see for yourself.

Well I pondered..... for a few weeks... the alternative to trailer the frame to an expensive Toronto or US frame restoration shop was a bit too pricy.

So... alone.... again... I tried the trick on the passenger side hoping to shrink it a bit..... set up two meter/yard sticks in front of each frame horn and started toasting...... paint bubbled and burned...... OMG what have I done.... too late to back off now...... so toasted 3/4 inch from the top in a triangle as wide as it was high..... inside..... underneath...... more smoke.....finally cherry red...... turned off the torches and watched..... in about 5 minutes it started to come down one millimeter at a time.... first heat gave me about 11 mm of correction.

The following day Grant was doiwn at the barn..... explained what I done and the results......

So we went at hit again a little further back same triangular pattern..... this time Grant stood up on the offending frame horn and we got about another
12 mm.

The frame was still a bit on the high side.... maybe less than a 1/4 inch.

We measured the distance between the spring packs and the frame and decided that if we installed another spring leaf of thickness on the driver's side we would be about perfect. This was based on the Dodge M37 having a raiser block on the driver's side when equipped with the door mounted spare tire.

To make a very long story short....... we installed a short spring piece with a new center bolt...... and it is now within 1/8 off but certainly well within the acceptable range for one of these beasts.

Conclusion...... take time to listen to the old guys..... they do have tricks that never made it into the school books.... be daring and try it..... but be safe.

I did remove the temporary outboard motor / boat fuel tank from the truck when we put the truck in the barn.... and disconnected the battery.

I will need to grind and clean up....repaint the frame and can now start dressing up the arches with the sheet metal.


On to the next challenge.

Comments and questions are welcome.


Bob

PS...... Guy.... when you read this you must remind me of your friend's name so I can express my gratitude.