help with engine swap to 8BA engine

[Jason Linders]

Thanks for that guys, just another question would F15 rail be the same as F15A rail just the rails i can swap every cross member if nee be thats no big deal but i think my rails are just way to passed fixing, i have a mate that thinks he can fix them but how far do you go before its just not worth it and
the back from the rear spring hanger is just too smashed

[Jason Linders]

Here is some pics of the rear and the cracks in the rails

[Jason Linders]

So my mate said we would have to remove everything that is bolted to the rails and realign the rails weld the cracks the reinforce the rails on the inside
properly and remove all rubbish welds and plates and start again, i think it
can be done but i think rear i end is a little passed it but if i cut the mess of the leave the 200mil of the rear is that a big problem and then we would have to hot rivet it all back togeather, this is what im looking at, at a worse case no chassis avalable.
Just talking here if i can find a chassis nothing ubove matters its only if i cannot
What does everyone else think.

[Grant Bowker]

The frame rails fo rthe F15 have different part numbers from both the F15A and FGT. Once again I can't tell you what the diffeence is, only that the frame rails for the F15 were unique to the F15.
Your mate is a braver man than I am to take on those cracks. For my welding skill (or lack thereof), those cracks are closer to other things (cross members, spring hangers etc.) attached to the frame than I know how to reinforce. I've also seen quite a few frames that ended up cracking right beside the repair weld. I don't know if that was a result of poor preparation, poor technique, weld heat and metalurgy making the area prone to crack again or something else. The Ford CMP maintenance manual does give advice on frame repair.
If you add reinforcement inside the frame, you will need to allow for the thickness at each crossmember to avoid having the frame wider in some areas than others. you might also run into issues with parts that mount to the frame spannig its width (due to the new width of the frame being slightly greater due to you reinforcement being sandwiched between crossmembers and frame rails) such as springs/axles, cab, bumperreak hitch spring (although it is a loose enough fit that i don't think it would be a problem) rear body (not likely to be a problem for GS bodies given the mounting system). Maybe I worry too much???

[Jason Linders]

Thanks for that Grant any info is better that nothing, just seeing what everyone else has to say becouse its very hard to find a chassis i have had no luck for the last 12 months and the only way i could see a way around it was to repair whats their, my mate is a welder and blacksmith by trade
and without a chassis the blitz is dead in the water.
Does anyone think its a bad idea to try and repair the chassis

[Keith Webb]

It's a lot of work to repair a chassis, I realise you have been trying for 12 months to find one, surely one of us in your general area can assist you to find a good F15A chassis?

C'mon MLU-ers!

[Jason Linders]

I really didnt wont to repair it so ill hang on and see what comes up

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Jason Linders

Does anyone think its a bad idea to try and repair the chassis

The word "bad" doesn't quite cover it Jason. "Sheer lunacy" goes a bit closer!

If you're prepared to do that kind of work there's a far better option, namely shorten a F60S or F60L chassis, which are easy to find. That would simply mean removing the midsection and joining the end sections together. You only have one side rail weld to worry about, and if done properly the chassis will be stronger than the original FGT chassis, which is only single skin. By "properly" I mean cutting the inner and outer skins in different locations, as far apart as possible to maximize chassis strength. That shouldn't be too difficult, because the inner skin is only stitch welded to the outer one.

This mod is sometimes seen in the wild, done crudely to repair a broken F60L chassis, and the PMG did the reverse mod to lengthen the F15A chassis. In your case it may be preferable to using the F15 chassis, as the crossmembers are already in place. Conveniently the FGT midsection crossmember uses a spacer, which can simply be omitted to accommodate the double skin.

[Jason Linders]

Tony the F60 is the way to go if all else fails and all i have to do is work out were to cut the chassis so it aligns were it should