Frame: Body Mount Repair

So the frame came back from the sand blaster ! I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

This is the best I could come up with for a before and after picture.

  

So it  is rust free but there is still a lot of work to do on the frame.  This post details how I went about fixing the 6 body mounts.  Starting with the front passenger side mount.

This is the state of the body mount, and I'd say this one is in the best shape.  If you look at the picture of the frame above (the one with the engine and transmission still on it) and take a really close look at the body mounts, you can see they all have sheet metal welded to them.  That is the previous owners half assed attempt at fixing the mounts.  The only one that didn't have sheet metal on it was the front passenger side mount.  I guess it wasn't rotted away enough when he try to fix the other ones.

So, like I said this one is in the best shape out of all of them.  And its not really in great shape.

So cut away all the thinned metal around the hole.

Its pretty easy to see in this photo that the metal around the hole is thinned out from where the rust used to be.  I cut away enough that all the metal left was the correct thickness.

Then I made a cardboard template.  I made it first so I was sure that I had all the dimensions correct before cutting out the metal patch.  The patches were made out of 3/16 hot rolled steel.  Both the patch and the metal from the mount were cut out using an angle grinder.

  

And there it is all welded up.  When I eventually take the axles off the frame and weld the holes in the bottom of it I'll come back the body mounts and weld the bottom sides of them as well.  The only thing left to do on this one it cut a hole out.  I'll need to buy a hole saw for the drill so I haven't done that step yet.  

All of the other body mounts follow this same process.  The photos for them are below.

Passenger Side Center Mount

  

Passenger Side Rear Mount

  

I was concerned that I wasn't getting good enough penetration on a couple of these so I ground the welds down on three of them.  It look like I actually had plenty of penetration/fusion.

  

Drive Side front Mount

  

  

Driver Side Center Mount

  

  

Drive Side Rear Mount

 

  

The drive side rear mount was actually the first mount I fixed.  I had a hard time with my welding puddle getting pulled down by gravity.  So what I ended up doing for the rest of the of the mounts was making the patch just a hair smaller than the area I cut out.  That way there would be a little lip that would help keep the puddle from running down the side of the mount.

Also I managed to burn a hole in this one too.  It was also the fist one that I ground the welds down on to check the fusion.  I mean, look at how ugly those welds are; they were begging me to get ground down.  When I go through and weld the undersides of the patches I think I'm going to try and fill the hole with mig wire.  We'll see how it goes.