Fixing the J10 frame

As I said before, I had originally gone to Jake's house to pick out a bed
Since we had finished pulling the bed off, it was now time to fix what had been neglected underneath the bed of the truck for over 30 years. Our first task was to position the vehicle where it would rest for the next few months. Jake was very flexible and let me keep it outside of his garage. Then, my job was to sand down the frame using an angle grinder and a wire brush to remove any rust, dirt or grease that had accumulated. This was not any easy task, oh and by the way, most of the weather conditions for the frame project involved 1-4 inches of snow.

    

When ferrous metal is exposed to air and moisture, it will rust. Usually the rust is on the surface and can be sanded away. However, if rust is untreated for years it will break down the metal completely. Many times dirt will collect in places near the tires, and will never be cleaned out. The dirt will hold moisture indefinitely and will cause continual rusting or rotting of the metal. Therefore, after I finished sanding away the surface rust, we examined the parts of the frame that had begun to rot away, specifically the leaf spring boxes. As you can see from this picture, the metal is literally flaking away from the frame. We had to figure out how to replace 3 of the leaf spring boxes and repair the 4th spring box. 

Fortunately Jake had seen a lot worse frame rot in his junk yard, including one truck that had a piece of wood bolted to the side to supplement the frame.....yikes! Our plan was to completely chop off 3 leaf spring boxes including the front and rear on the driver's side, and the rear box on the passenger side. After we removed the each box we checked the frame on which the box was welded to see if we needed to repair it. We found that the frame was solid behind 2 of the leaf spring boxes; but not the forward one on the driver's side. Not only did we remove the forward box, but we also cut a hole in the frame behind the spring box where it had rotted away. The forward spring box consisted of a front plate of steel connected to a bottom plate and a top plate. There is no back to the spring box because of the leaf spring. Refer to the rotting spring box above to get an idea. I wish I had gotten a picture of the frame behind the spring box where the hole is.

Then we found a good front leaf spring box in the yard along with pieces of 1/4 inch plate steel. We measured, cut, and brought the pieces back to the truck. FYI, it's always a good thing to measure twice and cut once, this way you don't have to find more metal and use more time. 

After getting the scrap metal and the new intact leaf spring box, we went back to weld up the missing spots. First things first, we welded the metal onto the frame to seal up the hole we had made. Jake is a seasoned welder, and therefore did a great job fixing this frame. 

This is the new piece of frame behind the front spring box.

This was the finished product

After we fixed the frame behind the first spring box, we had to design rear spring boxes. Jake has talent and definitely knows his geometry. He was able to redesign a new and improved spring box. Whereas factory standards usually require 1/8th inch plate steel, Jake's design used 1/4-3/8 plate steel. We also had to drill holes for the bolts that hole on the leaf springs. The drill bit was an odd size of course. I found the bit at only once store. Because of its odd size, the drill bit was $35 alone...ouch. We also drilled 2 drainage holes in the bottom of the two boxes. After finishing we painted the spring boxes.

Here is the finished product of the rear spring box.