A friend totalled the back half of his frame not long after I totalled the front half. We cut them both in the middle and he used my half to fix his frame. I told him to cut both open on the back side to form a C. That way he could butt weld them together and fish plate behind the splice. Then plate the box back in making the repair invisible. That's what he did and it's been solid ever since. Not saying that's the best way to do it. But it worked.
rockota
white collar hillbilly
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You’re farther north than me. :fo2:Come down here and help me transfer everything over lol!!
I just checked, with a tape. Sure looks a lot closer to 1/16" than 1/8". So we'll call it 080?
Forgot I still had the important piece of the frame that needs to go on the new one.
how would you suggest going about that? I saw one thread in the jeep section where he built a jig around the stripped stock frame. And then there’s Ian Johnson who just whips one out on a fab table.
Slander did you wind up just taking the cut off stock frame to the bender and have them match it or did you provide all the measurements? Any changes from stock layout?
Just contemplating what skill and effort level doing a home brew frame build would be
Slander
Team no stickys
- Thread starter
- #36
I gave the company all the measurements. I used a plum bob and marked reference points on the floor (body mounts, bed mounts, etc), then measured from the floor up to the top and bottom of those reference points. I then plotted the points on some graph paper, drew a diagram of the new frame rails and measured between each point. Transferred that over to a simple PowerPoint slide and sent it to the bender and he bent it. The only thing I really changed was the factory Tacoma frame has a weird hump in it and the tube size changes so I eliminated that. If I wanted an entire frame built, I would do the same thing just on a bigger scale. Someone gave me the factory frame specs and dimensions from a Toyota factory frame repair manual if I ever needed a new frame bent up from scratch. A new frame from where I got mine bent up is around $5k, thats with body mounts and crossmembers I believe. My frame rails were $250 a piece.
I didn't want to just take them the cut off frame rail because it was already bent in several directions from years of wheeling, welding and rust.
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rockota
white collar hillbilly
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Given Slander already did the front part of the frame, doing the frame between the front and rear body mounts shouldn’t be all that hard. He clearly has the skill to do it, regardless how much I’ll deny that statement.
Plus, adding strength to the front and rear puts more flex stress on the stock frame under the cab.Have a friend who did frame gusseting front and rear and ended up tearing his cab because of the flex between the body mounts.
Slander
Team no stickys
- Thread starter
- #41
My factory frame is basically rotting out from under the truck. I did the front when I did the SAS, and that was my first real fab project so the rest didn't ever cross my mind. I did only the rear after I bent the frame extremely bad wheeling and my repairs were starting to fail so I chopped it and that was the quickest way to get back on the trail. I just flat out dont have the room to do an entire frame swap, and I know it would have taken me a long ass time and it would cut into wheeling season. I'm working solo in a decent sized 2 car garage. On paper swapping the whole frame at once makes sense, but for me practically it did not.
I probably will end up swapping the whole frame eventually provided I don't crunch the cab rolling the truck. Unless a 1st gen with a good frame falls into my lap that I can swap all my stuff over to.
PAToyota
Red Skull Member
Another place that will do it is Cornfield Customs: Frame rails and tubing
First item there is a bend worksheet that you can fill out with the requisite dimensions for him. He also sells some "stock" bends that you could cut and splice together like the exhaust kits with various bent tube.
I went the cut and weld route because there weren't the options to bend square/rectangular tube many years ago...
To do it today I'd have the side rails bent and then fabricobble the rest of it together.
First item there is a bend worksheet that you can fill out with the requisite dimensions for him. He also sells some "stock" bends that you could cut and splice together like the exhaust kits with various bent tube.
I went the cut and weld route because there weren't the options to bend square/rectangular tube many years ago...
To do it today I'd have the side rails bent and then fabricobble the rest of it together.