Thread: Can I fix my front crossmember with JB Weld?

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I might be tempted to pull it out with a rigged-up slide hammer. I've made 'em up from scratch here at the garage from scrap. In this case, I might use a piece of 3/8" round rod and a chunk of steel or iron to use as a slider, anything laying around that weighs maybe 5 lbs or so. weld a stop on one end of the round rod, slide the hammer onto the rod and weld the other end to the crossmember in the center of the dent. If it didn't want to move cold, I might apply a little persuasion from a blue-tip wrench applied around the outside of the dent. If the dent doesn't pull out square with the rod at that position on the member, grind the rod off and weld it in the next apparent depression. When it's pulled out to your satisfaction, grind off the rod and finish with a light coat of body filler if you feel it necessary.

Or-----if its really bothering you---weld an eye bolt to the center of it, chain it down to the garage floor (you do have hook points in your floor?) and jack the vehicle up.

"and jack the vehicle up."

Won't work Brian, he'll bend the crossmember at another point

if the dent is really bothering you just use some allmetal filler and paint it black. It will last for a long while and can be repaired again easily.

with out seeing a picture of the dmamged area, kinda hard to suggest a good reliable fix......i am thinking that using 1/8" plate and weld it over the damgad area, that way if there are any structural weaknesses the new plate will beef it up, all the welds can then be ground down for cosmetic purposes.......I tried the jb weld to fill in un necessary holes on my frame and found it was pretty friendly to work with when in small batches but a big area like you are saying, not sure if it will be as easy......

81 cabellero's idea on the new plate sounds like a good idea to me. It can take place of the bent plate basically.

I know pics. say a thousand words,but no digital camera makes it hard to place pics.I am going to weld some chain links to the center of the 6x8 damaged area.Then hook a engine hoist to the chains,and lift(frame is upside down on jacks).Then I am going to apply a little heat .

Well good luck on whatever you choose. Just remember that when you go to sell that truck (if you ever do) then be sure to tell the buyer about that. If you decide to race the truck or whatever or someone else does then that will have to be fixed or you may have problems down the road.

Yep that plate idea is a good one. Over here in Aus we have an independant front end that gets used in lots of rods. It comes from our early model Holdens. The centre cross member is fairly tinny and by the time us hot rodders get hold of them they are peppered with dints (usually). What I have done and what lots have done, I am sure, is use a plasma cut piece of plate steel, cut to the size of the cross member ,then stitch this to the member so as to not induce to much heat.
Stiffens the front, removes the uglies and you can jack off that till the cows come home!

Andy.

Those crazy Aussies!

a lot of time s the front cross gets hammer by the road or lack there of and close up the front cross member and when you try to get the front end alignment back in there is no a justment all shim out. this is where the dent may came from rebending or opening it up. this done with a big I beam and a 20 ton bottle jack and the horns get chain to the beam and things will move . but what i would do is cut the plate out with cut off and drill out plug welds and get it out and hammer it flat or a new pice of steel and weld it back in i have work on many frame you can work the steel just like sheet steel just bigger hammers. if you dont feel you can weld if then dont do it and find someone that can weld good or just live with it