Fitting the center cross member in

Well,this week I started to fit the center cross member system in.I had tiged this piece up a while back.Had bought the tubes about a year ago.I cut and fit it into the center.Got a pretty close cut with the  use of a Zaw-Zaw,with a by-metal cutting blade.Worked real well and only screwed up one cut,about a !/8" too much taken out.It will tig in okay.Have finished boxing in the rails.Next step will be setting the engine/trans location,&motor mounts.

New Plates being tiged into place

This is picture of back of the shop and the old boxing plates system on the frame which I hand made about 30 years ago.Cut,shaped and all welded into place.Looking back I seemed like a good idea at the time,too bad it just wasn't a bigger gauge.New pictures of the new plates.These are the new plate being welded into place after being tacked every 6-8" or so.Sometimes they had to be tacked a little closer to comform to the curve of the frame.After the tacking of both sides,I'm trying to "Stack the Dimes" in about 10" at a time alternating on each side to give a cool down to each side.I don't claim to be an expert welder,but I'm doing ok,&  for the most part happy with it especially in sections of frame that will be visable.Here's a not so well focosed picture of a short run dime stacking.It a strong weld done with a tig.I have more experience with a mig than a tig,but  for this go around on the frame I wanted to tig it and see how it comes out.

COMMENTS GOOD OR BAD OR ANYTHING ELSE IS WELCOME.I'M ALWAYS WILLING TO LEARN FROM PEOPLE WHO MIGHT KNOW MORE THAN I DO
Paisnao.

Practice makes perfect & perhaps someday it will be !
Iv'e seen worst

Start of tacking up the Boxing Plates

Well I started to tack up the boxing plates up & so far so good.Man its nice when you have a tig doing this.It makes it so much easier.Frame is starting to get heavier now,soon I'll be putting in the center cross member and motor mount locations.It should start looking like something by then,instead of a long box.
Paisano

Mistakes made in my youth

First & foremost,let me apoligize for letting this blog go so long without adding anything to it.Some important family issues takes priority over all.Now that I got that out of the way,lets get going.I had a long,long time ago,cut and welded all rivet holes,mounting locations,etc.Man,what was I thinking?I had also boxed the frame,without installing body mounting holes,had welded them up too.and hopefully my last stupid blunder was to install less than desireable thickness boxing plates on top of all this mess!Well,you know what would happen if installing a 4-link rear and a big block to it,right? Well I drilled,cut openings on the inside of the boxing plates,welded flat type welding nuts [3/8],taped everthing out to have a nice mounting for the body.

I am installing 10 gauge frame boxing plates over the old plates.I know what your thinking,why not just weld some heavier plates over critical areas and go from there.I really do not want to go that route,I rather be safe than sorry in the future.Everything is getting tiged into place.
Man what a dumb ass, I must have really taped into Mom's medicine cabinet to many tmes.

I found that the frame was off by about 5/8" in the center,so I used a porta power to bring everthing out to specs,and welded square tubing to hold temparily in place.Don't want it to move when I start welding the cross membe set up in place. I'm using an original copy of a 33-34 chassis blueprint.I have 2 differnat copies,and both are differant by about 1/16".Also,you kind of have to be careful,cause the pick-up chassis specs are also shown.Can't mix the 2 up,or else,you'll be drilling a bunch of unnecassary holes,like the ones in my head.

Here are some pics of what's going on.

Paisano