I am going to box the frame rails on my 65 hardtop. I plan on welding in small sections, but from reading some posts I'm still concerned the heat may distort the frame. Someone recommended welding in some temporary steel braces to keep the frame from moving. Does anyone have any info on where to weld these braces? Thank you. This is a great site.

Micah

Micah,

I am not much of a welding expert so I can't give you a good answer for your question, but when I fully boxed my '72 frame I have the frame tack welded to a frame jig and then we rewelded all of the factory welds and fully boxed the frame. After that we just cut it off of the jig. And all of the previous dimensions were still correct. What I did may have been overkill but I had access to the jig and a professional welder.

Good Luck.

MicahJohn,
The thread I started on the swapping out of a convertible frame to a regular one talks about this very thing (I'm going to be in the process of doing this shortly).

The best way is probably what Airrj mentions with the professional jig, but you can also attach some tubing (round or square) to keep it straight.
Make like 2 extra cross members, one near the front and one near the back.

Now you want to triangulate them (this will prevent the "diamond" effect, talked about in the other thread). Go down maybe 18-24 inches from the attachment point of the temporary cross member and mark a spot. Attach a piece of tube at this point and the other end to the center of the temporary cross member. Do the same thing on the other side of this cross member. Now repeat on the OTHER cross member.

If you want, you could then also X-brace almost the total length of the frame on the top or bottom. You can get as elaborate as you want; remember that you'll have to remove all these braces, too. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Follow good welding practice about heat distribution, and you should be good.

Lastly, make sure you leave room to weld in your boxing! :D

Crankshaft

Thank you Airrj and Crankshaft. I appreciate the help. I'm getting started this weekend smile.gif .
Micah