Safety Issue?

It's been a number of years since I farmed out the install of Holbrook springs on my '73, they've been awsome both on and offroad. The one thing that's bothered me, is the installer neglected to bolt the new spring hangers to the frame. The welds look good, and they beefed up the area around the spring hangers by boxing them with a retangular piece.
Gnawing away in the back of my mind are past frame repairs, and battling rust for the past 15 years. Welds crack and break, I'm needing some magin for safety after wheelin rocks, then tearin home down the hiway.
Hardware is sourced, and it looks as like no problem drilling through one end of the hanger. For the other end, it looks as if I've got to unbolt the spring. What's the easiest way to pull this one off?

 

Glad you like the Holbrook's he makes an awesome spring...............If I remember there is only a single 3/8" hole in those hangers and the hole was there more so for the initial setup for proper hanger placement.......the instructions stated that once weight was fully applied and your happy with the shackle angle then weld them up...............not sure if I would loose much sleep about the single bolt being there or not?

In either case if you were to suspend the front end ( jack stands under the frame) and remove one end and side at a time there is enough flex in those springs to move them over enough to drill that hole in the chassis.

What shock did you end up using?

 

Thanks, I'm glad there's enough flex in those springs to move 'em around, I'm looking for the easiest way to get this done. It's just something that's been bothering me. I don't know if it's because I farmed the job out, but regardless I don't want the EX to have any issues about safety.
I ended up going with Doetsch shocks, they've been great.

 

Mine are only welded.

If properly welded that joint will be stronger than the the base metal of the frame. The spring eye bolt will fail well before anything else.

 

Bolt and welding that the safest thing you can do!!!

 

So I ended up with one bolt in each spring hanger. The easy part was drilling out one of the 3/8" holes in the hangers, then it was a contortion competition to get the hardware in. Working around the plate that was added to reinforce the frame was no fun at all.
Next day I figure I'd jack her up, and do the other four. First I tried jack under the spring plate, jack stand under frame. Lowered and tire still on the deck, basically I ran out of jack. So I gave the ol' farm jack a whirl. I went as far as I thought I could, tire still on the deck!
Man are those springs flexy. I now have one bolt in each hanger, and am calling it good. All I was looking for was some margin of safety/backup after wheelin rocks then driving home.

 

Honestly the spring would probably snap at some point before the hanger comes off.

A long time ago I got into an accident in my toyota, oddly enough trying to pickup parts for the jeep. A little old lady pulled out from the side of the road and tried to drive under my truck while I was doing about 35. My rear wheel caught the front of her car and pivoted me around. It broke the leafspring right at the main eye on the spring. They were military wrapped aftermarket springs. It literaly broke the mainleaf eye off and unrolled the military wrap. Frame had some noticeable stress warps, but the spring hanger was fine. There was only about 8" of weld holding the hanger on and I've been wheeling on it for years after that.

I'd be more worried about the frame than the mounts and if they plated the frame properly it shouldn't be an issue.

Kevo