Building fabricated frame horns

Well, here goes. I hope this comes out okay as it's my first time putting up a bunch of photos. Sorry about the length.

I noticed (actually, my wife noticed first, as she is want to do) that our new Jeep ('59 CJ5 purchased on eBay) was sitting a little tilted to one side. I'd seen the strap the PO had welded to the RF frame horn, but planned on replacing it with a better piece. I didn't realize it was only welded on top and covered up a pretty good tear in the frame. After much consideration, I decided to replace the stock horns with tubing.

I was worried about trying to chronicle this project because I'm not used to stopping the work, cleaning up, taking a photo or two, and then getting back after it. That worry proved to be well-founded as I did miss a few steps along the way, especially as I neared the end. Sorry about that.

The mess I started with. I had already cut off the outside plate. It was only welded on the top.


What it looked like underneath.


This was on the inside. Nice use of scrap rebar, huh?


The other side had cracks up front by the bumper mounts and along the seam above the shackle mounts.


Both sides were tweaked a bit.


Measure the stock length as a reference. The length varied from side to side by 1/16". I made the new horns 15” for a little extra steering box clearance.


When I cut off the stock horns, with a Sawzall, I kept some to use as an overlap for the 1/8" tubing.


Make sure the horns are level. When I put the Jeep on jack stands, I got it close to level. Unless you have a surface plate of some kind, sometimes you just have to estimate.


Try to keep everything in the same plane. I put a bar across the front to maintain the same width as the back. Having cut off the original shackle mounts, I remounted them equal distance from the front of the new horns. To determine the correct angle, I jacket up the front axle until the springs were loaded, then measured the distance.


Jump ahead in the project. I mounted the bumper using 1/2" plate with holes welded to the new horns and a little wider 1/2" plate welded to my fabed bumper with threaded holes. Be careful to keep all these holes in line as it's difficult to get the bolts screwed in if things are out of alignment just a little bit.


I bent up a little hoop for the front.


Since I plan a frame off in the future, I primed and painted with rattle cans. We'll see how long that lasts.

 

Looks nice! You have better skills than I.

 

Homemade by my ownself. I also have some photography skills, which allow me to hide some of the mistakes. R) (A Durango connection would be that's the wife's hometown and I'll try to drag the Jeep up there this summer on our annual trip. It's a reach, I know.)

I've got a room full of leftover stuff that I thought would be good to market over the years, so I think I'll just stumble along like this for a while, thank you very much.

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum but I went on the recommendation of a site administrator whom I had asked. I also have a history of deferring to authority on occasion.

 

That's what I was thinking but it ended up here anyway so the world is right again.

 

Looks great! I'd use the same approach to fix mine, but the front frame horns are the only solid part of my frame!!!

 

You know... They make tubing in 20' lengths. R)

 

Good job and good pic's.

 

Thanks.

 

Looks great. But what about that section that was removed from the crossmember? Seems like you would want to bridge the top of that gap. There is a lot of stress created in that area.

 

Yeah, I thought about that (although not enough, I guess .) I plated with 1/4" thinking it would take car of it, but you may be right. It wouldn't be that big a deal to do it now, so I might have at it before moving along. Thanks.