Posted by Keith in Washington on Tuesday, July 31, 2001 at 11:14AM :
In Reply to: Carryall off road characteristics. posted by Chris Davis on Monday, July 30, 2001 at 8:11PM :
I forgot one comment. Yes you get a lot of body flex. This is especially true around the tailgate opening. This flex can be reduced somewhat. Whit all the flexing that the body has undergone there are most likely stress fractures and broken welds around the tailgate and front doors. Mine was really bad. I had broken welds and stress cracks around each door and the tailgate opening. My dash had broken loose from the body and the floor was disconnected from the body at both front doors. The body really flexed and rattled when I got it.
On the tailgates. Make sure that the opening is square by measure the diagonals across the opening. You may need to flex the body to get it square. When you have it square make sure that the tail gates work. You may have to adjust them where the hinges attach to the body. When you get everything lined up weld any cracks in the area. Also there is a doubler that can be broken or detached at the lower corners of the tailgate opening. What I did was to take a spot rivit bit and drill several holes through the first layer of sheet metal 6 to 8" up the side of the opening then welded them close making sure that I was welding both pieces of metal together. This really strengthened the opening as mine was not really welded up very well.
|
Follow Ups:
This board is powered by the Mr. Fong Device from Cyberarmy.com |