Frame damage, heat with torch?

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Red87Rado

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I've been putting my truck back together, never told y'all the news but I wrecked it not to long ago and well my front bumper, core support, hood, and front left fender need to be replaced,.
So as of right now I can't put a bumper on it cause of the bent frame, and my core support is only attached by one main bolt. Let me know what y'all think I can do about this.
 

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towjoe

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hook it to a tree and use a winch to pull it around where needed. Heat is a bad idea on a frame. Atleast it looks like damage is on passenger side where there's no steering box to fight with.
 

towjoe

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looks like passenger side from angle of picture. You may want to invest a few bucks in getting local frame shop to pull it. Last one I had them do only cost me a $150.
 

chengny

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The frame rails are basically just 2" X 5" channel iron - its shaped steel but the in the same configuration as channel.

When channel iron is bent through the short sides the metal on those sides is permanantly deformed (stretched out of shape). No amount of heat or bending will return it to it's former shape.

But it can be repaired.

The elongated short sides (top and bottom) need to be notched. Doing that removes enough steel that it is then possible to bend the vertical side back to a straight line.

When the rail is straight in the front to back axis it would be necessary to weld doublers over the insides of the notches.

I know this is not very detailed, but look at the images below and see if you get what I mean.

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89Suburban

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I used a 6 wheel truck and a chain at work to pull bent frames on 2 trucks I had bent up. One was so bad I had to chain the other side of the truck to a ballard post to keep the truck from sliding lol. I had a Ramcharger that the whole ladder frame got zig zagged from a left front impact. That had to get fixed on a frame machine at the body shop.
 

Red87Rado

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Thanks for the heads up, I think I'm gonna try chengny's way. Ill post some pics on the outcome!
 

GreaseDog

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I've had good luck with a K20 and a tree
 

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