Page updated: 01/12/2004 08:45 AM

So here's the scenario..

Out wheeling one day, tearing it up (figuratively speaking) and having a grand old time. Met some cool people (suthrnJPgrl, and 60thanvjeep to name but two).  All is going well, until I decide to go through this one mud pit.  Anyway.. it's pretty deep, get to the far side of it, and there is a wall of mud.  Well, I guess I hit it pretty hard, cause the rear perch on the pass side front spring decided to divorce itself from the Jeep.  Ok, fine.  I square lash it onto the frame so I can drive it, and decide to take it easy for the rest of the day.  Get it home, and decide it's time to fab a new perch, and patch for the section of affected frame. Here's what I did:

First, here's the damage:

See the red arrow?  That's pointing to the crack in the frame caused by this.  This next picture is what it looks like when the weight is taken off the spring:

As you can see, not a good thing.  So, the next step is to get the perch off and make a new one.  Here is the damage with the perch removed, and the prep done for welding:

That's from the outside of the frame, and this one (taken from the inside of the frame) gives a good idea of the damage done, and why rust sucks:

So now the idea is to build a unit that will sleeve the frame, and replace the perch at the same time.  Using things previously learned, like fish mouthing the metal, and using the 30 ton hydraulic press to bend 1/4" steel, here is what I came up with, next to the original:

Then we take it outside for the test fitting...

And bingo!!  Just need to weld it up with the trusty Lincoln...

Some other submissions for similar concepts are shown in the two photos below: