had an idea! crazy modification of death!

[Steve302]

Hello,
I have noticed that alot of people want to get their bumps as low as possible and not have the front tires looking like they are about to fall off
(tires leaning in heavily) I was staring at a set of 3" DJM beams i bought for my bump when i had intentions of making it a street truck, and i was wondering why nobody has just lowered their trucks to the stance they want and then pie cut a slice out of the DJM beam to correct the camber, of course weld it back together!, I know that the suspension geometery will not be factory specs, but its twim I beam, like it is ever right anyway.
Anyone ever thought of this?
Steve

[fordman]

wouldnt that severly weaken the beams

[Steve302]

Well i would hope if someone did this they would weld it properly, and my god i hope nobody tries this on a stock beam

[fordman]

the proper way is to have the beams bent to line up the angle of the tires.

[Thunderfoot]

the proper way is to have the beams bent to line up the angle of the tires.

Bending the DJM drop beams is not really an option... They are a tubing built beam so if you bend them you will weaken the structure of the tubing... The stock beams are solid metal and can be bent to an extent without issue...

Cutting the DJM's and reinforcing the cut area and welding it back should not be an issue as long as everything was done correctly...

[seattle67]

Hey Steve, you interested in selling those beams?

[averagef250]

If you know what you're doing, go for it.

Those that aren't familiar with proper welding and fabricating techniques will argue to death that you should never cut or weld anything as it'll break and you'll die. This is BS. If you are a skilled welder with the right equipment there is no reason why you can't unbuild and re-engineer ANYTHING that was manufactured to begin with.

DJM doesn't have any more equipment or welding knowledge than what I have in my shop, I see no reason why it wouldn't be possible.

[marz68]

If you know what you're doing, go for it.

Those that aren't familiar with proper welding and fabricating techniques will argue to death that you should never cut or weld anything as it'll break and you'll die. This is BS. If you are a skilled welder with the right equipment there is no reason why you can't unbuild and re-engineer ANYTHING that was manufactured to begin with.

DJM doesn't have any more equipment or welding knowledge than what I have in my shop, I see no reason why it wouldn't be possible.

I couldn't have said it better my self!!!
The only thing I can think of that will be an issue is the steering.
Your going to have to make some spacer for the tie rod ends to make up for the amount of drop you put into it, this might hit the radius arm.

[Steve302]

Hey Dan,
Im not sure if they are sold or not! I was going to build my 70 f100 as a 4wd so i bought everything to do it, then everyone talked me into leaving it 2wd, so then i traded and sold some of the 4x4 stuff to get some cool 2wd stuff, then i got mad at the truck because it sank in the mud, so i started trading and selling the 2wd stuff for more 4wd stuff! Im even confused at this point i am not sure what trades are done deals or what trades are up in the air. Time will tell.

[fordman]

ok i didnt know they were made out of tubing. if you can do the work and trust your own work then go for it. i would never cut and reweld an original i beam though. i just dont think that could be the safest thing to do. i dont think you could get enough penetration of the welds to get them to hold up. plus i think htye are cast and you can only weld cast with a special nickel rod.

[averagef250]

ok i didnt know they were made out of tubing. if you can do the work and trust your own work then go for it. i would never cut and reweld an original i beam though. i just dont think that could be the safest thing to do. i dont think you could get enough penetration of the welds to get them to hold up. plus i think htye are cast and you can only weld cast with a special nickel rod.

Fordman, not to put you down, but this is exactly the kind of mis-information that I was talking about.

FYI, I-beams are either forged steel or cast nodular iron depending on the era. Both of which you can weld with the simplest of welding processes and standard consumables. A basic knowledge of metallurgy is a pre-requisite to being a good welder. You have to be able to look at a part and by seeing what it looks like and what it's used for know with 99% certainty what it's made of.

Welding is pretty simple stuff. There isn't a whole lot of gray area when you know what you're doing. Knowing what you're doing is the key.

With some skill and experience you can weld anything. I've done some pretty serious cast iron repair in my life and I haven't had a part crack on me in a decade or so.

[seattle67]

Hey Steve,
If at the end of it all you still have those beams, shoot me a PM.

Thanks!

[flyboy2610]

If a weld is properly made, it will be as strong as or stronger than the surrounding metal.

[Steve302]

A DJM beam is made of steel tubing, and it would be welded on safely as they are welded together in the first place. As for a cast suspension part there is no safe way to go about this, if you were to cut and weld a stock I beam it would be a matter of time before it breaks. And even if it never did, could you truely trust it? I saw a street rodder actually use U bolts off of a car rearend to hold his steering box on, it came loose all the time so he wrapped a steel bar around it about 6 times and welded everything together, he trusted it 100% but it i wouldnt even go for a ride around the block in the deathtrap.

[averagef250]

A DJM beam is made of steel tubing, and it would be welded on safely as they are welded together in the first place. As for a cast suspension part there is no safe way to go about this, if you were to cut and weld a stock I beam it would be a matter of time before it breaks. And even if it never did, could you truely trust it? I saw a street rodder actually use U bolts off of a car rearend to hold his steering box on, it came loose all the time so he wrapped a steel bar around it about 6 times and welded everything together, he trusted it 100% but it i wouldnt even go for a ride around the block in the deathtrap.

There are many different kinds of cast iron. The iron used in cast suspension components is nodular iron. You can weld the crap out of it and it will not crack, it welds just like alloy steel.

Think about this for all you non-believers that welding cast equals death-

Most engine crankshafts are cast nodular iron or forged steel. When a crank gets beat up real good on a journal or two production crank grinders just build up the surface with weld and grind it off. There are millions upon millions of these welded cranks out there getting the crap run out of them inside engines.

If welding cast nodular iron weakened the metal wouldn't you suspect these cranks would fail left and right?

Where folks get stupid is they try to join a very dissimiliar metal to nodular iron and they have a failure. Iron has a very low expansion rate, that's why it's used for machine tools, engine blocks, transmission cases etc. It's very dimensionally stable. There are very complex reasons why standard gray cast iron cannot be welded with standard methods, but it's rather simple to understand. The biggest problems arise when someone attempts to weld a thick section of steel to nodular iron. When you weld the two together the steel has a much higher expansion rate than the iron. As it cools, the steel induces stresses into the iron that it cannot deal with and it cracks.

Also, if you know what you're doing, you can weld parts together that break the rules. Post heating and peening with a needle scaler can make darn near any cast weld possible