I did a lot of research trying to figure out how best to reinforce the k-member in my 69 charger. I'm sure Firm Feel makes a great kit, but I have the tools and materials and wanted to do it myself. The only thing i bought for this was the 1 1/4" flat washers to reinforce the lower control arm shaft mounts and the strut rod mounts.
The washers are 1-1/4" Plain USS Flat Washer and are $27 (shipped) for 25 washers. i mis-cut one of them, and ended up needing 5. Lucky for me, these are the same size i just to repair Jeep body mounts, so they will eventually get used. Here is a link to the washers i bought that worked perfectly: https://www.kljack.com/products/125nwus/
The next post will include some photos
Since i had a hard time finding photos online for how to do this, i took lots of pictures from different angles throughout the process so that hopefully someone else can learn from this.
I have to go back and resize all of my photos...and will post them as soon as i can. sorry for the delay!
Photo Group 1 - marking k-member for reinforcement
Making of the templates for the reinforcement pieces
Have you thought about welding the full perimiter of the K frame where the two halves are spot welded together ?
Yep!
instead of a full weld, i'm doing 3/4" stitches that are in between the spot welds. I started TIG welding these, but there is so much crap in between the layers that it makes it hard to get good welds. I'm going to switch to MIG to finish the stitch welding.
patch pieces tacked to k member
The 5 gusset pieces were cut out of a piece of 10 gauge mild steel sheet/plate.
If you were careful, you could fit them on a piece of 1/8" flat bar that was 4" x 12". I am going to take the template pieces, attach them to some graph paper, and will scan and post them. That way someone can print them off and check the scale with a ruler to make sure they are the correct size.
reinforcement pieces welded to k member
more photos of welded parts
Quote from: matrout76 on February 07, 2024, 02:01:03 PMYep!
instead of a full weld, i'm doing 3/4" stitches that are in between the spot welds. I started TIG welding these, but there is so much crap in between the layers that it makes it hard to get good welds. I'm going to switch to MIG to finish the stitch welding.
I finished the MIG welding last night. It was better than TIGing the perimeter, but there was still a bunch of junk between the layers that would catch on fire and burn, affecting the weld.
Short of hot-tanking the k-member, i'm not sure how else to deal with this. Anyone else have any ideas?
I painted the K-member and all the new suspension pieces at the end of last week and I let the paint harden over the weekend. I should start assembling the front end tomorrow and will be checking to make sure there are no interference issues with the gussets.
:2thumbs:
So far, so good! No interferences between any of the reinforcements or gussets and the suspension components or steering!