Fishbone Offroad frame tie-in not square

[MutantNinjaTJ]

Stainless hardware is not stronger than comparable grade steel hardware, and the threads will gall once you tighten them up and be a bitch to remove, and anti-seize on the stainless hardware doesn't help much.

 

[Moglocker]

Stainless hardware is not stronger than comparable grade steel hardware, and the threads will gall once you tighten them up and be a bitch to remove, and anti-seize on the stainless hardware doesn't help much.

Very true!

 

[TurboTJ]

Why don't you grind it down a bit so it is square?

 

[LONGJP2]

I didn't get much love either when I complained about my Poison Spyder brackets with the same issue. I ended up cutting the gusset, tightening it flat, then welding up the gap.

 

[williambmac]

bend your frame out until it squares up with the tie ins.

 

[JEEPCJTJ]

Why don't you grind it down a bit so it is square?

Grinding the one that was worse would have made it thinner than everything it was supposed to be strengthening.

I didn't get much love either when I complained about my Poison Spyder brackets with the same issue. I ended up cutting the gusset, tightening it flat, then welding up the gap.

View attachment 242380

I thought about doing that but my ability to weld isn't where it used to be.

bend your frame out until it squares up with the tie ins.

I can handle some twisted humor but that bent humor is too much for me.

 

[WSS]

It's been almost 2 weeks since I started this thread. Since then I decided to tighten them down to see what actually happens. It looked like nothing happened but everything was touching each other so I took them back off. I also figured that any powder coat that cracked up where they met should probably be removed and recoating everything with Fluid Film was in the plans anyway.

After taking them off here's what I saw:

The worst of the two tie-ins was slightly bent a little past where the gusset was. If the other one was bent it wasn't visible.

The 2 holes in the frame, where the worst tie-in was, were bulged out a very minor amount.

There was no visible change in the bumper and crossmember.

Somehow NO powder coat was damaged, so I brushed Fluid Film where everything meets and put it all back together.

Now of course I'm wondering if the stainless bolts and nuts are really strong enough.

If you do a few more R&I's, the SS bolts will gall. If you plan to R&I more than three or four times, get some GR8 bolts.