How to Section/Pancake and Tig Weld a C/10 Crossmember for the Ultimate DROP

[@ArlowFarrell]

And this is why body work costs so much. Look how much skill and effort he put into this welding.

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thank you, its a ton of work to make things nice!!!!!

[@daviddaniels6469]

You are a true craftsman welder ! I appreciate the time and patience you have to complete this type of work. I worked at Wysong Machine near Greensboro, NC in 1976. Building press brakes, bending rolls , and metal machines. Heavy mig wire mainly . I am 68 now and still welding at my home . 1964 , 1965 c10s . 1979 C30 rocker panels . Great job !

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thank you very much, im in Mooresville NC, im building a 65 68 and a 72 c10 right now, you should check out the c10 fall revival this October in denton, awesome show!!!

[@robertbarnes3915]

I like the Milwaukee band saw table as much as the cross member! Especially the squeeze clamp switch.. Necessity the mother of invention. Great idea for dropping 2”. Thanks for sharing this.

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thank you!!! That is the most used tool in my shop lol

[@cab4word]

you did the same thing to your portable bandsaw I did to my Ridgid one, Makes them very handy

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thats the most used tool in the shop now!!!!

[@MrBurnenn]

Nice modification, wanna try it my self now.

[@ACDesignsGarage]

It makes life much easier, you gain alot of ground clearance!!!

[@JohnW1711stock]

Good idea. Even if you cap it with new metal and engineer new motor mounts, (for an LS swap, or whatever?) it still works. Nice job.

[@ACDesignsGarage]

It makes such a clean job and gets everything out of the way!

[@AbstractDreamz]

This video makes me remember why I bought my plasma cutter. That 2 inch cut would have taken like 2 minutes!

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Hahaha I have a plasma cutter but I figured most guys don't so I did it the hard way to show it could be done. My next one will be plasma cut and Mig welded lol, thanks for watching

[@jonathamwebert2050]

Ótimo vídeo explicando, 👏👏🇧🇷

[@haydenrouxdebuisson3145]

Just want to say thankyou as this was extremely helpful in helping me with my pancake👍🏼👍🏼 excellent vid mate

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thank you, glad it could help!!!!!!

[@andrewreece3861]

Great video. I really like the table stand you made for your portable bandsaw. Subscribed.

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Awesome thanks for the comment, Im actually filming a video on how I built the portaband table for this weeks video, thanks for subscribing!!

[@glujanjr]

Man keep doing what you doing! Love the video. Straight forward. Looking forward to more. Building a 65 c-10 myself. Cheers!

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Awesome thanks, i love my 65, ill be doing more videos soon on mine so stay tooned!!!!

[@mikecrice3646]

Good Job!

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thank you!!!!!

[@rickj428]

Just found your channel today and have seen a lot of great information and wanted to thank you. With that being said I might have a tip for you being a retired tool maker and seeing you get out the Dykem I thought you might like to know that you can get that layout dye in a spray bomb makes doing larger areas much easier.

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thank you for the tip that would of been easier lol.

[@adamkorekach9936]

Nice!

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thank you!!!!!!!!!

[@ap_fab7082]

look good i am planing on doing this to my 1971c10 ls swap i am going to try to lay frame

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Awesome I love them trucks layed out!!!!! I have a 72 and a 68 im gonna do also, this 65 is gonna be static dropped with a 4 inch ride height in the front.

[@PeterHatch-mx7zc]

Thks for the video i have c20 to go in to a 1953 ford van do i pan cake or would you craft the full clip in ! Thks

[@ACDesignsGarage]

If your goin LOW the pancake gains you alot of ground clearance

[@PeterHatch-mx7zc]

@@ACDesignsGarage thks

[@donlivingston2461]

That's what I call shade tree welding works

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Hahahaha thats for sure, thanks for the comment 👍

[@mikekoblas9064]

Love the idea... Thinking about doing it on my 84 now! One question: With the suspension arms moved up two inches now, wont that throw off the steering geometry since the steering box is attached to frame (which is now 2" lower relative to suspension)? Great work!

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Yeah it throws it off a little, ive had buddys of mine run them as is, but im eaither gonna raise up the sterring box 2 inches and also notch the frame for the tie rods to clear. Or possibly run a power rack . Thanks for watching, Subscribe to my channel to see my 65 c10 build! Thanks for watching!!!!

[@jesusarzate5927]

Nice can this be done on a 1987 C10?

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Yes ,actually that crossmember is from a 85 square body lol 😆

[@frankwoodward2329]

Does that disrupt any steering parts I've got a 1981 I want to do that too

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Its pretty close , I moved my sterring box foward about 1" and the idler foward 1" also just so i have enough room, all the tie rods and drag links are still parallel so it should be fine. They say if you go 1.5" section you dont have to, but 2" is perfect I think.

[@floresningas]

Great video. How much of a drop did this alone give you

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thank you! It moved everything up 2" so in theory it should be 2". You can check it out on instagram, mine is @ac_designs with no motor or trans it has 4 inches of ground clearance at the crossmember, i also have 2 inch drop spindles and 1 round cut out of the coil, she gonna be low lol

[@floresningas]

@@ACDesignsGarage thats dope bro I'll hit that follow button on IG asap. I want to pancake my c10 too

[@nickle549]

Is 2" the most you can do? Thanks

[@ACDesignsGarage]

You can but you run into alot more modifications and clearance issues, the 2 inch is about perfect i think, the bottom of the crossmember is level with the bottom of the frame on the 2 inch. Thanks for watching!!!!

[@midnighttutor]

I apologize if I missed this point in your video...You essentially have a box beam of a certain depth around 4 inches. Was that sized in the original design for a certain load? Now that you have cut it down to a 2 inch box beam are you concerned that there is a structural weakness? Thank you.

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thank you for your concern. I'm not worried about the structural integrity of it. All my welds have 100% penetration and I went back and boxed all the points that were weak. The weakest part of this design is the lower control arm mounts from the factory are only held on with 2 3/8" U bolts, that always scared me lol. Thanks for the comment.

[@jesusarzate5927]

By any chance did you made a video removing the crossmember

[@ACDesignsGarage]

No but its pretty easy, it just bolts to the frame. First I take the springs out then the spindles off then you just unbolt the crossmember and lower it down with a jack, just becareful of the springs they can be dangerous. If I remove it later on I may do a video. Thanks for watching!!!

[@gilbertmiramontes5025]

when you place the top piece back on do you measure to make sure your at 2 inches? also since the crossmember is not squared how do you know where the center holes should be on the crossmember?

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thanks for the question! As for how to know if you lowered it exactly 2" this is how i did it. I marked out 2 inches in the center of the cross member then measured the thickness of the cutoff wheel, the cutoff wheel was 1/16" of a inch so I minus 1/8" from the 2" mark then , so if you cut 1" 7/8 out with the cutoff wheel it ends up being 2". As for squaring it up, I put a mark on the upper control mount that lined up with the center hole in the crossmember before I cut it out so i had a place to line it back up. It basically lines its self up when you go back together. The main thing is to level the crossmember and clamp it down before i put the top piece back on, then level the top before you weld it on. Just take a ton of measurements before cutting. Hope I my rambling didn't confuse you lol, holla back if i can help more!!

[@gilbertmiramontes5025]

@@ACDesignsGarage i appreciate the explanation. when you installed it. how did you handle the issue with the steering?

[@darrinbega302]

To fill in those wider spaces just heat them up and hammer them in you'll be just fine just heat up one at a time tack it in let it cool going to the next one over and over and fill it in

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Sounds like a good idea, ill try it on the next one I do, thanks for the comment 👍

[@lyndonweaver2409]

Do you know if this still allows enough clearance for a steering rack underneath the frame?

[@ACDesignsGarage]

It should, you may have to do a little fabrication for clearance, im about to start back on the 65 that its on so stay tuned , also I post alot of pics on my instagram @ac_designs , ill throw up a pic of it in the frame in a little bit.

[@jarrodnordloh5655]

Beautiful work, but why don't you just channel crossmember where the frame bolts up instead of sectioning it all the way across? You would get the same affective drop with a lot less work.

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Thank you, as for channeling it, you could do it that way but you would probably have oil pan clearance issues and you'd have to shorten your motor mounts because they bolt to twords the middle of the crossmember. Thanks for watching

[@brettsummer5070]

Hoping for a week off from work soon so I can pancake my 69. After I cupped the lower arms the crossmembers hitting, how close to laying frame were you with the 2” cut out

[@ACDesignsGarage]

Awesome, it should lay flat.

[@peterjolly4551]

If you had of marked it out properly you wouldn't have had that triangulation issue

[@jasonfarnsworth5880]

Yeah, it’s OK. Why don’t you just mig weld it and be done with it?

[@ACDesignsGarage]

You could, if I do another one I wull probably Mig it just for time.