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Hi Gene,
No, he didn’t say, but, I’ll ASSUME it’s best to clad BACK to the F-body transmission crossmember and weld frame connectors in at that point to tie everything together. I’ll also ASSUME it’s best to go as far forward as possible (at least to where the bumper bolts to the chassis. That’s the plan… Also, looking closely at the F-body rails, it looks like the sheet metal is lipped together and spot welded (is this clear?). I suspect I’ll have to cut off the protruding lip portion and seam weld it together. That will make it smoother for cladding.

Greg



Greg, Your plan sounds correct, the "frame" is spot welded together at the lip. I would cut one side at a time, and clad it as you go. Once one side has been joined with the top and bottom, then cut off the other flange and clad it.

I think I would also make sure your trans crossmember is secure to the rails when you get done. I dirt track raced an F body years ago and was side swiped by another car that was going faster then I was. When that car caught the front bumper, it pulled the frame rail away from the transmission crossmember, the factory welds were very poor. Understand, that F body was very rusty, but the condition of the metal surrounding that joint at the cross member was fairly good condition with bad spot welds. I simply would not rely on the factory spot welds at the rail to crossmember joint.
Gene