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We now have the recessed boxing plates with the lips welded and finish ground. The front cross member will be next to be installed. We use a Model A type front cross member and add side and lower flanges for the rivets. These added flanges are inside the frame rail and look like a stock front cross member installation just the way the originals were done. We actually weld the cross member to each frame rail inside the cross member and behind the recessed boxing plates.Keep in mind the flanged boxing plates are removable until we do the final welding.
The X member we use has an upper and lower center plate. The lower plate has the trans mount holes and is installed with 8 fasteners to the lower x member rails. The upper plate is will be held in place with bolts until final installation. Then the upper plate is welded from the bottom side and also has flat head rivets.
The X member legs are located by the trans mounting holes in the lower plate. When the location is determined the legs are cut to fit inside the frame rails and fits up to the boxing plate. Each leg of the X member is then welded in place. A flange is fitted up to the ends of the legs and welded. These flanges are then riveted to the boxing plates. To be able to set the rivets the boxing plates are removed from the frame rails. Every time a rivet has to be set the boxing plates have to be removed.
Each rivet when in place is heated with the torch until white hot. Then two air hammers with special set tooling are used to set the rivet. Setting rivets is just like anything else, it is a process where there is no substitute for experience.
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