Installed a beefed up K Frame and Borgeson over the 4th of July

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JoesEdge

JoesEdge

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Hey guys I wanted to share the work I did over the 4th of July and the work I did leading up to the 4th of July.

Long story short, I picked up a 73 Duster K Frame and I installed the Firm Feel stiffening kit and I welded all the seams and went over the factory welds too. Before I did all that, I had the K Frame sandblasted and after I was done with all the welding, I had it powder coated.

I had to pretty much reassemble the whole suspension and steering system. That consists of Helwig sway bar, poly lower bushings, stock upper control arm with offset bushings. While I was at it, I also installed a Borgeson steering box. I made sure to torque everything to spec and use lock-tite too.

I had it aligned to 0* camber, 3.5* caster and 1/8" toe. It drives so much better than before. Way tighter.

Now I need better wheels and tires and sub frame connectors.

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Nice work man....I have a "rebuilt" factory PS box that leaks like a civ. I've got my eye on that small Borgeson box. N
 
Good job! I'll be replacing a K-frame myself. Still not sold on the Borgeson box but I'm glad they got away from that u joint.

What wheels are those?
 
Jos51700 what makes you not sold on Borgey box? I have one in a 71 cuda and its head and shoulders above the old Mopar box. I had a steer & gear firm feel box before the Borg and I would never go back. No more wandering or corrective steering running down the road.
 
nice job.. i am in the process of doing mine right now
 
tonysrt said:
Jos51700 what makes you not sold on Borgey box? I have one in a 71 cuda and its head and shoulders above the old Mopar box. I had a steer & gear firm feel box before the Borg and I would never go back. No more wandering or corrective steering running down the road.
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Because they had that hokey U-joint in there and it just made the whole deal a bit sketchy, I guess. That was kind of a big F-up in my mind. It's me more than Borgeson.

I have the Firm Feel box in mine and I'm happy with it, makes me wonder what I'm missing! I suppose the Borgeson box would make it easier to fit in a big-block A-body?

Since yours drives so well, drive it to my place and let me test drive it. I'll buy you some BBQ and beer.....
 
Nice welds. Those old 40 year old k-members don't weld pretty. It's tough to clean out the grease and oil wedged deep in the inside seems.

What process did you use to degrease it?
 
autoxcuda said:
Nice welds. Those old 40 year old k-members don't weld pretty. It's tough to clean out the grease and oil wedged deep in the inside seems.

What process did you use to degrease it?
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Thanks! Luckily, the K Frame wasn't too greasy. I picked up from a guy in San Diego. I used Simple Green and a high pressure nozzle on the hose as well as a wire wheel on the grinder.

When I realized that was going to be too much work, I just took it to the sandblasters. The sandblasting did get all surface grease off, but it didn't help too much with the grease and trapped dirt inside.

Some of the trapped dirt I just had to tap out, but as I was welding it the dirt/grease/old paint inside the K Frame would catch fire.

I welded it up with a Lincoln PowerMIG 180C and Lincoln .025 and .030 welding wire. I started with .025 but the .030 was better.

Some of the uglier welds was due to going over the factory welds, which were ugly to begin with.
 
jos51700 said:
Good job! I'll be replacing a K-frame myself. Still not sold on the Borgeson box but I'm glad they got away from that u joint.

What wheels are those?
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Those are Chrysler 300 / Magnum wheels. They do the job for now, but I really want some better wheels and tires.
 
Took me 6 weeks. I would tinker with it after work. Biggest time was at the powder coating shop. And finding the correct parts. Total cost in my photo $850. If you look close it even has brake hoses on it. 100% ready to go!
 
Don't use poly strut rod bushings with a reinforced K frame without trimming the bushing, the extra material in the K frame compresses the bushing too much causing the strut rod to bend instead of flexing at the bushing with extreme suspension movement. I broke 3 strut rods on my dart using poly bushings on a reinforced K frame before I switched to adjustable struts with heim joints.
Your K frame looks good BTW.
 
daliant said:
Don't use poly strut rod bushings with a reinforced K frame without trimming the bushing, the extra material in the K frame compresses the bushing too much causing the strut rod to bend instead of flexing at the bushing with extreme suspension movement. I broke 3 strut rods on my dart using poly bushings on a reinforced K frame before I switched to adjustable struts with heim joints.
Your K frame looks good BTW.[/QUOTE

How does the car respond when a strut rod goes?
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Nice work! :thumbsup: Welds look good, having seam welded and reinforced a couple of these now the contaminants make it tough to pull pretty welds. Especially where you go over factory welds, man the factory welds were awful.
 
I did the same thing on mine and welded stiffening plates on the lower control arms. I did mine with a tig and made a jig to bolt the K frame to make sure nothing warped. I guess I'm lucky that my work has a large vibratory parts wash tank and a cabinet washer...kind of like a giant dish washer. Cleaned it up real good. Then sand blasted it with a wet blast pressure washer. Impossible to get all the crud out of the crevices but the tig burned right through and made good welds. Wish I would have powder coated it but instead I used VHT Epoxy rattle can paint. Holding up well so far after a year. Did all this help??....can't really tell any difference but it sure looks pretty.
 
Oh it helps. The steering box mount and LCA pivot tubes are definitely known to crack/fail. The welds on the steering box mount on the one I have in my Duster were almost totally failed, the steering box would rock back and forth almost a 1/2" in each direction when the steering wheel was turned before the steering arms moved. How much the seam welding helps the overall chassis stiffness is probably a point that can be argued, but it can't hurt.
 
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