bent frame horns

[69jeepcj]

Shortly after getting my jeep put together and on the road I crossed a bridge towards the end of winter which was covered in ice. As soon as I got on the bridge I lost control and the jeep did a 360 and slamed into the concrete wall in the on coming traffic side of the bridge. I didnt hurt the body at all, but did bent the frame from the front crossmember forward on both sides. On my jeep, there isn;t the big plate between the rails on the front like the 76-86 cjs where you would mount a winch, its all open. There is a thick cross member just behind the grill, and from that xmember forward is where it is bent, its about a foot section. It is bent to the drivers side about a inch to a inch and a half. Ive checked around frame shops but dont have the extra cash now to fix it. I have had people tell me that I can do it myself at home and am about at the point where I can get to fixing it. I am looking for ideas as to how I can do this, any advise would help alot. I cant take pics right now but may be able to later, you probably couldnt tell it was bent in the pic anyway. I have no way of anchoring the frame down to anything in the garage. Here is a old pic I had stored on my computer showing from the grill forward, the xmember is just behind the grill.

 

[PoliceMonkey161]

Are both bent or just one? Do you have a garage with block walls or like the side of your house with block walls? It's an easy fix, I think.

 

[superj]

double post

 

[superj]

pull up next to a good size tree with the bends away from the tree. run a come along to the front tip of the bent part, the farthest edge of the bend. hook the other end to another tree behind the one you parked by. starting cranking on the come along. it will pull the jeep over till the jeep is against the tree and then it will start pulling on the bent part. try to have the cross member against the tree, or put a 4x6 against the tree and cross member so the pulling is back against the same point where it bent originally.

we have done some cars that way and were able to straighten stuff out enough that you couldn;t look and tell it was bent. maybe a machine would catch it but just by looking they looked straight

 

[superj]

my dad backed into my brother's e30 bmw with his cummins dodge dually and bent the crap out of the unibody from the rear door back on the driver's side. we did the way i made a picture of and it pulled back fine enough that my brother drove it for another two years and then sold it to another guy who had it for another 3 years

 

[PoliceMonkey161]

Ok, so here is my idea.....Very similar to superj's. When I was in Iraq, my Striker was hit with an RPG and we needed to repair the damage to the anti-armor counter measure (you Marines call it a luggage rack :???. When you're in the field, you need to think fast so we came up with something similar to this. See drawing and no, I'm not an artist but I hope you get the idea.

 

[prariepunk]

How about using a hi-lift between the two?

 

[54cj3b]

thats kinda what I did only used a engine hoist instead

 

[69jeepcj]

Thats great, I was thinking along the same lines. The only problem I think I will have is the front tire is in the way of putting anything against the xmember. I can probably full up by the tree or wall and take the tire off and put a 4"x4" against it them.. thanks for the help I was hopeing that idea would work. Glad others have done it as well. and yes both rail are bent, superj,s pic is exactly how.