Bent the first frame crossmember of my '94 Toyota pickup in an accident. Plan is to cut out the bent section, leave the original welds in place, and weld new steel into the gap. Advice? Cautions?



 

A couple of thoughts here. First you are going to have to straighten main rails because as cross member bent, it would have bent front of rails inward.  On the weld in replacement. I would remove as much of old one as possible and fab and install a new cross member that is welded to frame rails, not old piece. You can fab a box section that goes over frame rails on ends. It would make a cleaner strong installation and bypass welds from old cross member that could be cracked or weakened now.  

Do I need to do anything special to set up for winch installation later?  

Actually this is the perfect time to get ready for it. You can install a heavier cross member and even add a plate on it to support a winch and gusset the plate to cross member and new HD cross member into frame rails for even more strength. (you cut and weld in angle to fit into joint corners to increase metal and weld contact areas)  You can make it much stronger than stock. Do it right and you will be able to hang truck off it with ease. (gussets will help a lot with beef up)  

thanks SnoMan. Next stop: roll bar with specialized kayak rack mount.  

I totally agree with what Sno had to say about this. I would fab a completely new front crossmember instead of trying a patch job on this one.