Front crossmember - does this look right?

[Paul Y]

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls finally back onto Woody and have my first question in quite a few years.

When Woody was pulled from the container the shippers put two hooks in the from crossmember and dragged him kicking and screaming onto British shores.

The end result was that the front crossmember was badly distorted and partially ripped.

Now, I have removed it from the chassis as part of my ongoing series of upgrades and am trying to put it back into shape. I have two questions.

1, what shape should the crossmember be.

2, what is the width of the chassis at the front crossmember?

Here are a couple of pictures after I put it into the press to try and get it straightened out.









My thoughts are to cut out the rip rather than try and beat it into submission and weld it back up.

Anyway, a rather long post to ask should the front crossmember be straight across or does it 'drop down' in the middle.

Thanks!

P.