Part 5 – Fish Plates

Fish Plates

Once I got the 78 Cutlass front end cleaned up, I then concentrated on fabricating the fish plates that I would need for the frame splice of the Olds front end to the Chevy.  Fish plates are used on the side of a frame splice to overlap the joint and distribute the load.  Again, I used the plasma cutter to cut most of then out of sheet stock and proceeded to bend them to match the contour and fit into place. This required the front end to be lined up with the frame and trial and error to fit them properly. With this task complete, I then proceeded to check all measurement and alignment in preparation for the actual welding of the new fron frame assembly onto the Chevy frame.

Double Check

Once again, a final double check of the alignment and measurements.  Is it level, is it square, is it positioned correctly?

Check, check and check again.

Here you get a good look at the match up of the frame sections.  It shows how well the inner frame faces match up for width, and the difference in the outer frame faces.

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