You mean like cast iron and mild steel? As far as I know, technically you can weld any two metals together, but managing the necessary heat between them can be very challenging. :huh:

I've heard that cast iron is hard to weld to and that the weld will break off. However, I welded a pitman arm to a cast iron spindle and it hasn't broken yet.

Are you referring to the upper A arm on your buddies Ranger? Is it cast iron?

Oh shit, I hadn't even considered that. Now that I think about it, it probably is.

Still waiting on his lazy ass to send a pic to get your advice.

How do you find out if its cast iron? I really think the solution needs to be moving the mounts, I'm still pretty skeptical about chopping and welding the stock arms. I would rather make my own. And I would if he didn't have such a funky ass ball joint stud.

As the name implies, cast iron is cast. Unless it has been completely Finnish machined, it will have cast marks (seems) from the casts, and the surface won't be so smooth like steel, which is pressed and rolled from giant ingots.

FYI, Glenn has a young kid friend named Will in a shop next to him in HB. He builds all kinds of stuff for 4x4. He's seriously talented as a fabricator and I think he's done something either identical to what you want to do or similar. Maybe you could visit him and get some ideas if you were so inclined.

Forgot I had a pic already.

It actually sits almost an inch higher now, the control arm is further down at an angle and the spindle is resting on the frame.

Plan is to extend the ball joint mounting part of the arm down, with a steel pipe. About 3" lower.

I know my welder won't weld steel that thick, but I think welding over and under will do the trick. But, I will probably only be able to weld the outside of the pipe around the ball joint mounting surface. Unless I cut the pipe in half and weld inside, then weld the pipe together.

Looking at this, maybe I should just weld on some 3/16 plates and try moving all of the mounting points out 1 1/2 inches. I think that would work if there was enough adjustment in the steering to move out that far.

Take a look at this Explorer for idea's on how to widen it. I wouldn't try to modify the stock upper arm, just make a new one. This is what we have planned for Eric's Explorer but we are going to widen it 4 inches on each side I think. I'm still in the planning stages.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/...d.php?t=256402

You may need fiberglass fenders if you do that unless you have some major clearance.