my sub frame is now welded together with, what I like to refer to as "aggressive spot welds."   Basically I have stitched it together with spot welds that are short enough that I could still grind them out to get the assemble  apart with a fare amount of ease should the need arise, but long enough that the unit is solid, about 1/2" to 1" each depending on location. Yesterday after I finished stitching it together I bolted it up to an extra differential I have, torqued it down, and began taking measurements from every place I could think of between the frame assembly and various locations on the differential housing, comparing sides and making sure the unit was square and accurate.  Most of my measurements were mirror images of each other making the sub frame very true and accurate.  I had a few minor differences between sides but they were only on longer measurements always less than 1/16" and only just a couple.  The actual frame rails under my car, put there by Ford, are less accurate than my IRS sub frame structure.



Today  I  turned my attention to the front and rear pinion supports.  I started  with a hammer and dolly and "persuaded" the original alignment plate to straighten up.  It took a lot of gentle blows on each and every dent to smooth it out.  As I figured smoothing out all the little dents cleaned the plat up a lot and made it almost flat.  I still had to apply a little pressure with the palm of my hand and the plate over a piece of wood to truly true it up but the end result was a clean looking piece.  I am going to use the tie-bars, cut from  from the original cage to tie the wishbone pivots together as well as create a place to attach pinion support.  I am going to do it at both the front and back.  The back support will be thin walled 3/4" square tubing that will bolt directly to my sub frame and the front will be be as I mentioned earlier, more substantial, as it will not only serve as pinion support, but also provide trailing arm and sway bar mounting points.