Anyone hardtail a '73 Frame WTF

[XSLeo]

What I might have done, was at this point you should only have spot welds, is break the spots. Cut an inch off the lower rails and slide the tail an inch forward.
If this lined the tail up on the frame, weld it up. If not cut a bit more off til it lines up.
But me, I wouldn't do a hard tail anyway.
Leo

 

[hard_y_rd]

If you look in the very first picture of the post you will see that the hardtail is about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch higher than the backbone of the frame.
By cutting a little off the frame rails it will bring it in but not down where it has to go.
The early frames apparently have shorter backbones so heating and bending is the only option.
T.c Bros said to ratchet it down like I have posted in one of the pictures. By doing this it looks as if the hardtail is bowing on the top rails.
It looks like trouble if it is welded up that way.

 

[Belle]

Look guy, ya can do what ya want but I wouldn't weld that sucka up under the tension of a load strap because every time ya hit a bump that tension is likely to increase & bust any weld ya've put to it. If you're a little sketched out about cutting your hardtail then I suggest attaching a bit of extra backbone...but...you're gonna end up with a hump...you might then grind/cut that down & braise some flat to it doing a fine job of hiding the mix-match. However, those top tube lines won't line up but to hide that ya could do a tank lift kit of about an inch or so & when its all said & done...well...it'll look good enough.
Just gotta visualixe it

 

[Belle]

Look guy, ya can do what ya want but I wouldn't weld that sucka up under the tension of a load strap because every time ya hit a bump that tension is likely to increase & bust any weld ya've put to it. If you're a little sketched out about cutting your hardtail then I suggest attaching a bit of extra backbone...but...you're gonna end up with a hump...you might then grind/cut that down & braise some flat to it doing a fine job of hiding the mix-match. However, those top tube lines won't line up but to hide that ya could do a tank lift kit of about an inch or so & when its all said & done...well...it'll look good enough.
Just gotta visualixe it

 

[hard_y_rd]

I'm not gonna weld it with the strap on there. I'm going to heat the lower rails to meet the backbone. I'll post some pics later.