yep thats a good way to go. i seen them bend some after welding to hard to say how much they were bent off the get go alot of the fords 9 s were used in trucks and you know they never get over loaded .before welding i check for bow if not bad i weld every thing on alot of the housing get new ends put on were i cut them to size if off less then 1/4 at the end i weld the new ends on with the jig in it so there true when done