Project MRAP. I-beam identification

[Al Scarlett]

Project MRAT. I-beam identification

Hey everybody,
If you are familiar with my project you are aware of the first obsticle I am trying to tackle which is the front suspension. Okay. I am looking at different options and a guy happen to see the car out when I was working on it and stopped in. He looked at the beam in the front and said it doesn't look like one to a car. He thought it was possibly from the truck and said with the right set of springs might be able to comfortably handle the 1400 lbs of engine I am putting up front.

Now I don't know this guy from Adam and as I stated before - I am a beginner, so I pulled it off real quick and I am wondering three things:
1) Can anyone ID this front beam?

2) Does it look strong enough to hold a BIG motor?

3) If not, is there a way to box a front end or add re-enforcement to a point where it could work? Please keep in mind that this car is going to look sorta like an armored car from hell (if you aren't already sure what an MRAP looks like). I figure that route would allow me to do some crazy stuff to make it fit in with the overall look of the rig.
Having trouble posting pics. See below.

 

[Al Scarlett]

Pics

Here are a few pics

 

[Al Scarlett]

Ok here's what I got so far. Let me know if anyone needs any other pics to take a guess. Sorry for the fomat. PC is givin me fits.

 

[Al Scarlett]

If it is for a car.....

If it is to a car and it sure looks like it is. Can a front axle beam be boxed and reinforced life a frame car?
To me it stands to reason that I could add strenght in this manner and also make it look for industrial.

Can anyone give me a yay or nay on this? I'd rather do that than use a medium duty truck axle (4700 series) because they are SUPER wide.

 

[zzrodder]

If it is to a car and it sure looks like it is. Can a front axle beam be boxed and reinforced life a frame car?
To me it stands to reason that I could add strenght in this manner and also make it look for industrial.

Can anyone give me a yay or nay on this? I'd rather do that than use a medium duty truck axle (4700 series) because they are SUPER wide.

That axle looks familiar...[S 60's Gm van ?? The spindles also look like a GM product - it must be something fairly common to have a disc brake kit available to be installed on it. Boxing it would probably add some strength to the beam but you'd have to be careful not to warp it with that much welding.... the kingpins and spindles are probably going to be weaker points than the beam itself, likely the same for many axles. I'd guess that it is more likely a pickup axle than a car one tho.. can you make out any part numbers on the beam ? GM axles will usually say so followed by a part number - maybe under the paint on that raised pad in the pic?