I was poking around with a chipping hammer to test some rusty spots on my frame and I found this. It's a relatively small area so I was thinking I could wrap the frame rail and patch in some plate steel. Any thoughts?
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The stabilizer bar mount is also rusted pretty bad. I plan on just replacing this with some c-channel of a similar size unless I can find a good junkyard part.
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That is NOT good. and that spot of the frame is under some pretty serious amount of stress. I dont think I would go about "patching" that. That would constitute a new frame in my mind

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

Dude, your frame still has paint on it! Thats all im saying... If my frame had some paint left on it, I would be ecstatic. Last work I did rust chips were falling down like someone was pouring a box of Frosted Flakes on me. I dont think I even want to go banging on mine, if you can find holes in yours. Do whatever makes you happy, unless some very specific situation is happening here, then do yourself a favor and dont bang on it anymore, lol.

This is coming from the arch nemesis of rust. I've wheeled, grinded, sanded, and por-15'd more then a couple vehicles.

 

Man, some of you guys rust issues freak me out! Thank goodness we don't have all that road salt down here in NC ! I panic every winter when they occasionally spray that salt brine on the roads......

Serious_lee, what truck do you have?

 

Haha, I'm not slamming it with a sledgehammer. I noticed a different sound in this small spot only. I think some clay or mud got up in there and rotted that little section out. There seems to be plenty of frame left above the hole and this section is doubled up for the steering box. A new frame is not a feasible solution for me unfortunately.

 

Very scary location to have holes in the frame *yikes* thats a safty issue in my book.

 

If you're not going to put a new frame underneath it (I wouldn't either) I would weld a piece of C channel on the outside and inside of the frame rail and then fishplate it and call it a day.

 

Patch her up...coat with a high quality rust treatment/paint, no problem

 

yeah I would just clean it up really good and patch it from both sides.

 

Yeah where the heck are you at?

My truck was an ex-Michigan truck, and now resides in Minnesota, and we get a lot of salt on the roads but the 20 years of abuse hasn't done anything to the frame of my truck other than some light surface rust. I power wash it several times throughout the winter to keep the salt from building up.

 

O, you are supposed to WASH the underside of these trucks?

 

I'm in MD (just got the truck last year), but I know the truck was built in Norfolk, then spent time in West Virginia and Virginia. I have found a lot of orange clay in that section of the frame, so I think that was the culprit since it holds so much moisture. I will do my best to save what I have since the truck has lots of life left with the straight 6 and a ZF OD.

 

If you live in the Rust Belt

 

Started patching today. My little 110 welder was working ok, but it would be nice to have a 220 hookup where I'm working on the truck. I think it will be ok for my purposes. I felt like an archaeologist trying to pick all the rust scale and clay layers out of the frame channels. The rest of the frame is solid so it must have been the lack of drainage in this portion.
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