Notice all the screws through the back wall of the cab, it's a sheet of ply-wood I had to put there to hold the cab up, cause where the rubber cab mounts is, it rusted and went through and the cab fell 3" on the drivers side (this was back 5 years ago). Piece of 2" x 4" across the cab with a jack, jacked the cab back up to it's original place and sat the ply-wood directlly on the cab mounts so the cab can't fall down again

 

Holy rust Batman!!! I'm glad I don't live in the rust belt. What are your plans for the truck?

 

Hah, that spot in the back of the cab has always been the first part of the truck to let go on me...

It sucks because it throws off the whole cab geometry, can't close doors properly, flexes and cracks and creaks over bumps.. My cab is coming off in the next week or two for full lower repair and that back part is getting summarily dealt with! I'm bending up 90* heavier gauge angle and wedling it in on the inside, then on the outside getting rid of the "salt catcher" lip, and wrapping a new bent L around the back under the bottom. Then spraying it with rust converter in any place I can't get to, paint, truck bed liner, underbody spray, tar-like body sealant the whole 9 yards. Getting sick of all the constant rust up here so I'm gonna try attacking it with a plethora of weapons. I don't care if I add 100lbs of coatings if it stops the rust lol.

 

I am so glad after seeing that that I don't live were they salt the roads!

 

you 87 and up folks really have it easy when it comes to replacing things like caps and boxes. I still am not sure what route to take with mine. $500 per box side. $1200 for a "mint" box from california......makes me wanna puke.

I'd much rather make something out of composite even if it costs more in the end. I never want to deal with rust again if I ever restore mine.

 

I still don't have a box for this one, but I do have the most important, the cab. If I don't find a good box by the time i'm done, I'll make a cheap wooden flat bed, drive down in the southern States, get a good box, bolt it on and come back. No border taxes if I do it that way

But there should be some good boxes where you are David?

 

About $1000-1200 for a southern box here too, for 87-91 body style. (I priced them a few months ago out of curiosity, and for John actually, there's a place not far from me that brings them up.)

When I took the box off my dually to add the flatbed, the cross members in it were about the same as those in the pics, and the back of the cab was similar. I had to jack up the drivers rear corner of the cab before welding it up, fortunately it had only dropped about half an inch. The superduty had rot like that across the back too. (I know, I gotta finish posting the pics.... )

 

Ford F250 8 ft Truck Bed & Tailgate Complete 1987-1991

In case anyone is interested ...

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

I might have a lead on one in a couple weeks but you never really know until you see it in the flesh. I've seen boxes advertised as "rust free" that have holes in them or bubbles that you can push your fingers through. Sad thing is the whole truck sounds like a nice rig. Low miles, 6.9, 1986, crewcab and D60 from factory under the front. Supposedly it spent most of its life on a smaller local island where they don't salt the roads. The wrecker told me it has a bad clutch and thats why its being flogged.

If I do get a complete box, I would gladly pay a $1000 premium for something that is really perfect and only needs to be painted, but I have yet to find one. There's no way I will pay anything over $300 for something that will need any sort of rust repair in hard to reach places or holes patched. I'm at the point with work where I just don't have the time to do delicate reconsturctive work on steel body anymore. I did a lot of that on my F150 and while I don't regret doing a good job on that, I simply don't have the time anymore.

At least if I were to make composite, I know it will never fail again, and I might even be able to sell them. In that case, I would rather have an OEM box to reverse engineer.

 

It's to bad alot of good things go on ebay and sell dirt cheap sometimes. But I don't have an ebay account and i'm not all that comfertable buying stuff over the internet. I always go see it in person and deal with a person, not a machine.

 

Rust Inhibitor Paint | Stop Rust | Rust Corrosion Inhibitor | Rust Converter

POR15, Inc. - Stop Rust Permanently - Repair Gas & Fuel Tanks

yeah.she'll bondo filler right in John.
iv got to say,iv never seen such a rusted out truck before.not a '90 i mean.
how much salt do they use in the winter there? are other '90 vehicles so bad well off to? do you have a boat and back into salt water often or something?

 

There is a cloverdale product up here in canada that I used called "rustex". Basically its just a high solids single stage zinc rich primer. I've had good experience with that when applying it with a brush provided most of the rust is removed first. Rust bullet sounds like a great product but at $150 per gallon, I don't feel like experimenting with something like that. Sounds too good to be true IMO......unless some one here actually tried it.

Opinions?

 

yeah,both of those have real world reviews all over the net.i dont think you can go wrong either way.
the po sprung for the POR-15 on mine just before i bought mine.it is pricey.but........thats the end of it for good they claim.will keep the metal protected once and for all.
he didn't get the front covered but sadly he coated the entire under body of that rotted out bed with it? why at that point i dunno.i took the thing to the scrap yard lol.
i wish he would have used it on the front of the frame instead.
he did get under the cab well tho! just not up high above the trans i see.
search for the stuff.what i like is you dont even need to remove the rust.
you can tell it sure is more than just paint.
i'll get a bit more of it sometime this year and make sure its coated.it seems well worth it.

 

to all,

i have a "boat-building friend" who fixed a truck, that was just as RUSTED-OUT, with "peanut butter" made out of agricultural lime & epoxy resin. = worked GREAT!

epoxy is stronger by weight than sheet metal! - and it doesn't rust.

yours, TN46

 

As hard as it may be,There does come a time to put them to sleep! Thats the worse ive ever seen!