Well I failed to catch this when I purchased my 1994 F-150 last weekend. I had no idea that the oil pans rust out like this. It's seeping oil pretty bad once the engine is warm and with pressure. I dug into what it would take to do it myself and I don't have the skills or tools for this. I called three shops and found a shop that would do it for $525 including new pan and gasket. I am also going to have them replace the upper and lower ball joints for $700 as that job also looks pretty tough. I hope I'm not sinking too much money into this truck, but I got it for a decent price ($2k) and it only has 137,000 miles on it. I am hoping to get a good 3 years out of it or so. I like the truck and I hope I'm not being foolish.

 

Typical oil pan. They rot under the paint, then suddenly the bubble pops and oil runs out. I keep a close eye on my pan and any rust bubble I scrape open and clean up before it gets bad.

Your cost doesn't sound horrible, but it depends on your area and shop rates. The ball joints are just tough to get out sometimes and if you don't have big tools it is better to have someone do it.

 

Thank you for the reply. I was hoping to keep costs down by doing the basics on this myself, but these two tasks both seem tall. I hope the truck is worth it. It runs great and the exterior metal looks good (previous owner was a welder/fabricator) and he did a nice job cutting out the old rust and welding on new then painted the new metal flat black. I will post a couple of photos when I get it back from these repairs.