So what's the best way to approach this. I was under looking for trans leaks I look up and see the passenger side rear body mount and the cross member it mounts too is rusted away pretty bad.

Is his a pull the cab and find someone to self in a plate. I think
this piece is riveted to the main frame.

Lift the cab enough to change out the body mount, hit it with chassis saver, make 2 huge "washers" from some steel plate to clamp up to the area and pray?

Don't own a welder and have never removed the cab from a vehicle. Nor do I think I have the space too.

 

That is normal for the rear cab cross member.
I think JBG (jeff's bronco graveyard) sells a patch for this or the radiator support but think the same thing.
But the "got you" is I think they have to be welded in.
So with that said the large washers and pray I think is the only way for you.
Dave ----

 

I've done limited stick work and oxy/acte welding in highschool lol but that's it. I have a friend who may have a tig welder I could enlist to tack some steel plate in there.

There doesn't seem to be enough metal left here to take a couple plates and use some seal sealer and rivets. I've done plenty of shape Fay seal, clamp and drill, fasten work.

Trying to pull the bench right now, the passenger side is not sliding so access is tight. I'm going to go ****** a 1/2 ratchet wrench and a T-50 for the seat belt bolts. Just got the other door off, then I guess I'll look at what I need to do to pull the bed off.

I'm thinking I'll have a little easier access to this area once the bed is clear. And I can clean up the frame.


All the heat shields are rusted through or gone as well so I will be getting some steel for that as well.

 

Yes once the bed is off you will have a lot better access to that area.
You might check junk yards close by to see if they have that cross member and if it is good.
Maybe even if not good you could repair it on the bench and do a swap.

The hard part is it is riveted to the side rails. If you had a battery powered 4" grinder and a hand full of cut off wheels and a hammer & chisel you could grind an X in the heads and chisel the rest off and out it comes.
Do any repair to it then remove yours, you will need to support the rear of the cab, and bolt the good cross member in place.
Mine were not great but not so bad I thought they had to be repaired.
Dave ----

 

Picked up 110 welder since I have no 220 in the garage. I have small 1 car garage built for that and not much else. One day we will build a house when the time is right and it's definitely getting a 3 car high bay lol. Anyway the welder pushes 130 amps, 100amps should be sufficient to do the job.

Bench is out doors are off and the truck is back in the garage. Ill pull the tailgate off, empty the bed and make a plan to pull the bed. I don't think I want to risk the bolts spinning so I may tack some 3/8 nuts to the heads or grind them off.

 

I have a 110 volt MIG welder with gas.
It was bought when I was like you, 1 car garage and 110 was all I had in it. The bay was a little longer so I had shelves and a good compressor.
To work on the sides, 1 at a time, I used them 4 wheel dollies you put under the tires and push it to 1 side to work on the other.

One of the reasons we bought this house was my garage. It is 2 wide bays, had a car & the 2 Ford trucks and had room to work on 1 with out needing to move it side to side.
It just is not high so no lifts but if I wanted to I could get a 4 post, pour a cement pad and use it out side and if the posts were not to tall I could push it inside out of the weather.
There are garages that have lifts out side as the weather is not bad in the winter just to damn hot in the summer.

I don't have a 220 outlet in the garage but could add it is needed as I had the service upgraded for my air compressor. I have 5 drops for air hoses around the garage, only use 2 most of the time.
Each drop has a drip leg for water if it gets that far as I also have a home made air dryer that is before the piping that does a pretty good job so far.

I also have a 2 car garage on the house. No work is to be done in it but I do have a project car stored there so my DD sits out side.
Give it time you will get what you want. I was 55 when I got this setup 4 years ago.
Dave ----

 

I have done this before. If your crossmember is really bad, go to the junkyard and get them to torch one out that is going to the crusher. I had a bunch of bad crossmembers so they sold me the complete frame from under the rear of the cab back for $50.

I replaced all my crossmembers with the ones from the good frame. I got a system down to get the rivets out that worked pretty well. I would center punch the rivet heads, and then got a drill that was very close to the diameter of the rivet shank. I would then drill down the center of the rivet head till the bit was flush with the frame. I would then take a chisel and a couple of wacks with a hammer and chisel against the head I just drilled and it would pop off easily. Then just punch the rivet through the frame. There is a bunch of them on there.

If you replace the crossmember under the cab, you can of course weld on it before you put it back in place. I took a jack and some blocks of wood after I took the bed off, and took the rear cab mounts out and jacked up on the rear of the cab enough to get a little clearance and support it. Then just simply take the crossmember out.

If you do not want to take the crossmember out, I have just cut plates and sat them over the rusted out hole. You drill a small hole in the middle that fits the body mount. And then just put it back together. If the hole in the middle is fairly close to the body mount diameter, where is it going to go? And the body mount bolt will squeeze the plates to the crossmember. I see no need to weld the plates if you do not want to. Of course you need a plate top and bottom for it to work without welding.

 

That's what I was thinking two plates sandwiched would proved enough support bolted in with the body mounts.

Drilling out those rivets the way you did is how we do titanium Hi-locks, bolts, screws, and huck rivets on aircraft. Carbide drill bit in a 600rpm drill for Ti so not to heat harden it, drill out the head and shank then pound in a punch and give it a side whack and it will crack the heads off and pop out the tail. I wish I had a nice set of pneumatic drill motors like those and the compressor to run them. This drills are about $700-800/each but we use them to drill holes within 0.002" of spec call outs and within 2 degrees of angularity so they run very true.

I actually did that with those horrid rivets with the three petal tail on the window regulator. Drill out the shank, insert punch and crack her loose.

 

Nothing special needed with these rivets, they are mild steel. Some people use a grinder, but I found the quickest way to remove the rivet head metal was a good sharp drill bit.

 

No 80's models in the JY near me but plenty of 90's models.

You think the cross members out of those would fit?

 

That's what I used on my 1980 was a mid 90's frame, they are the same. The later models are usually in better shape also. And I would gravitate to the 2wd trucks, they may be in better shape than the 4x4 models.