Frame rot worth patching?
Believe Nothing
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 7,516
Likes: 401
From: W. Central FL.
If your time is free, you have the skills, and you want a long time project, go for it. I suspect the sheet metal is as bad or worse than the frame you show. Personally, I would not unless there is some compelling personal history that comes with the truck.
Cargo Master
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,011
Likes: 250
From: North Pole, Alaska
One thing is that there are few F-100 4wd frames available anymore. It would be very hard to find a legal (documented) frame for it. You really should do a full body-off frame restoration on it and plate it.
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4wd Low
Joined: Aug 2022
Posts: 12
Likes: 0
Speaking of time, how much time am I in for trying to fix this? Anyone know of a good thread or article to reference? Thanks so much for the input as always. This is also my first resto.
Tuned
Joined: Feb 2020
Posts: 476
Likes: 91
From: Owen Sound Ontario
You could put the hours into fixing it and getting it safe but at the end of the day most of that frame is quite thin. You'd basically be rebuilding it. Coming from a guy that is used to rust and has rebuilt, the front, back and parts of the middle of an old Land Rover frame I would push it out and say it's too far gone and no use anymore.
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Logistics Pro
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 4,855
Likes: 608
From: Minnesota
You could put the hours into fixing it and getting it safe but at the end of the day most of that frame is quite thin. You'd basically be rebuilding it. Coming from a guy that is used to rust and has rebuilt, the front, back and parts of the middle of an old Land Rover frame I would push it out and say it's too far gone and no use anymore.
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Hotshot
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 14,255
Likes: 199
From: Phoenix, Az.
Whay I would do is first try to find a used legal frame. Your state, Arizona, or in the southeast. You would have to find out your local requirements for getting an out of state frame legalized. If this is a no go, then I would wire wheel that area first. See what you end up with what you can see. Do you have the means to get the frame chemically dipped locally to get the whole frame back down to bare metal? That would solve the problem of rust that you can't see.
FTE Legend
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 54,034
Likes: 2,409
From: NY and VA
Looks like typical NY salt has been working on the frame. I would definitely look around for a different frame. I have brought up a couple of 2WD frames from VA/NC.Where in NY are you? I'm N of Ithaca.
One thing to check would see if a 77-79 frame would work. I got a 77 frame because of the wider tail section to get the gas tank out of the cab. (2WD) don't know about 4x4 frame.
One thing to check would see if a 77-79 frame would work. I got a 77 frame because of the wider tail section to get the gas tank out of the cab. (2WD) don't know about 4x4 frame.
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4wd Low
Joined: Aug 2022
Posts: 12
Likes: 0
Looks like typical NY salt has been working on the frame. I would definitely look around for a different frame. I have brought up a couple of 2WD frames from VA/NC.Where in NY are you? I'm N of Ithaca.
One thing to check would see if a 77-79 frame would work. I got a 77 frame because of the wider tail section to get the gas tank out of the cab. (2WD) don't know about 4x4 frame.
One thing to check would see if a 77-79 frame would work. I got a 77 frame because of the wider tail section to get the gas tank out of the cab. (2WD) don't know about 4x4 frame.