The advice I usually give people who are thinking about repairing rust is "Don't. It'll just come back. You're better off getting a new vehicle." But what I want is a ~'97 F-250 crew cab and I have one, but it's rusty. I've started pulling it apart to fix the rust and I'm wondering if I'm in way over my head. Below are pictures of some of the worst parts of the cab (front fenders and bedsides are trash, but I'm thinking those won't be too hard to replace). Similarly the cab corners and at least the front door sills I don't think will be too hard. But the front cab mounts have me spooked since I'm not finding replacements. Same with the top of the windshield. And are crew cab rear door sills available?

I guess the first bit of advice I'm looking for is if people think this cab is just too far gone. Cutting out rusted metal and welding in new metal is within my skill set (or I'm willing to look at adhesives rather than welding where appropriate). But if I'm going to have to start with flat sheet metal and make my own replacement parts I'm not sure I'm up for that.

And along those lines, any advice on where to find replacement panels would be appreciated as well.

Thanks in advance!

Driver's front cab mount



Passenger front cab mount



Drivers floor


Drivers door sill


Drivers rear cab corner


Top of windshield

 

Fairly involved project. But for the rust bely not much worse than many I have seen. You certainly will appreciate the truck a whole lot once you are done. Here's some front cab mounts, not sure how good they are though.

Steel Cab Floor Pan Support Mount For 80-98 Ford F100 F150 F250 F350 Bronco | eBay

How do things look on the bottom side?

 

I don't think that's even close to being considered too far gone. Some of that, is probably only surface rust. You'll be surprised once you start sanding the roof to see what's there and the door sills too. Cab corners are easy. Just cut them out and replace them. I don't mind making patches out of flat, cold rolled sheet. You just start in, and before you know it, you've gone bends and folds, fit up,welded in and good enough to take body filler to hide blemishes. It's time consuming, but it's not hard. My F250 just surprised me when I went to prep it for a new paint job. It "just had" a new paint job........12 years ago hahaha. I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised to see some cab corners and fenders needed a few patches again. A bit surprised because I couldn't see any of it yet. Unlike your truck, the rust hadn't bled through the paint yet. I had 3-4 real patches to make. A section od door sill, both cab corners needed some patches, and I had to make a fender wheel arch, a good 8 inch long, 2 inch wide, but the rest of it was solid, so it was worth fixing.

You have to just tackle one section at a time. You'll be surprised how much of that wont be much, just small patches and how much of it will be replaced after just one day working away at it. Of course rust will come back........ Just like it will appear on a new truck too. There's no avoiding it, unless you want to move out to Arizona. The more of it you do, the easier it becomes to deal with. You just take it one section at a time is all, before you know it, you have a solid truck again and it feels great.

 

Trucks basically mint. Just take it apart carefully. And don't heat soak it when you stitch it in. Maybe get on of the sand fed rust removal things from harbor freight. This is 100% a worthwhile project.

 

...AND that's exactly why I got rid of my former '97 F250HD SCSB 7.5/E4OD/4L10 - bought brand new in March '98 - sold in 2021 - with only 125k miles on it driven only in the Rustbelt of Northern Ohio------- Exchanged for a rust-free, never-driven-in salt Inland Florida '95 F250 SCLB 7.5L/E4OD/4L10 with 185k miles in 2018. Yes, I paid $1500 more for the rust-free '95 than I sold the rusting '97 for...

I HATE RUST! Mechanicals, I can fix. Rust is a PITA! The 'new' '95 will likely never be driven in rain, and absolutely never again in snow/salt! This '95 will be the last truck I ever own (yeah, I'm already 65+) '95s upgraded engine/trans have been rebuilt and will last the rest of my days here on Planet Earth...

 

i have seen MUCH WORSE come in the body shop when we had it.

 

Anything can be fixed. But how much time any money do you want to invest.

personally I would find a rust free southern cab

 

I'm finding myself really torn. I started in on this thinking that getting another F-250 crew cab that wasn't rotted out was going to be next to impossible (I don't want or need a long box and I can pretty easily tolerate the ride of my TTB while I REALLY don't want the additional ride height of a solid axle). But today I found three 4WD F-250 crew cabs, all claiming to be rust-free and all under $10,000. On the other hand I would like to try this, and I'm not too concerned about the time or money (I'm thinking it'll still stay cheaper than getting another truck as long as I work for free). But I am concerned about the likelihood of success. As stated, anything where I can cut out the old rusted metal and weld or glue in new I'm pretty confident that I can be successful. But if I have to bend and fold steel I'm less confident.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a good source for replacement panels? If I can't get some of what I need that will definitely push me toward getting a different truck.