Newbie to this site, so please redirect me if I'm asking a well covered topic.

So I've gone about cleaning up my new (to me) Superduty and the first order of business was to pull the plow off of it. It came with the plow and I didn't want or need it. When I pulled the back brace off the frame mount, a chunk of the frame horn behind the front spring shackle cam with it. It looks like the inside of the boxed section of the frame rotted out. It's freaky, because the rest of the frame is nigh pristoexcept for this one spot. I don't know how it happened other than that maybe a slow leak from a radiator rotted out the horn over time. Also appears exacerbated by the stress from the plow mount. Sigh. I searched, and I didn't see this as a common problem.

After doing some research on this site (thanks) I found out that the front section of the frame is seperate from the rest of it. There's a riveted/welded splice between the spring shackle and the cab mount. The only other points that part of the frame grabs are the engine cradle, the radiator suppport body mount, and the spring shackles.

My my plan is to get a replacement frame horn section (there's even a stock Ford part number for it), drop the spring,blow out the rivets in the cradle and the splice, carefully grind out the welds, and install the new frame horn piece using HS bolts. I found a Ford factory procedure for replacing the rivets with Grade 5 or 8 bolts, so would appear to be a legit solution. I'll get a local welder to reweld the splice.

Anyone done anythjng like this before?