Frame rust evaluation - is it worth keeping?

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well… the best way to check for soft spots is to go at it with a chipping hammer, one of the cheap ones with the spring for the handle. Makes the process more comfortable like. Because around here you’re gonna want all the comfort you can get after you do this. Totally not kidding. I have successfully swapped the rear frame section on a 2000 Ranger, and also cut and spliced a damaged section forward on the same truck, and did some other frame patches and capped most of the bottom rail under the cab.

I‘ve also had the thrilling opportunity to do a bunch of other frame work on various other trucks. Probably the most brutal was patching behind the steering box on my F-150. I had limited tools and time and money. I got a steel plate big enough and it was a good few hours of tack, heat, beat, tack, weld, heat, beat, tack, weld, repeat… to mold that complex curve.

 

[racsan]

I’ve always wanted to splice together a supercab with a longbed rear frame, as there was never a factory “longbed supercab “ ranger. I know its been done before, Ive seen a picture here before. Never did it though just because it seemed like quite a bit of effort to just gain 1ft of bed length.

 

[2011Supercab]

I’ve always wanted to splice together a supercab with a longbed rear frame, as there was never a factory “longbed supercab “ ranger. I know its been done before, Ive seen a picture here before. Never did it though just because it seemed like quite a bit of effort to just gain 1ft of bed length.

If we could only get the Mexican crewcab Ranger and put a 7' bed on it
Then remove the back wall of the cab and put the back of a supercab on it, truck would be really long and hard to park though.

 

[swampyankee]

Oh pfft.. that's the easy part! Just get under there with something hard and wail on it all over the place

Your focus can pretty much be the back half of the frame. Rear of cab >>> rear bumper. Places where two slabs of steel are bolted/riveted together should be well scrutinized.. spring/shackle hangers, body mount brackets, etc.. crap can get caught between these things and the frame and rot from the inside out. Check out the condition of all the crossmembers on the frame AND on the bed.. check out wherever the gas tank straps hook into..

Good advice. Thats what I was looking for. I'll have to get a good face shield to guard me from the rain of rust. LOL

 

[swampyankee]

I’ve always wanted to splice together a supercab with a longbed rear frame, as there was never a factory “longbed supercab “ ranger. I know its been done before, Ive seen a picture here before. Never did it though just because it seemed like quite a bit of effort to just gain 1ft of bed length.

I'm content with my shortbed extended cab Ranger. LOL

 

[Josh B]

I was given an 87 or 88 Ranger around 2002, he just wanted it gone. It wouldn't turn over so I started checking battery posts and starter cables and it wasn't long to a Vroom!. It had no brakes at all, can't remember if emergency was good or not but it was a stick so I just anticipated the lights and such and drove it on home. Later got a friend to take me back to get my beat up old Chevy LUV.

I put the thing up on jack stands all around and took off under it with a chipping hammer in one hand and a can of black spray paint in the other, the 99 cent spray paint.

Less than two months in I had probs with the Chevy Izuzu. started missing work but got on the Ford full time, found a brake line that had been patched with a 4 ft piece of rubber hose. The poor guy had his wife and baby in it when he found out that didn't work :/
I got it on the road and got it tagged and insured, inspected, he had given me the title at Thanksgiving. I had gone to another job and Xmas and new years were both on Wednesday so I took off to Oklahoma and stayed both weeks

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

If we could only get the Mexican crewcab Ranger and put a 7' bed on it
Then remove the back wall of the cab and put the back of a supercab on it, truck would be really long and hard to park though.

There was a guy on here years ago that did an F-350 double crew cab 8’ bed monster. The build thread might still be on here somewhere.

Also, I never got a picture of it, but someone around here had an F-350 extended cab crew cab with a sleeper box on the front of the 8’ bed with dually’s.

Be pretty cool to do something like that with a Ranger for sure

 

[superj]

Till you had to turn

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Ahhh, that's what a Norwegian flick is for.

 

[Blmpkn]

Scandinavian*