Rotting Chassis ~ what to do?

[whale]

1993 XLT 4.0L. The frame and chassis on this truck is really going south. The body is fine, but the rest is getting pretty bad.

Last year, the shop didn't want to pass it for inspection due to the front radiator support being completely rotted off at the passenger body mount, but they did. So, now it's this year, and I'm finally procrastinated long enough to think about doing the job.

I looked at it today, and took both the front mounts out. This was easy, as there was only about 50% of the material left. In doing so, the top passenger mount which is attached to the rad support came off in pieces. The bottom perch isn't great, but it can still provide some support. All along the thing, the rad support is pretty well deteriorated. The driver perch is better, but the rest of the connection was pretty much gone.

I talked to a guy I know who does autobody, and he said the shops generally pay about 20-30 hours for rad support replacement.

My question(s) are as follows:

1) Do I bite the bullet and replace the rad support, or do I try a jury rig some heavy sheet metal and bolt / weld / rivet the connect back to a satisfactory state?
2) I see you guys / gals like James Duff for poly body mounts, but I really don't want a whole set just to get it through inspection. Anybody have luck finding these singularly on ebay, or would Ford be the best route, or the junk yard? My preference would be something new.
3) What's a good source for the hardware? I'm really having trouble with this one.

It's just a stock beater truck to me, but I love having a truck, and I love the Ranger platform. At the moment, I don't really want to look for a new (old) truck, but I can accept this suggestion if the general sentiment is to ditch it.

Thanks in advance,
Will

 

[chrwilkins30]

damn 20-30 hours. thats alot of money to spend. You could just buy a new rad support and do it your self in half the time and know that you save a bunch of money.

 

[stegomon]

what he said!

 

[whale]

damn 20-30 hours. thats alot of money to spend. You could just buy a new rad support and do it your self in half the time and know that you save a bunch of money.

what he said!

Well, I wasn't going to spend the money, I was more using it as a guage of how much of a PITA it would be to do it myself. I'll take these as two votes for "replace rad support"

How about the other questions?

Thanks,
Will

 

[Snoranger]

Make that 3 votes for replace it yourself.

You should be able to do it in a weekend, if you've never done 1 before.

If you care to take a ride to NJ, I've got a new one that was BOLTED (yes, he drilled holes and bolted it in instead of welding it. Which worked pretty good.) in to a truck I bought. It was never on the road, and only on the truck for 2 weeks. $30 and its yours.

 

[whale]

Make that 3 votes for replace it yourself.

You should be able to do it in a weekend, if you've never done 1 before.

If you care to take a ride to NJ, I've got a new one that was BOLTED (yes, he drilled holes and bolted it in instead of welding it. Which worked pretty good.) in to a truck I bought. It was never on the road, and only on the truck for 2 weeks. $30 and its yours.

Thanks for the offer. If you were closer, I'd probably take you up on it. If going this route, I'll probably try and score one through his shop and save the shipping.

How about those hardware kits? I poked around and found one (with the poly bushings) for 385 dollars (Jeff's Bronco Graveyard.) That can't be right.

Will

 

[whale]

Ran some more searches on here and found the radiator support at RockAuto.com, and also looked at LMC Truck and found it there too.

Also, I gave James Duff a call and talked to them for a bit about breaking their kit up, and they said no. Gotta get the whole kit. I kinda figured that. I went on to ask about the hardware, and they suggested a local hardware store, or LMC Truck.

So, I found all the hardware pieces at LMC Truck but am waiting to order to see if I need anything else. These, I assume, are the stock rubber units, but I don't really care that much.

Thanks,
Will

 

[Guilius]

i just did this project myself last september and it wasnt bad really! me and a friend... about 10 hours to remove the old one, size up the new one and weld it in.
we also did all new body bushings all around. it DOES make a difference!

an air chisel and a hand grinder make short work of the factory welds.

 

[whale]

i just did this project myself last september and it wasnt bad really! me and a friend... about 10 hours to remove the old one, size up the new one and weld it in.
we also did all new body bushings all around. it DOES make a difference!

an air chisel and a hand grinder make short work of the factory welds.

Yeah, I already started today. Took off the bumper, and the grill. Took about an hour. I can see where all the bolts / plug welds are for the rad support.

I'll have to borrow an air chisel.

Will

 

[whale]

Because we all love pictures (or at least I think so) here's what we're talking about:

General Front:

Driver Front support:

Passenger Front Support:

Decimated Leaf perch:

Support bushing deterioration:

 

[strvger]

once you get it running again, might want to start cruising the jy's to see if they might have a better frame for your truck. chances are you may be needing to do more welding than it's worth on the rest of it. just a thought.

 

[whale]

once you get it running again, might want to start cruising the jy's to see if they might have a better frame for your truck. chances are you may be needing to do more welding than it's worth on the rest of it. just a thought.

Right on. I was kinda thinking I'd replace the frame with a new truck...

Will

 

[whale]

2 more hours today taking the old rad support out, and transferring as much hardware over as possible:

Removed bolt hardware and pulled fenders away:

Pulled the radiator back:

Temporarily moved the hood stand:

Cut the bulk of the rad support outta the way:

 

[whale]

Took the big piece out:

Drilled the spot welds:

Done:

Will

 

[s10 warrior]

id replace the frame.. not that hard to do, take a week end if you got the tools and a place to do it.