Rust Holes in Frame: Serious or Not?

[Basilius]

There are rust holes in my drivers side frame rail near the shock mount, and I'm worried that they're bad enough to cause structural problems. I've cleaned up the area and coated the frame with por-15 so I don't think the rust will spread, however the metal area between the two holes has cracked, so there is no solid material between the top and bottom holes (basically one big hole). I've also been driving the vehicle for many years with these holes in the frame rail and haven't had any problems, but I'm still concerned.

 

[bobbywalter]

Yep....need some more metal

That simple.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

^^^yep. 1/8" plate should work fine. I would probably remove the shock bracket and plate behind as well as over the holes. Make all corners of the plate rounded for welding. 90° corners can lead to stress cracks after welding.

 

[racsan]

Holes? Mine looked like shotgun fire through cardboard. Never noticed it before I bought the truck, went to air chiesel off the spare tire bracket and rust fell like mud being pressure washed off. I also por-15’d. and added channel iron. The bed is now structural to the chassis.

 

[Basilius]

^^^yep. 1/8" plate should work fine. I would probably remove the shock bracket and plate behind as well as over the holes. Make all corners of the plate rounded for welding. 90° corners can lead to stress cracks after welding.

Does the plate need to be a certain shape, other than just rounding off the corners?

 

[superj]

you just don't want any sharp turns or areas where stresses can concentrate over time and cause a crack to form. like how you are supposed to use a small drill bit and drill the end of a crack to keep it from continuing onwards. its called stop drilling because you take that pointy stress from the crack and spread it into a circular shape dispersing the pressure