Nothing’s going to stop that. You need a new frame.

 

I would suggest looking inside with a borescope and assess the condition of the metal on the inside of the frame. If it is solid(which I doubt) you could plate the frame on both sides and bottom. But if the frame is rotted inside as bad as it looks outside, there is not much hope.

 

Grind it and see how deep it is. Possibly run a long 1/4 inch plate across it

 

the rust monster is turning your truck into an unsafe scrap mobile...

 

Good by Truck asap otherwise you will be throwing money down the rabbit hole

 

If you spend a few hours grinding back all rust, you may find it's addressable. From those pics, you can tell the issue is far deeper than just the visible cracks.

If it were me, I'd look for a rolling frame

 

My sympathies....
You should have inspected the frame before you "put all that work into it."

Or, you can come to Texas and find yourself a rust free frame.

 

i would put some chicken wire and a few bungee cords around it. maybe even a ratchet strap if you wanna do it right.

 

Lmao. Bungee cords for a suspension esque quality to frame movement? Lol

 

How much time, effort, and especially money, are you willing to put into an 18 year-old truck? If you spend $XX.xx on it, will you ever get it back at trade-in or selling the truck?

 

That's why I added additional satire dude...

Or did you not clearly understand that referencing what should be solid metal, as having a suspension esque benefit of elasticized retention, was just building off of your intended as humorous comment?

 

sorry missed it ... i get it now!!!

 

That is new frame time. The inside of the frame will definitely look worse than the outside, and that's not going to be the only spot where it's that bad.

The money you've spent on the truck is a sunk cost. You can get some of it back by selling/parting out the truck, or if the drivetrain and/or body is in really good condition, you might buy a truck with a bad body but a good frame (probably better to find a crashed truck from the south vs a rusted out body where you also need to worry about frame rust) and transfer whatever parts you want to it.

 

OP, that rust looks pretty shaky.
If you start "cleaning " and "descaling" it you might get a good look at how bad it is
I see a lot of rusty frames and I have gotten to the point where I wont repair them, because they need work every year for inspection and eventually they get so bad they arent fixable.
Yours can likely be patched.
You need to clean it back to some solid metal so you can weld in a patch
Then you should oil the whole thing down to keep it from getting real bad
Oil it inside and out
Inside is very important as that seems to be where it comes from.
I use fluid film. Use what blows your skirt up. When I was a kid the neighbor used old 90 weight or used motor oil or whatever he had.
use something that stays put.
I am sure someone else will chime in with another product suggestion
whatever

 

OP, that rust looks pretty shaky.
If you start "cleaning " and "descaling" it you might get a good look at how bad it is
I see a lot of rusty frames and I have gotten to the point where I wont repair them, because they need work every year for inspection and eventually they get so bad they arent fixable.
Yours can likely be patched.
You need to clean it back to some solid metal so you can weld in a patch
Then you should oil the whole thing down to keep it from getting real bad
Oil it inside and out
Inside is very important as that seems to be where it comes from.
I use fluid film. Use what blows your skirt up. When I was a kid the neighbor used old 90 weight or used motor oil or whatever he had.
use something that stays put.
I am sure someone else will chime in with another product suggestion
whatever

This one is beyond the benefits of prevention

 

Should have started the prevention from the jump mines 7 years old now in north every year doing rust prevention only light surface rust and I get that off immediately if not years from now I’d have same prob

 

Should have started the prevention from the jump mines 7 years old now in north every year doing rust prevention only light surface rust and I get that off immediately if not years from now I’d have same prob

Apparently the rust ate up your punctuation first!

 

Either get a rust free frame or try to grind it down and see how much worse the rest is. Like someone else said you can patch it but that may only work for a year until another spot cracks. For how rusty the rest looks I don't know.... With the money you have put in you could try it but I wouldn't have my hopes too high.

 

remove the cable bkt.clean off the rust, find the end of the crack/s drill a 3/16 hole/s then brig it to a pro welder to patch determine why it failed initially

 

determine why it failed initially

Say what, now…? I’d say why it failed is pretty damn obvious.

 

It failed because it's rusted to hell, and it's under stress. And given the rust bubbles around that crack, extending 6+ inches on both sides, and that the frames normally rust from the inside out (as water/chemicals on the outside tends to dry/get washed off, but on the inside, it just sits and rusts the frame), that part of the frame is shot, and there will be other places of the frame with similar rust.

 

She's pretty much dead at this point. You'd have to get a new frame. That's only gonna get worse. Best bet is to find a farmer who will buy it off you and let him run it into the ground.

 

Yeah yeah need to proof read before I hit post 😜. Sometimes I type to fast

 

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Now THAT is beyond repair^^^^^^^^^ ( click to open)

OP truck should clean up well enough to run for several more years.He will need to keep it oiled

 

thats just fake news dude. his frame is not okay. nor is it worth the money to maybe fix it for at best, a very limited amount of time. If the OP intends to keep that truck, the best way to spend money is on a non-rotted frame.

oil prevents rust. oil can stop rust from getting worse. oil can not make an already compromised frame stronger. oil is a preventative, not a cure.

welding frame sectionsis not at all uncommon, but one must first find good metal to make it stick. there is no good metal present in any of those pictures. It is also pictured in about the most important part of the frame for keeping the back of the truck attached, especially with any amount of weight in tow or in haul.

Theres no harm in grinding a shitload of scale off to see how bad the issue really is. But that will only reveal 1-2-3% of a frame that likely is in the same state of disintegration.

 

Man, these pictures bring back bad memories. I had an 05 - Silverado ex-cab, and in 2018 noticed the same issue with my frame. I welded 1/4" plates around the areas, there were 3 areas on the passenger side frame that we noticed, drivers side appeared ok. The repairs last about 5 years and I decided to sell the truck, the guy that bought it told me one day he noticed the bed and cab were touching on the passenger side, after looking at it the frame broke into in front of one of the patches. He decided to sell it to a junk yard. But the truck was 19 years old and had survived longer than I thought the frame would. Hate to say it, patch or sell.

 

This winter, take a winter vacation to the sunny, warm, rust free southwest, like Arizona. Bring your truck and a trailer. Start watching Craigslist now in Phoenix and the surrounding area for a truck like yours with a blown engine or trans, or very high miles. Bodies are usually nice but the paint might be a bit burnt. Buy something decent and take it home and take everything good off you truck and transfer it to the new truck. Engine, trans, differentials, interior, anything you want to keep. That way you can utilize every rust free part from the Arizona truck and I guarantee it will be easier than swapping only the frame on your old truck. When you're done, part out whats left. As a guy who lived in the rust belt for over 50 years, I am always amazed at how rust free stuff is down here!