Frame rust?

[DerJeep]

Just crawled under the Wag to check the muffler, which was loose. As I move the muffler a little, I noticed some serious rust where the cross-member joins the frame just in front of the right rear wheel. Seems the drain hole on the cross-member, must have been clogged at one time and rusted away.

The drivers side frame is in perfect shape, including the gas tank shield.

Is she toast or can a shop do a quick weld job and add some steel?

Sort of sucks, since all mechanicals were rebuilt 25K ago.

[DerJeep]

Essentially, has anyone ever had a frame repair/strengthening done after finding a serious rust area?

The problem is not the main frame rail, but where the cross-member attaches to it.



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1979 Wagoneer LTD
360/400TH/QT/44s
Warn locking hubs
2x4 Conversion

[scotty]

come look at the frame on my j20,and see if you dont feel 100% better about your rust damage.

the passenger side of my truck is cracked completely in half alittle before the front,rear spring mount. the PO has bolted a couple of goodsize pieces of angle iron on top of it. this side will be easy to fix. the worse part is on the driver side rear spring,rear shackle mount. there is actually a piece of 4x4 between the hanger and bottom of the bed to keep it from collapsing and leaning to that side-the shackle mount has completely broken away from the frame. close inspection of the passenger side reveals a patch-someone has made a new section of frame out of channel iron,and made a new shackle mount out of another big piece of channel.

despite these handicaps,i have had over 1000 lbs of stuff(an engine,3 trannies,other assorted junk) in the bed for a 200 mile trip to troy,to columbus,to middletown,back to dayton.i have also used it to move a couple of cars short distances.

i fully intend to remove the bed,and patch up all the bad spots(maybe patch frame first,remove bed later) .eventually ill put a frame under it,but thats alot of work.

why bother? ironically,the cab ad bed need only minor bodywork,and even the flares are not in bad shape. the bed has been completely lined with diamond plate(really cool) and the engine only has a couple thousnad miles on a professional rebuild and is in excellent shape-never has less than 40 lbs of oil pressure. whenever i crawl under it and remember how bad it is,it makes me very unhappy http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/frown.gif . but i hope it al least gives you hope. im sure that yours is fixable http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/smile.gif .




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scott
85 grand wagoneer
258 with motorcraft 2bbl/904/twin stick dana 300/dana 44/welded amc 20
38x15.5 gumbo mudders
snorkel/dual batteries/onboard air/"custom" convertable
3 inch body lift/mostly stock suspension/"modified" fender openings
custom front/rear bumpers and brushgaurd

T18/dana-spicer 18 with drum E brake and PTO swap very soon
searching for offset QT rear and PTO winch

[tuckers89GW]

well repairing/strengthening your frame isn't a real big deal. I live in Iowa and I have yet to see a GW not have a rusted out frame rail @ the gas tank-MINE INCLUDED- I have a local welding shop fix mine and they did a wonderful job. I wouldn't think a cross member should be any different.

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Mike
'89 GW
completely stock
'99 Windstar
under WARRANTY