Had friend weld safe t cap

Looking at uneven left/right gaps at the bottom, the frame is bent in more then one direction. I'd take the bed off and figure out the geometry first, then go from there.

 

So... an extra 2-3 hours?

whatever man, you guys must all make 200k a year the way this forum throws around money

 

I can get metal to melt together and I have even bought a cheapo one to do the frame repair. It ain’t pretty but it holds.

But my biggest concern is everytime I go to do something “simple” on my truck it turns major and I end up not being able to finish it myself without help. Leaf springs are on top of the list, when I changed them a few years ago I read and watched videos and at the time had access to a full shop. No problems right? Nope spent 2 days fighting to get the leafs installed. Mechanic showed up to help and had it finished in 30 mins.

Nervous about dropping the tank since it’s never been off, something will strip, break or not come off and end up fighting it even longer.

Definitely don’t want to shell out a bunch of money for welding, cause it also needs an ac compressor, timing belt job, valve cover job, just to get it back to decent.

Been looking for another truck and just ain’t no way I can swing a payment even for a used one. Looked at a used F150 for 25k, payment was gonna be around 500 a month. That ain’t gonna happen. So I guess $1600 for welding isn’t that bad after all.

 

Id shim the rear of the bed and move on. It's a 25 year old truck. It's gonna have imperfections.

As long as the welds are quality, enjoy the truck.

 

You're amazing if you can drop a rusty fuel tank, remove old brake lines, take off two rusty leaf springs and cut the mounts off and reattach all those things in 2 hrs. Old trucks cost money sometimes.

 

Certainly worth a try first.

 

This.

 

I can certainly understand both arguments between @treyus30 and @Pbfender15

On one side, welding up some Safe-T caps that are laser cut and meant to fit a truck frame perfectly just comes down to ensuring you run nice beads all around for proper fusion.

Performing such welds can be really easy even for a novice when it comes to the top part of the plate. Where it can prove difficult is performing any vertical beads and/or welding out of position (and overhead where applicable), again for a novice.

On the other side, you've got a rusted frame with rusted components hence why the truck requires Safe-T caps to begin with.

It isn't hard pulling the bed (just awkward, a second set of hands helps) and disconnecting the fuel tank is even easier.

However, I have no real experience with rust and I can't imagine wanting to pull components off (cutting them when needed), before I even get to the rusted frame I'm about to fix.

If such a job came to me in my garage, I'd easily want $2k and would probably quote a little more as a means of "not wanting to do it".

Just my opinion, but if I didn't already have the tools and experience I do already, I would absolutely send it off for $1,600 to get it done.

 

Very true. A rusted frame has the potential of all sorts of issues.

 

I’d at least throw an angle finder or a laser level or a string on it to check if the frame is square. If it distorted that much on the y axis, it would be good to check the x axis to make sure you’re not crab walking and prematurely wearing out tires.

 

Would a body shop be able to straighten the frame? Would having the welds only on one side make any difference?