Should I Do a Bed Swap Myself or Pay Someone

lol I’ve actually thought about the people out there with all the rust on them. The problem is the bent side sits a couple inches lower than the straight side. Cant’t be good for the suspension or alignment.

The responsible person in me says keep looking or scrape it. The redneck in my wants to yank it back into place.

 

^Where the bed mounts to the frame on the rear. It’s just barely bent by a few inches.

First is good side, second is bd side

 

Use some heat and peen it with a hammer as you bend it back. Should be able to get it close enough. Put it back together. Take it off some sweet jumps or to the mall. As a wise man once said. It’ll be fine!!!

 

It's a gonner boys. No one will fix the frame I couldn't do it myself. I'll make another post about selling it and link everyone in this chat if you want to buy it. It's only got ~120k miles and I did a ton of service over the past year. All fluids, LBJs, timing belt/water pump, drive belts, spark plugs, pinion seal for the front diff, oil changes every 3000 miles, drive shaft was lubed. It would be a great parts truck and if anyone knows how to straighten the frame it's got a ton of life left I did what I could to make it last.

Regardless appreciate all the support in this thread it was a fun project.

 

Sorry to hear that dood...I can't imagine not being able to drive it still though...

 

Even slightly bent like that that frame looks stronger than nearly every truck in the rust belt
Heat it up, try and bend it back (a jack against the weight of the truck might do it if its hot enough, or a sledgehammer, plus a smaller hammer to get the wrinkle) and weld a frame reinforcement plate on it and call it a day for like $100.

Sure doesn't look scrap-worthy to me.

 

I've never welded before how hard is it?

 

I did manage to get the final bolt to mount into the bed. Just got a longer bolt and drilled out the mounting bracket a bit it's in there.

 

The frame probably isn't the best place to learn to weld, I'm sure if you could find someone local that wouldn't mind burning it on real quick though. If you can get it mostly straightened out, pull the bed and find a local guy to weld on a plate real quick. Should only take like an hour or so if the beds already off to get the frame cleaned up and then the plate welded on. Regional TW forum could help you find 'a guy' to do it instead of paying a full shop rate.

Just another idea to think about before you sell it for a parts-only price.
Depends on you getting it mostly straightened out first too.

 

I actually bought a cheap hydraulic press from Harbor Freight that will straighten the frame. Problem is it will push to the top (straight) portion of the frame as it works the bend out. Any ideas to prevent this from happening would be much appreciated. Problem is I don't have a shop or anything that I could chain the frame to in order to prevent it from bending the top portion of the frame

 

I would go about it like this if it was me. Looks like the frame rail is bent down and in slightly? First thing, you really should unbolt and space the bed up so you don't burn it and to let the frame move freely. I would heat it at the bend with a torch and use your porta power cylinder to push the frame rails apart. Get the frame where it is bent from top to bottom hot hot (turning red hot) and SLOWLY apply pressure with your cylinder. Pushing against the good frame rail and apply slow pressure with heat on the bend and will move it pretty easy. You might have to go past straight a half inch or so because the frame will want to move back and you sort of need to "over stretch" it back into place.

Same thing for pushing it up except I would use a floor jack or your porta power to push from the ground with heat on the bend again. I would chain the frame to the axle right in front of the bend. That way the weight of the axle helps pull the other side of the "Kink" in the rail down. If not you will be 2 foot in the air before the tires come off the ground and that's getting dangerous. Best case you would chain the frame before the bend to the ground but you don't have a place to do that is sounds like.

Like Time623 said, putting a plate that covers the bent area and a few inches past wouldn't be a bad idea. Something around the same thickness as the frame rail.

 

I'm not sure what you mean here? Are you saying it bends the flat bottom part of the frame up and slips off? You could cut a piece of wood that fits tight and hammer the wood in places where you push against. I would also try to get a piece of 1/4 or thicker steel to use between the porta power and the frame. It will distribute the load some. Something 6 or so inches long i'd guess. Hell you can try part of your old bumper bracket if you still have it, not that thick but combine that with the wood and it would probably work fine.

 

Guess I’ll try this nothing to lose at this point. Basically the the porta power pushes the frame down and pushes the kink out but also up at the same time creating a kink in the top of the frame now

 

Hard to say without being there to see how you are doing it and what the frame is doing. If you bend the frame back up without also bending it back out it will kink the top some which is okay. That should come out when you push the frame rail outward. You don't need it to look perfect. Just straight enough to get the bumper on it straight and to not crab walk. A lot of people don't realize how out of square truck frames are factory and from flexing. Especially older trucks.

 

It’s already straight enough to mount the bumper. Not sure about crab walking. Honestly I’m wondering if I should just drive it. I drove it 100 miles home after the wreck no problems

 

As long as you got it decently straight so the truck doesn't look unlevel or drive weird. You could do some measuring to see if the rear axle is straight with the front wheels if you want. If it's good enough run it

 

Can you tell something is off just by looking at the truck? If it drove fine and most things line up why not see how it drives and what you learn from that? Maybe go see how far off your alignment is at a shop.

And if you really wanna get rid of it I’m interested if it’s a manual lol.

 

Put it back together and drive it. Sorry to say but you’re over thinking this. Don’t pull any heavy trailers should be good. Like someone said: there’s a lot of these on the road with the frame rusted in half. It’s not compromised in a way that it is unsafe to drive. These frames are kinda wet noodles anyway

 

Automatic sorry lol

 

Yeah I did. The bumper is off worse than I thought. It’s mounted but crooked. I’ll have to drill holes and stuff to get it to sit straight. It also threw a check engine light last night. Haven’t run the codes yet but it’s turning into more trouble than it’s worth.