So 15 year old F150. Only 128k miles I’ve know the body has been getting rusty on it for a while. Today they call me from the oil change place, hey want to show you something on your truck.
Long story short the frame is rotted out right where the leaf spring perch meets the frame.
What would you do with a truck like this?
scrap it
try to part out some parts and then scrap it.
Post on craigslist with a warning about the frame and pictures of it and see if you can get $500-$1000 for it.
Fix it.
Do you have the tools, skill and inclination to fix it?
If not, it's replacement truck o'clock.
Depends on how much time and effort you'd like to expend.
Part out is generally the most money, but more time and effort.
If you're selling whole to a person who will part it out, I'd Price it at the value of the top two or three parts. What's the engine, trans, and axle worth of the used market?
As a fellow ohioan, I'd be hesitant to drop money on fixing it. I assume if the spring perches are gone the rest of the truck can't be too far behind.
Scrap is down right now, so i would fix it if you have the means and it’s feasible
Right now it's messed. If you fix it, even badly, it will be less messed. That sounds like win.
If you sell it cheap, I couldn't in good conscience try to hide the frame rot.
How ever. Is it the frame rail itself rotted or the bracket? If it's the bracket I believe it's not a difficult to find or expensive part. Replacing it shouldn't be too bad either.
4-link and air ride.
You know you want to.
In reply to SkinnyG :
Bit of the old razzle dazzle perhaps?
Somebeach said:So 15 year old F150. Only 128k miles I’ve know the body has been getting rusty on it for a while. Today they call me from the oil change place, hey want to show you something on your truck.
Long story short the frame is rotted out right where the leaf spring perch meets the frame.
What would you do with a truck like this?
scrap it
try to part out some parts and then scrap it.
Post on craigslist with a warning about the frame and pictures of it and see if you can get $500-$1000 for it.
I've patched them. Got a whole bunch of 16 gauge and went to town.
I
ll try to find the pics tonight... it was a 2005 model and I ended up making caps for most of the length of the frame.
If that’s the only structural rust, maybe fix. But with a rusty body and part of the frame/mounts completely rusted through, it sounds like a hot mess.
A good condition 15-year-old truck out here in SoCal wouldn’t be that much even after the cost of a fly-and-drive.
Part it out for the most money or sell it as a parts truck for a bit less.
Come south and get a non rusty truck with a blown motor, swap parts, junk your rusty stuff. Check out Craigslist or Pull a Part in the ATl / MACONarea. Ohio is not really that far.
Somebeach said:
Post on craigslist with a warning about the frame and pictures of it and see if you can get $500-$1000 for it.
If you do this, some skeezy guy is gonna buy it for just at scrap value, barely fix it or not fix it, and sell it to someone for full market price. So either sell it for what a non-super-rusted truck would bring and don't disclose the fault which is bad karma but what is going to end up happening anyway, fix it and keep it or disclose the fix, or personally see it to the crusher.
93gsxturbo said:Somebeach said:
Post on craigslist with a warning about the frame and pictures of it and see if you can get $500-$1000 for it.
If you do this, some skeezy guy is gonna buy it for just at scrap value, barely fix it or not fix it, and sell it to someone for full market price. So either sell it for what a non-super-rusted truck would bring and don't disclose the fault which is bad karma but what is going to end up happening anyway, fix it and keep it or disclose the fix, or personally see it to the crusher.
Not sure how this would be OPs problem.
Caveat Emptor
As it turns out I didn't take many pics. I think I put about 20 linear feet of patch on it, the frame was pretty much gone on the sides for most of the length between the transmission crossmember and the rear spring perches. Some areas I only had to do one side, others like this I had to do both sides. I do remember dropping the tank to get access to some parts, and I was able to work without removing the exhaust. I only had one work day into it, so total labor spent had to have been under ten hours, and materials weren't that expensive. So say total bill was $1300-1500ish. You couldn't touch a 13 year old pickup for nearly "junk value" plus that, and anything you do find is going to be in similar shape anyway.
Before: (note you are looking through both sides of the frame...)
During, on another part (note you can see through both sides of the frame, to the backside of the patch I'd already welded in)
After:
Primer, paint, undercoat, done. WIll it last forever? Of course not. Will it allow you to get another five or six years? Sure.
Sometimes I forget how spoiled I am.
z31maniac said:93gsxturbo said:Somebeach said:
Post on craigslist with a warning about the frame and pictures of it and see if you can get $500-$1000 for it.
If you do this, some skeezy guy is gonna buy it for just at scrap value, barely fix it or not fix it, and sell it to someone for full market price. So either sell it for what a non-super-rusted truck would bring and don't disclose the fault which is bad karma but what is going to end up happening anyway, fix it and keep it or disclose the fix, or personally see it to the crusher.
Not sure how this would be OPs problem.
Caveat Emptor
Yeah 93gsx point is good. I can’t in good conscience do that. I was planning to get another truck in the next couple years anyways, I have a daily appliance that I use. I don’t really have the skills or time to do the patch job right. And the body is really starting to get bad too.
Is it bad enough that isn't safe to drive if you don't fix it?
In reply to Knurled. :
Wow that was a lot of work. $1500 in supplies , how many hours do you think you had in that?
In reply to Somebeach :
I think he was saying that the bill to the customer he did the work for was $1,500. That was the total bill with labor. He stated he had about 10 hours into the job.
Somebeach said:In reply to Knurled. :
Wow that was a lot of work. $1500 in supplies , how many hours do you think you had in that?
No, $1300-$1500 in total, probably, with sales tax and everything.
Supplies is pretty cheap - how expensive are 12x24 chunks of 16-gauge? (although I think one piece was almost three feet long)
Take it to Carmax and see what they'll offer. I got rid of 2 trucks doing that. Got $1,500 for an 05 Sierra extended cab with 193k miles and rusted out brake lines. Much better than scrap. Or sell it to me for scrap price and I'll take it to Carmax and make some money to fund another Buick lol.
In reply to John Welsh :
Thanks I was definitely reading that wrong. That makes sense.
Daylan C said:Is it bad enough that isn't safe to drive if you don't fix it?
I guess I really just need to get back under there and poke around a little more. $1300 really doesn’t seem too bad if it could buy me another couple of years.
TBH, it sounds like this truck isn't really worth saving if the body is going, too. It's not like F-150s are rare or hard to find. I'd part it out, scrap the remains, and use the proceeds to buy something cleaner and safer.
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