F250 rust repairs

dieselcrawler · Aug 5, 2014

I finished the driver side brace this morning, and welded all the seams. Here it is with the rusty junk I cut off and replaced. Warpage from welding seems minimal.

By the end of the day I had the passenger side about as complete as the driver side was yesterday.

SirReal63 · Aug 6, 2014

Excellent work! Your fabrication skills are fantastic. I am envious, I don't think I could do anything that intricate.

I am always amazed at the amount of rust on vehicles from up North. (I know it is from the de-icing on the roads) I rebuilt the prop-shaft on my old 2001 E38 BMW last summer, the undercarriage wasn't even dirty and no rust except for 3 bolts. One of my good friends from up north didn't believe it, so I took a few pics and sent them. :laughing:

denm74 · Aug 6, 2014

nice work!

dieselcrawler · Aug 6, 2014

Was off to a good start this morning. Got the passenger side pieces fitted and tacked. Started welding seams when the wire jambed in the gun/cable. Dead in the water untill replacement parts get shipped, likely friday.

So I spent the afternoon working on the gearbox to the sawmill, reinstalled it and sawed some lumber till quiting time.

DT86 · Aug 6, 2014

You are talented, no taking that away from you.

Do you think it would be easier/quicker/cheaper to just replace the whole cab? Or maybe even the whole truck?

dieselcrawler · Aug 6, 2014

Maybe... the possibility of a southern rolling chassis was talked about. But nice guy that he is, my boss wanted to spend the same money to pay me to go this route instead of spending more on parts and less on labor (my paycheck). I love getting the experiance, my next personal project will be chopping the back wall out of a crew cab truck and adding an extended cab section to the crew cab. With 6 kids, I want 3rd row seating for my truck.

KubotainNH · Aug 6, 2014

Nice work, very detailed on the shaping. Owning older cars really sux living where there is salted roads. This year I have had to do rust work on 4 out of 5 of my household's cars plus my mom and SIL. The only car I haven't had to touch for rust is my son's Audi but it has it's own problems....lol. It's tedious work but there is some pleasure in forming metal. Curious, is your normal work slow so the truck is getting the hours?

DT86 · Aug 6, 2014

dieselcrawler said:
Maybe... the possibility of a southern rolling chassis was talked about. But nice guy that he is, my boss wanted to spend the same money to pay me to go this route instead of spending more on parts and less on labor (my paycheck). I love getting the experiance, my next personal project will be chopping the back wall out of a crew cab truck and adding an extended cab section to the crew cab. With 6 kids, I want 3rd row seating for my truck.

Fair enough.

I am sure you will, but please do, post your personal project as well!!

Several years ago saw a Ford F-350, loaded with concrete finishing tools, cross-ways in three parking spots and thought "what a jerk off". That was until I realized it was a six door long bed! Guess he had the whole crew in one truck. I took pictures but that was several cell phones ago, though it was a pretty cool truck.

dieselcrawler · Aug 6, 2014

KubotainNH said:
Nice work, very detailed on the shaping. Owning older cars really sux living where there is salted roads. This year I have had to do rust work on 4 out of 5 of my household's cars plus my mom and SIL. The only car I haven't had to touch for rust is my son's Audi but it has it's own problems....lol. It's tedious work but there is some pleasure in forming metal. Curious, is your normal work slow so the truck is getting the hours?

I am the fix-it guy for a small apriary... that's a bee farm to most folks. Owners have been selling honey and beeswax products for 30 years or more, and bought a folk toy company about 10 years ago. A lot of wooden toys are made on site, we have our own saw mill and wood shop, and make a whole line of honey, flavored honey, honey based condiments, candles, and skin creams.

I do most anything needed... fix the roof, build additions to buildings, plumbing, tractor and equipment repairs, vehicle maintenance, building maintenance, run and repair the sawmill.

Work isn't slow, there's always another project to turn to when the current one gets put on hold due to the circumstances.

dieselcrawler · Aug 7, 2014

I took my welder to work this morning to be able to make progress today. Finished what I started yesterday then worked on the smaller floor braces.

Buncha pieces...

Old braces were still in tact, but very thin.

By the end of the day

KubotainNH · Aug 8, 2014

dieselcrawler said:
I am the fix-it guy for a small apriary... that's a bee farm to most folks. Owners have been selling honey and beeswax products for 30 years or more, and bought a folk toy company about 10 years ago. A lot of wooden toys are made on site, we have our own saw mill and wood shop, and make a whole line of honey, flavored honey, honey based condiments, candles, and skin creams.

I do most anything needed... fix the roof, build additions to buildings, plumbing, tractor and equipment repairs, vehicle maintenance, building maintenance, run and repair the sawmill.

Work isn't slow, there's always another project to turn to when the current one gets put on hold due to the circumstances.

Cool, real local bee honey is good stuff. Looks like I started writing my last post while you posted info in #26.

dieselcrawler · Aug 8, 2014

The results of about 60 hours of work, as things were when I left work today:

arrow · Aug 8, 2014

dieselcrawler said:
The results of about 60 hours of work, as things were when I left work today:

Up here Greg on labor alone, you would have compiled $3000 to this point.

arrow · Aug 8, 2014

dieselcrawler said:
The results of about 60 hours of work, as things were when I left work today:

Up here Greg on labor alone, you would have compiled $3000 to this point.

dieselcrawler · Aug 9, 2014

$3000 as charged to the customer, or paid to the tech doing the work? Once shop expenses, labor, insurances, taxes, workers comp, etc, are taken into account, I could understand that dollar figure. But there ain't that much goin in my pocket!

arrow · Aug 9, 2014

dieselcrawler said:
$3000 as charged to the customer, or paid to the tech doing the work? Once shop expenses, labor, insurances, taxes, workers comp, etc, are taken into account, I could understand that dollar figure. But there ain't that much goin in my pocket!

No, if you working for yourself in your own shop , over here the low figure charged to the customer would be 3K so far. The tech working for somebody is lucky to be making $15 an hour. Here the shop charges are $50 to $110 per hour.

dieselcrawler · Aug 10, 2014

In which case, I'm making a fair wage, as I am doing the work for my employers, as part of my normal responsibilities.

Future projects include rebuilding the 3ph mounting points on the box blade for the L4310, and repairs to a Bradco backhoe for the L2850. That's after the truck is done, and by done, we mean the rear part of the frame replaced too. Stay tuned!

Cord · Aug 11, 2014

Ok, I'll bite... so why is he spending this much on the truck? It's not a collectors item, not all that powerful and he could easily just drive down south and get one in rust free condition.

dieselcrawler · Aug 11, 2014

Why? Couple reasons... 1) he has it, knows its mechanically sound. 2) he wants to keep me employeed. 3) his wife would prefer he buys a new one, so he's fixing this one.

Got the replacement floor supports welded to the floor pan today.