The frame on this truck is in pretty exceptional shape, I'll include those next for reference. I found this after a wheeling trip. My guess is that a rock kicked up and punctured it, but corrosion was underlying and had weakened that area. There's a pic of the other side for reference on what it looked like prior to discovering this hidden rust patch and also location. There's a drainage hose behind this area above the rocker panel cavity. My guess is that water and salt was trapped behind with no way to drain properly and rusted from the inside out. The rocker panel doesn't appear to be affected in this front area, just a little surface rust.
My concern is that support area on the body. I have a buddy that's a professional welder and am planning to have him weld in a strong patch to re-establish the strength of the support, but concerned about the level of rust inside the support itself. I cut out the extremely rusted out areas on the exterior. I then wire wheeled as much as I could of the surface rust off and used Ospho to try to save as much of the metal as possible. Planning to keep this truck a long time so need to stop this from advancing any further.
Has anyone experienced this issue and if so what did you do to correct it?
Driver's side behind front wheel
Passenger side front behind wheel - discovered to have the same exact level of hidden rot inside after wire wheeling
My concern is that support area on the body. I have a buddy that's a professional welder and am planning to have him weld in a strong patch to re-establish the strength of the support, but concerned about the level of rust inside the support itself. I cut out the extremely rusted out areas on the exterior. I then wire wheeled as much as I could of the surface rust off and used Ospho to try to save as much of the metal as possible. Planning to keep this truck a long time so need to stop this from advancing any further.
Has anyone experienced this issue and if so what did you do to correct it?
Driver's side behind front wheel
Passenger side front behind wheel - discovered to have the same exact level of hidden rot inside after wire wheeling