I got a 99 with 185k. Just asked a frame shop to patch the rear crossmember, (particularly rusty) but once they got up close, they smelled fuel, so no thank you they said. I do a lot of my own work, but I don't have indoor repair space, so I took it to a local for the fuel leak... evap system tested ok, but no pressure in tank (never got a code). A smoke test identified a leak somewhere at the top of my tank. The skid is half rusted away, though the tank itself looks good in the areas you can see, the main seam too. The mechanic I took it too is very hesitant to touch it, since the strap bolts are rusted to nubs, and he sees the other rust issues. He's afraid the job will domino into a 3k job when he tries to drop the tank and recommended I scrap the truck before spending more than it's worth!
That's a hard pill to swallow, but from the financial side, I spent less than 5k on the truck, I wouldn't work on it myself until the spring at the earliest. Is it worth paying a shop 2k+ if the tank fix turns into a train wreck. The shop basically tried to talk me out of doing what would be a big job, so I've no particular reason to doubt they believe this.
I have read several threads about tank repairs, and have not seen reports of huge problems outside of supporting the tank when replacing the straps. Plenty of people reported rusted apart skid plates. Anyone think this could be as bad as the shop is afraid it could be?
Thanks.
That's a hard pill to swallow, but from the financial side, I spent less than 5k on the truck, I wouldn't work on it myself until the spring at the earliest. Is it worth paying a shop 2k+ if the tank fix turns into a train wreck. The shop basically tried to talk me out of doing what would be a big job, so I've no particular reason to doubt they believe this.
I have read several threads about tank repairs, and have not seen reports of huge problems outside of supporting the tank when replacing the straps. Plenty of people reported rusted apart skid plates. Anyone think this could be as bad as the shop is afraid it could be?
Thanks.