Frame rust

[stm3784]

I posted in another forum as well, I like everybody's input though. I went and looked at a 79 k20 yesterday.

Although I'm pretty sure I answered my own question the frame looked like it had seen better days. The rust that was flaking off were bigger then little chips.

Although it seemed solid. I didn't have a hammer or anything to tap it with. Can the frame be saved or is it shot. If it can be saved how weak would it.

I'm thinking it over the weekend before telling the guy yay or nay. I want everybody's thoughts, as I'm on the fence. Thanks

 

[Rusty Nail]

*crickets*

No pictures? Good luck!

 

[74 Shortbed]

Some pics would help.

 

[HotRodPC]

Yep, we can assume surface rust to some we've seen where a guy said he was gonna save it and I think we pissed him off when we said, NOOOOOOOOO, you'll kill somebody with that thing look for another frame and he never came back. So we don't know how bad this one is. Being in PA, I can only ASSUME, it's pretty bad.

So you'd have to use your own judgement on this one. If it's not horribly bad, sure you can do all the labor and save it. Worse case scenario, frame swap it. I don't think a K20 frame is much thicker than a K10, maybe a 1/32 or so. So there's 1/32 you can afford to lose but my point is, even if you found a K10 frame you can swap all your K20 springs, axles and powertrain over to it if that's all you could find.

Other consideration, is how much are you paying for this truck? Need to know if it's still a deal if worse case scenario it needs a frame swap. But you could knock the loose rust off and then hit it with POR15 to stop any further rusting away.

 

[stm3784]

I suck at taking pictures. Hopefully I'll get back out Sunday and get some. Best description I can give. It looks like fried chicken skin. KFC extra crispy skin

 

[HotRodPC]

It sounds like what you might be able to do is, get a scaler tool, knock off all the rust scale then hit it with POR15. That's about the only hope you'll have. If it's not rusted through anywhere then might save it by doing the labor and putting the POR15 on it.

How is the sheetmetal portion of the body? I know you're in PA so they're very strict on that rust ****. @89Suburban has become our resident Rust King. He proudly wears a crown made of self tappers.

 

[stm3784]

The cab is shot. Bed is better than most. It's not immaculate but I can make it work

 

[HotRodPC]

So are you going to be doing a cab replacement too? If you find the frame is to far gone too, you might be better off going down South and finding a roller for sale. As said, even if you found a K10 roller, you can transfer your K20 springs and axles to the K10 frame and cab.

 

[stm3784]

That WAS the plan however, I just called the guy. It's gone. So back to square one. Which works out because I figure if I had to worry about the condition of the frame it probably wasn't worth it

 

[CSFJ]

That WAS the plan however, I just called the guy. It's gone. So back to square one. Which works out because I figure if I had to worry about the condition of the frame it probably wasn't worth it

Yeah, I went down that road not too long ago myself. Bought a complete unmolested original with a nice interior, but LOTS of rust. The frame was pretty heavily scaled, and I eventually gave up on that one and bought a very clean example. When I parted out the original truck I found a pretty good sized hole in the lower frame rail by the front shackle. Made me glad I wrote it off and started with a cleaner specimen.

 

[stm3784]

Yeah, I went down that road not too long ago myself. Bought a complete unmolested original with a nice interior, but LOTS of rust. The frame was pretty heavily scaled, and I eventually gave up on that one and bought a very clean example. When I parted out the original truck I found a pretty good sized hole in the lower frame rail by the front shackle. Made me glad I wrote it off and started with a cleaner specimen.

lol yeah that's where I'm at. It was pretty heavy scaled too. If it was not sold I'm sure i would've have had more of headache than anything

 

[HotRodPC]

Someone saved you a shitton of labor, money and heartache. Don't be afraid to look down South. One of the guys here will probably give a preliminary look over for you before you spend travel expenses to go pick it up. Many times, the travel expense is more than recovered in labor and cash spent repairing rust in the rust belt.

 

[stm3784]

Someone saved you a shitton of labor, money and heartache. Don't be afraid to look down South. One of the guys here will probably give a preliminary look over for you before you spend travel expenses to go pick it up. Many times, the travel expense is more than recovered in labor and cash spent repairing rust in the rust belt.

Yeah I've heard that. I've looked at southern prices though. Pretty steep. But I guess if you want something that bad

 

[HotRodPC]

Really? I see **** on here for some hella steep price and I lose it. Then someone always pops up and says, that's a good price for around here, that's what they go for up here. Now you guys are probably different due to your inspections. Something that has a **** ton of rust that won't pass inspection will have to be sold cheap. But you go to a state where rust isn't part of the inspection, like say OH, MI, or WI then you'd see the prices those guys pay is nuts. Then compare that to prices in TX, OK or AZ.

 

[stm3784]

Frame rust.

Define cheap. I've been looking for a 500 piece of ****. Cheapest thing I've found and looked at was asking 1200. Problem is I don't care where you're at. Everybody thinks they have gold. Well hate to break it. But some of this ain't even bronze. But here you go what do yins think of this?