Advice on rust repair, what would you do?

[gtbensley]

My 1995 e350 ambulance van is starting to show a little age on the lower rockers and behind the rear wheels. I have some holes very low behind the wheels and starting to get some very light bubbles along the rockers. I took it to a body shop and had it checked out, while the guy said its not bad I would be looking at replacing all rockers and quarter pannels as well as painting. This would be doing the job correctly. All new metal, no patching or messing around.

My question is, would you spend $2700 on fixing the only rust on the vehicle? It's a 1995 7.3 diesel with 156,000 4x4 and is in decent shape for the most part. Yes it will need some leaks fixed down the road but it does run and drive well.

 

[tgreening]

How long do you plan to keep it? Not long....Duraglass, paint, go. Pass it on to your kid/s.....cut, weld metal, paint, pay the bill, move along.

 

[Bikersmurf]

I'd buy a welder, learn to weld.

Either buy new rockers or bend what you need with a small metal brake.

It's 4x4... Repair it, paint it yourself, and call it a day.

 

[gtbensley]

Well that's sorta the debat. If I put the money into it I will be keeping it, and dumping lots more money into it as other things break down the road. It would be hard to replace if we sell it for anything close to what we will have in it. I would love to swap a zf6 into it and just keep it forever but that's a bit over my head. I'm good at basics, but have never welded anything in my life.

 

[Bikersmurf]

Mig welders are about as easy to use as they come... and rockers are hard to see, so if the repair isnt perfect, it's not a big deal. I've seen lots of guys who have a bit of time, learn to weld, and by the time they are done fixing their truck, they are welding like a pro.

 

[gtbensley]

Sounds like the word is to fix it.

 

[tgreening]

I have a habit of going overboard on these kinds of things. I'll cut and weld where most folks with good sense would patch. One thing I've learned is whatever you do will almost always take 4 times longer than you thought, cost at least twice as much, and never ever EVER be as cut and dried as you thought it was going to be.

 

[Bikersmurf]

In these parts your rig would be considered rust free (almost). In comparison, I had to rebuild my entire tub, replace the frame, gas tank, and hardtop of the Fj40 I bought 24 years ago.

 

[biere]

I would have it professionally fixed but instead of matching paint the bottom stripe of the van would become white or grey bedliner of some sort.

To some extent I would seriously consider opening all bubbles up and making sure all rust gets primed with rust convertor first, then making/buying/modifying something for rocker protection and then bedlining that.

You can't buy a body on frame 4x4 van with a simple diesel anymore. While I hate working on those things if it has a good 4x4 conversion and the rest is in decent and very very very usable shape I would get it to stop rusting and use the sucker.

I look at something like that in good shape as being at the point where it just needs a few truck payments a year for upkeep. And a couple of those payments would cover any upgrades it still might need or I just want.

This does assume it does what you want to do now and on into the future.

 

[gtbensley]

Set the appointment with a body shop to have it fixed. As much as I would love to tackle it myself and learn, at this point I would rather ensure it gets fixed correctly.

For the most part its a very clean rig so worth putting some money into it. We so plan on rhino lining the lower section instead of painting it. Help make it more rust resistant in the future.

 

[flightcancled]

I think that's the right call. Send it for patch metal and have them do a relatively quick job in the finishing touches. If you're bedlining it a perfectly smooth surface will just make it harder to get good adhesion and waste labor anyway.

 

[gtbensley]

Does $2700 sound about right for all new panels? Bought thirty hours of labor