Hey CarTalkers!
Need some input on what is clearly pretty serious frame rust damage on my 2006 F150. Looking for input on the safety aspects concerning driving this truck.
You have trouble there. If you hit a major pothole or are in a collision the frame will fold up. Take it to a professional welder to see what they can do. Are there mushrooms growing in the lower right of the pic?
I wouldn’t drive that truck around. If the rest of the frame looks like your picture I would say the truck is ready for the scrapyard. It’s almost 15 years old and has reached the end of its life.
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So sad I have to agree that that looks like a ticking time bomb.
This truck is scrap metal. Unsafe at any speed. Drive it to the nearest junkyard, take whatever they offer.
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Who sprayed expanding foam into it? It’s not structural and will trap even more moisture in the channel.
Looks pretty rough. You could measure what’s left but judging by the looks of it, not much.
Really appreciate all of the responses which are exactly what I expected. I’m an idiot who bought it a couple of years ago for my teen age son knowing there was some rust but not inspecting to know the level of damage. Pretty unfortunate as it’s otherwise a pretty nice truck. I’ll check with some welder contacts to see if there may be some options to make it serviceable For local farm type use otherwise I’ll take my loss as a lesson learned and scrap. Any tips on maximizing scrape/salvage value in Georgia?
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It looks so fine, heartbreaker.
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Google finds a new frame for $1000 plus change, not sure how much will be to get it replaced - it is not a small job
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The way only it might be saved in Ga is to find another truck like it with a good frame and swap frame’s I take it the truck did not come from Ga.with that much rust I live in Ga. and have never seen rust that bad also it look’s like as if there is a nail in the tire.
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If the frame looks like that, imagine what the brake and suspension components look like. I would think that replacing the frame would entail replacing many other items as well. Assuming labor costs of $100/hr, I see labor going north of 3 grand. Plus all the associated parts.
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from the first look: gee, for one grand you are getting pretty much everything to make a swap
look at last 2 pictures: it looks like even with modest rust, this frame sustained the same cracking what OP’ truck frame shows
are they all doing that ?!?
I can’t tell if that’s rust or a lip from a manufacturing process.
I would still think there are a number of parts like exhaust, brackets, and maybe body that wouldn’t survive the transplant.
Filling the gas tank would probably double the value.
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It amazes me how frame rust issues keeps cropping up every now and then. You’d figure they’d have that figured out by now. Toyota a few years ago, but only on certain trucks. Now this with Ford. What changed? Hopefully it’s not a wide spread issue with Ford.
In last discussion around Tacoma frame issues, it was brought up that manufacturers have been experimenting a lot with thiner metal
I also recall another thread here where owner had similar lower section separation on the frame… it was one of “big three” trucks, but I do not recall exact make/model
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We don’t know whether the frame was damaged before the OP took possession. If the frame was scraped down to the bare metal, then it could easily have rusted out over years of inattention. It was not necessarily Ford’s defective design.
Yup…we don’t know yet. As I said I hope it’s isolated.
A friends Toyota truck frame was replaced under warranty, no sure what year it was.
It is sad and pretty rare that the frame will rust like that and the exterior still looks great .