Bad Frame rust, options?

[mp2008]

2000 chevy silverado 1500 4x4 5.3L 115,000 miles.

 

Making a very long story short... first truck buy, from dealer, no rust on body, looked like frame had been undercoated, very good shape for the year. Reality was, dealer bondo'd rusted body and sprayed undercoating over very rusted frame to hide everything. I put a lot of money into this truck before I realized the frame damage and now am at a loss at what to do. All together I have about $10000 into this truck and I'm afraid I know what everyone is going to say and that's going to be that the frame is unfixable and should be replaced or scrap the truck. Reality is I don't have that option... I need to fix this somehow.

 

I've since grinded the undercoating and a lot of the rust off the frame and found that where my leaf spring mount/shackle mounts to the frame it is rusted through and starting to pull down and out. The side wall of the frame is very thin and rusted through and the bottom where the mount is riveted is rusted through, cracking and pulling out. I'm at a loss on what to do... Any help will be appreciated...

 

 

[sdeeter19555]

Is it mainly the frame behind the cab, from the rear of the cab to the end of the bed?

 

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[mp2008]

Ya, for the most part, that's the problem area.

[efritz]

the truck is junk, there is nothing you can do but sell it and get one without the rust issues. Anything else is just a waste of time.

[sdeeter19555]

Gm used to have rear frame sections for just this reason...they would cut and splice the frame right behind the cab. I did it to an old Dodge power wagon, not that big of a deal. The hard part will be finding a good donor frame (low mile or southern front end wreck) to grab that section from. When I was in that mode, I happened onto a southern rust-free frame in Mississippi that I hacked off and dragged home (I had no way to get the whole frame home, so I settled for the rear section).

 

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