I am looking for opinions on how I should weld my frame on my 93 W-250. I am on a bit of time crunch finishing up and by the end of the week it needs to be on the road and I hope to get it welded in the next 2 days. I was preparing to swap my leaf spring mounts when I found that underneath both my front of rear spring mounts there was serious rust damage the side with the diesel tank was much worse. The flanges or top and bottom of the frame are in good condition and it seems like the serious damage is localized the frame surrounding the rusted out section is thinner forsure but there is still some material, particualry around the top two bolt holes. I have a set of hangers I am going to instal but I am not comfortable welding this job myself so have prepped the truck removed all the hangers etc and plan to pay someone to weld it, can update with pictures of the prep work I have done tomorrow.

In my search I have gotten very different quotes for the job and techniques one person who specializes in higher end automotive repair suggested removing the rusted out area welding a new piece in then sandwiching it with a plate on either side this is obviously complicated as the holes in the new piece will need to match the bolt pattern for the new hangers I got, they quoted me $1000 for the job if i did all prep and clean up, grinding welds etc. Another person who is heavy equipment welder suggested just putting two 1/4" or 3/16" (no wider) plates sandwiching the rusted area on either side welding those sealed, this would mean you could just re drill out the old holes and they quoted me 400$. This person suggested cutting the frame was a bad idea as it would stress the metal opening the door for problems in the future and more importantly the steel inserted in place of the cut out section would not have the same characteristics as the steel of the frame which is intended to have some flexibility and this junction could be problematic, while they were open to inserting in a new section they suggested sandwiching was a better option.

What are yalls thoughts? For some context this truck is a work truck it dosent have to be pretty it will be towing occasionally but more often hauling firewood, building supplies and random junk in the bed.

 

More pictures with hangers removed

 

I would burn some 1/4" plate on the backside, inside the frame channel. Or if you can't get it welded in time, use it like a big sandwich plate.

In hindsight, if you went to a longer leaf spring, or changing the suspension height, you could mount the hanger in a fresh spot.

 

Thanks for input but ended up getting the welding done yesterday before seeing your post a friend ended up helping out. Moving the hangers all together would have been a good idea though new leafs would be a little out of the budget.

Ended up reading that using thick steel isnt necessarily good as from my limited understanding you want to use stuff the same thickness or thinner than the existing frame, hopefully thats right ahaha. Ended up cutting two 1/8" plates for each hanger positioning and sandwiching each side then welding them up, didnt remove any parts of the frame. My friend who was welding suggested a solid weld around the whole plate would unnecessarily stress the existing frame and so left two areas of each plate with just tack welds. I will be sealing it using steel seam sealer.

 

Adding tubing round or square/rectangular across the span of the frame close to the suspension attachments will support the work you have done greatly and improve the ride of the truck. Just need to make sure it's not goin interfere with any components or moving suspension parts before final weld out. It doesn't have to be fancy and you can tack base plates to the inside of truck frame then fab up the cross braces with kickers in place then cut the tacks off the base plates to weld out the entire brace setup before re install where you'll only have to weld the base plates in position. I don't have any pics to pose right now but I the future I'll try to have some on my profile. I used to build race car chassis for a living and eventually branched out to rock bouncers pullers ultra 4 and a few drop tyranny mud trucks. When I converted one of my pick ups to a flat bed I welded in some very simple bracing in the back half of the truck while the bed was off and did a custom steering box front frame brace setup (2nd gen cummins truck). Could believe the way it drove and hauled afterwards. Felt like more like a 3rd gen it was much more stable at speed and felt much more confident with a heavy load (bumper pulling another truck on my 20ft trailer).