frame rust - too bad?

[madtom]

I have a 72 f250 highboy stripped to the frame. The body was rusted beyond repair, but the frame looked okay.
Anyway, here's what I found above the axle, and between the front and rear spring hangers.

How bad is this? I'm a decent welder, but not sure the best way to go about it. Could this be "patched" or does it need to be cut out?
I have another 72 f250 frame, I could borrow from.
Thanks for any advice.

[madtom]

A few more pics. With the exception of this, the rest of the frame isn't to bad.

[sargentrs]

Yeah, that's pretty bad. If your not too picky and not going for a showpiece, I'd cut the rivets off of the bracket, remove it, clean the rust thoroughly, treat it, and weld scab plates on inside, outside and both sides of the bottom flange. Then drill through it all and bolt the bracket back on. Either that or cut out that section from your donor frame and replace it. As it is, it's going fail under stress.

[1972hiboy]

Yeah, that's pretty bad. If your not too picky and not going for a showpiece, I'd cut the rivets off of the bracket, remove it, clean the rust thoroughly, treat it, and weld scab plates on inside, outside and both sides of the bottom flange. Then drill through it all and bolt the bracket back on. Either that or cut out that section from your donor frame and replace it. As it is, it's going fail under stress.

, That section is starting to go, its definitely compromised as far as strength. luckily I wouldn't say that would be difficult brace up

[madtom]

I am definitely not picky, especially on something you have to crawl underneath it to see. I'm just relieved to hear it's doable and will definitely add this to the long list of things that need done.
Thanks for the advice!

[Busboy]

I'd start over.

[madtom]

by start over, do you mean scrap it?

Except for that 10", it looks surprisingly good (unless I'm missing something).

[Busboy]

Yeah,i would never feel good about it.
Go sooners.

[madtom]

Well, shoot. that's not what I wanted to hear.
Go cowboys!

[Ranchero50]

Yeah, the curse of fish plates is it's just another spot for rust to come through. I'd consider grafting the two frames together under the cab if the front of the high boy frame isn't all rusted up.

[daveford72]

Yeah, the curse of fish plates is it's just another spot for rust to come through. I'd consider grafting the two frames together under the cab if the front of the high boy frame isn't all rusted up.

That what I would do

[hfdco4]

So what was the outcome of this endeavor? I would cut and patch what I could. Lots of bracing needs to be done first to keep it straight though. You say you have another F250 frame, is it a 2x4 or 4x4 frame? If it's a 2x4 they are not the same. Look through my post and see what I had to do to mine for reference, and mine was in pretty good shape.