1984 J10 rear passenger frame rust repair

[Tnsser]

New to the forum and new to Jeeps. I just purchased a 1984 J10. It runs and drives great. Has a great clean interior but it has some rust in the rear fenders and the rear frame behind and around the rear spring mounts. I was wondering if anyone sold a repair section for it or do I need to make my own.

[tgreese]

If such existed, I would expect BJ's to carry it - https://www.bjsoffroad.com/search.asp?k ... me&search=

Without doing an extensive search, I would say no - such a thing has never existed. You could maybe find a donor truck and take some patches from a good frame. Except for a specific case ('80-up wagons next to the gas tank), I would expect the body steel to rot away long before before the frame. Your truck - with a rotted frame and a decent bed - seems like a rare exception. Plus aftermarket support for these trucks is sparse at best. Comparatively few were built; Ford consistently sells something like a million light trucks a year, while I'd guess these trucks never exceeded a few tens of thousands in their best years.

First post - welcome from Boston.

[Tnsser]

Thank. I was surprised by the rust. The rest of the frame is light scale. I guess I will have to make my own. Thanks.

[Tnsser]

I assume the same goes for body panels etc?

[tgreese]

Somebody was making bed sides - search old posts and you'll probably find some leads. As I recall, they were quite basic - just long rectangular pieces of steel with the bends in the right places. If you had a long brake, you could make them. Bed seam rust affects almost every example of these trucks. There are fiberglass replacement rear flares available for the wide track Cherokee; not sure if they will work for the pickup. Similar. Jeep took some of the features of the pickups to make the wide track wagons. Front fenders, front axle, for example.

The two main retailers that specialize in these vehicles are BJ's and Team Grand Wagoneer (TGW). TGW has a reputation for poor customer response; I've bought from them though. BJ's will give you a modest discount as a member of this forum.

[Tnsser]

Thank you kind sir.

[FLeetFox]

Page 1 of my build thread, I did some repair on the rear frame. It involved cutting off the the hangers, fish plating the frame and welding the hangers back on after adding some more meat to the top of the hangers.

https://www.fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewto ... 12&t=14815

Fleet Fox

[backroader]

Thank. I was surprised by the rust. The rest of the frame is light scale. I guess I will have to make my own. Thanks.

The front rear hangers were rusted out on mine. I cut them off with a torch and fabbed new ones that were open on the bottom side so they wouldn't collect mud and salt.

[Phils67]

Check ZM jeeps also. They sell 8 foot bed sides as well as 8 foot bed floors (2 sections, LH and RH halves). Fairly inexpensive ($200 a pop roughly) where they get you is the shipping on it, since they're large pieces it almost doubles the price. If you have a short bed you trim the panel to fit. As far as frame you could possibly get some C channel the correct size and replace the straight sections or get a metal shop to bend the curved portions, bring a template maybe made of cardboard for them to copy the shape. To my knowledge there are no frame repair sections available but i could be wrong. Only wide track flares are fiberglass to my knowledge as mentioned earlier. If youre close to Ohio you could proabably pick the parts up yourself and save on shipping, thats where ZM jeeps is located out of.

[Tnsser]

Awesome site. Only 6 hours from me.

[threepiece]

I would expect the body steel to rot away long before before the frame. Your truck - with a rotted frame and a decent bed - seems like a rare exception.

Although intuitive, this is not as rare as you think.

I have noticed this on several J trucks, the Wagoneer and Cherokee are also not immune to this phenomenon. The entire rear portion of the frames seem to be vulnerable. Remember these old things are sometimes unused for long periods of time, where they are parked seems to have something to do with the condition they maintain. My FSJ’s were stored in various areas around my yard. I noticed after fifteen or twenty years some survived better than others.

I have been fooled in the past. Some frames deteriorate evenly on the surface. These appear to be solid but when examined more closely I discovered the thickness of the metal of the rear channel area was less than that of the area forward of the rear wheels. These frames had very little pitting, mostly an even thinning over a large area.

[Phils67]

I would expect the body steel to rot away long before before the frame. Your truck - with a rotted frame and a decent bed - seems like a rare exception.

Although intuitive, this is not as rare as you think.

I have noticed this on several J trucks, the Wagoneer and Cherokee are also not immune to this phenomenon. The entire rear portion of the frames seem to be vulnerable. Remember these old things are sometimes unused for long periods of time, where they are parked seems to have something to do with the condition they maintain. My FSJ’s were stored in various areas around my yard. I noticed after fifteen or twenty years some survived better than others.

I have been fooled in the past. Some frames deteriorate evenly on the surface. These appear to be solid but when examined more closely I discovered the thickness of the metal of the rear channel area was less than that of the area forward of the rear wheels. These frames had very little pitting, mostly an even thinning over a large area.

Maybe I'm off my rocker for thinking this way (think the Buffalo effect scene on Cheers from Cliff Claven), but the moisture held in dirt/gravel/grass/concrete etc evaporates upward to the vehicle. However if parked on blacktop, the oil from the blacktop evaporates upward and actually lubricates it, preventing rust and rot. At least that's how I've always looked at it. Sounds stupid I know but I've never seen one rot that was parked a long time on blacktop...

[tgreese]

I don't know if it's the oil in the tarmac, or the lack of plants. Plants take up water from the ground and transpire it as water vapor. Many believe parking on grass or weeds makes more moisture, promoting rust. Some contend that bare ground is worse than pavement, for similar reasons.

I suspect the back half of the chassis gets more salt spray and water than the front, thrown up by the wheels. The back half of the body falling off here in the rust belt is commonly seen. Likely extends to the frame as well.