I noticed about a month ago that my Ranger's left rear shock mount is broken, and while inspecting it, I noticed my frame has rust around the shock mounts on both sides. The driver's side has a hairline crack around the mount, which isn't progressing anymore, since the frame isn't absorbing shock stress, and the truck is a daily driver in the city with an empty bed. I took it to a shop the other day and they quoted $400 to fix the rust attach the mount I bought. That seems kinda high, and is a good chunk of change, so I've considered learning to weld, and fixing it myself. Would this be a bad area to learn with because of the stresses involved? I attached some images of the spots. I've seen Rangers with the frame completely rusted out, and heard that the spare tire frame and rear bumper tend to fail first. My spare tire frame and bumper are just fine. The shock mount areas, and the vertical member on the passenger side connecting the fuel tank crossmember to the lower frame rail are the worst areas. This truck spent most of its life in Kentucky, but living here in Dayton, Ohio will eventually rot it out.

Thanks guys

 

I just bought a project 04 edge to make my daily and while my shock mounts weren't that bad they were pretty toasted. I didn't have any rotting on the frame though. You won't really know how bad the metal is until you start drilling out the shock mount rivets and clean the metal up some. If there is a hole like that the rust usually extends past that point and when you start cleaning it some more will just break away. It's not a bad location to repair once you have the bed off. I have a harbor freight flux welder which I bought a few years back, and while it's not the best it gets the job done. I'd say if you have enough good metal left around the shock mount after you've cleaned it up, weld in some reinforcement metal plate, drill your shock mount holes and call it day. Probably a good time to clean the rest of the frame to try and get it to last a while longer.

Here is a pic of mine. Have been at it on my days off for a few weeks now. Cleaning the whole frame and fixing everything as i go along. It's a long tedious process but will hopefully make this truck last as my daily for some time.

That same cross member was rotted out on mine too. I went to a local junkyard and drilled out one to replace it. Worth the $40 and 2 hours to not have to fabricate my own.

 

I do allot of welding to all different types of things from agri, auto, allot of fab,... The $400 seems more than fair if they are going to clean it out/ cut it out and go back with new material. It's hard to realize the work involved unless you do it. I would think about this- do it yourself and how long is it going to take? Not knocking you at all but that's not a bad price.