In September, the wife and I were planning a camping trip because we were excited to try out the new fridge/freezer. The day before we were supposed to leave, I was running some errands. As I was driving, I kept hearing some weird clunking noises from the rear of the truck. Got home and peaked under the truck and immediately saw the problem.
Uh oh! Passenger side upper shock mount rusted through:
Crap! My heart sank. I removed the lower shock bolt and the shock dropped to the floor.
Unbolted the rusted out chunk:
Left a giant hole in the truck:
Well now I had to decide what to do, and in a hurry, as we planned on leaving for camp in about 12 hours. I obviously wouldn’t have time to get the correct replacement part and weld it into place. And I didn’t really want to travel 200 miles to our camp without a rear shock.
After spending some time laying under the truck, staring at the giant hole, and thinking about the situation, I knew I had to come up with a quick fix. I would have to weld in some sort of temporary mount for the shock.
I figured I could weld a piece of steel to the inner wall of the frame, the round bar cross member, and the opposite edge of the existing shock mount. All these areas were still very solid, and the 3-point connection would provide plenty of strength. I grabbed a piece of cardboard and started trimming it. Final pattern I came up with:
I found a scrap piece of 1/4” thick steel and started cutting it out with my angle grinder. That should be plenty beefy.
Then I had to grind the paint and surface rust off the existing frame geometry, in order to get a better weld. I’m certainly not a great welder, but can usually stick stuff together without too much trouble. However, I was really struggling to get decent welds here, probably because upside-down welding is challenging. I’m sure being in a hurry didn’t help, but finally I got it welded into place.
Finally I was able to remount the shock without issue.
Now let me tell you this, Welding upside down while laying under the truck really sucks, and I have a few burns on my arms to prove it. However, my quick fix was a success, and I saved the camping trip with just a few hours to spare. The temporary fix held up well, In fact it is still in there, and working great. I might eventually get the correct part and replace it, but for now I’m leaving it, because I’m dreading getting under there and cutting it out and welding in a new piece. Also, I checked the drivers side shock mount and it seems to be pretty solid yet, so hopefully that one will last a little longer.