I, like many before me, am dealing with quite a rusty rear end in my 2003 DII. I know there are a bunch of threads on here but I'm wondering what you estimate the cost to repair the rotted out curved section of the rear chassis would be. There's quite a bit of surface rust throughout the bottom of the car but I'm not too worried about that. Was thinking of going nuts with the wire brush and some Naval Jelly and sealant/paint/encapsulator. But for the chassis, which I can get a couple fingers through, how much to weld new panels on?

And anybody you could recommend in the NYC area? I'll likely call up Carlos and co at British Auto Works in the Bronx but if there's a recommendation in Brooklyn that would be ideal!

I know it's a big job that likely involves dropping the gas tank. Just wanna know how I should be prepared to spend...

 

$1100 for a chasis back half, plus Alot of labor.
Or, $5k for a galvanized frame...plus Alot more labor.
Patching the frame is not worth it, unless it's only one or 2 small places, which it likely isn't.
Even then, labor will be high, especially in NY.

 

$1100 for a chasis back half, plus Alot of labor.
Or, $5k for a galvanized frame...plus Alot more labor.
Patching the frame is not worth it, unless it's only one or 2 small places, which it likely isn't.
Even then, labor will be high, especially in NY.

 

Woof. I'm actually looking forward to handling the surface stuff, but not sure I can swing over a grand to patch the chassis. My pops who ran a livery company for many years and has a lot of friends deep in the Newark, NJ body shop world might know someone who would be down to tackle the rotted out areas for way less than a specialist...

This is a priority for me as it's basically the one big problem with the truck (for the next 5 minutes I'm sure) so I'll be sure to let you all know what we work out.

 

Just a thought,.....buy another Disco 2 out of someplace that doesn't use salt on the roads. Texas, Arizona, New Mexico etc. I have a friend you recently started buying up Disco 2s around Dallas, and has bought 4 ranging from $500 to $2000 each. All running and driving each with its own issues needing attention.

 

Yeaaaa quite a bit unhelpful to my current situation. In which I already have a vehicle that has quite a bit of work into it already and is otherwise super clean and solid. It's so funny how the rust is ONLY on the back end of the truck...maybe the previous owner had a boat or something and backed it up into the ocean. Anyway, I'm gonna do as much as I can within reason to manage the rust which nobody has done in the truck's 15 years and 150k miles.

 

His advice is not all that unhelpful, it may in fact be cheaper to buy another D2 with good frame and questionable everything else and swap in all your good bits that you've already put money into. To put it another way, swapping your engine and interior into another body/frame may be cheaper than properly repairing what you've got now. Just another option to keep in the back of your mind.

 

This^

 

Ha, yes, thank you guys! Super appreciative of the advice and sorry if my previous comment seemed catty. I know that if this were a true project car, I would have started in the southwest for sure before doing anything! Since I'm lucky enough to have this car basically gifted to me, I think I'm going to rock it as long as I can without doing too much to it...just want to extend the life of this one as long as I can on the cheap while saving to build my own project truck from the ground up. Will update soon!

 

https://www.roversnorth.com/productd...e=0&eq=&key=it


Only $600.

I am going home today and looking at my rear. If this will work.. I'll be buying it.