Hey, everyone. I've got me a beater Ford that was supposed to last me through the winter. So far, so good. Now I'm considering keeping it a little longer. The front bumper is toasted, though. As well as the right hand side rail where it attaches. It was like that when I bought it. I know, probably shouldn't have bought it that way, but for $800, i'm not out much.

This is my work truck with 191k miles on it. Tranny is decent, engine is the Windsor Straight 6 and is running strong. I drive about 75 miles a day in it.

I'm considering just running this thing into the ground without any fixes, just PM type of stuff, but that bumper is an atrocity. I'm considering just taking it off, but I'm afraid of the highway patrol giving me grief. I would replace it with a junkyard bumper, but that rail is bent.

Any ideas? Have I backed myself into a corner? I may keep it as is and replace it soon, but finding these things with a Straight 6 is difficult in my neck of the woods.

 

any junkyards around you? get the bumper from them and bolt it on the side rail sucks you can always block it with some heavy gauge steel just to last you. i have no idea where you are but i trip over 1992-1996 f150s with the I6 i really want to find the 351M 5.8l but no luck at all

 

really? the six was super common. PS the 6 is not a windsor motor. if it's bent badly, can you just get a welder to fix it? where there's a will there's a way.

 

I don't know where he is but i have a feeling its over seas i think ford made the I6 right? Windsor made the big small block v8s like the 5.7 and the 5.8l

 

You guys are right. The windsor is a V8. I swear I read somewhere the straight 6 was a windsor, but I cant find it now. Anyways, I'm here in Utah and most of the trucks in my price range are V8s. I don't have anything against those, aside from the mileage. I get 17 from mine, which is nice compromise. I do find some Straight 6s, but never when I have the money.

Back to the issue, I do have a welder friend that lives about 60 miles north of me. But with school and work, I "work" 14-25 days straight, sometimes more. Today is my first day off since MLK day back in Jan.

I think having him weld some stuff for me in exchange for some beer and dinner might be my best bet.

Or just replace it and have some young kid deal with it.

 

Technically, you shouldn't hear and bend the frame. Nor lay down full welds. It weakens the metal to much. How bad is this rail bent?? Pictures?? If all else fails, bolt a piece of angle iron to the frame, and use that as your mount, won't be as strong, but it will be straight. And if you get into an accident, the frame will take over the impact once the bumper bends back a little bit.

 

And if it's running strong at 191k, it's just broken in. Don't expect to run it into the ground anytime soon. It might possibly outlast your career.

 

I was a little concerned about the welding compromising the frame. As for the damage, it's best if we say it's not worth taking it to my body shop friend to work on. I have considered buying a F150 with a blown engine and doing an engine swap. The body is that bad.

I guess I'll keep it the way it is for now. The tranny shifts hard from 2nd to 1st, but the rest of the gears are just fine. I had a leak from the transmission cooler that I worked on today. The fittings were quite loose, so I tightened that up. I'll drive it to school in the morning and see if it helped. Any other ideas on what that could be?