Totaled 2022 F250 Rebuild

Cable Guy

Cable Guy

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Thinking about buying a 2022 F250 that was in a accident and the insurance company just totaled. 

The owner can do a buy back from the insurance company for a pretty decent price.

The cab and bed are fine just needs a new frame and front end.

The estimate from the dealer to repair using all factory Ford parts is around $25,000 (Parts only)

I was thinking using all after market custom fenders, hood, grill, radiator and bumper would cost about half of that.

Bad thing is, it will be a salvaged title. Good thing is, it would be a bad ass truck for around $40,00-$60,000

Any comments? Anyone know someone in So/Cal who does frame swaps? 

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Don't think that truck needs a frame. You just need to find someone with knowledge to repair it. I would use Ford factory parts also.

 
frame horns may be damaged, but i was watching some guys on you tube and they just bought an OEM frame and swapped it all over.

honestly didn't look really hard, if you have the time.

 
if you have the time and a lift. Frames are soft on those, see a lot of these. 

 
Go find someone in the area that has a frame certificate from Chief Industries. They can repair it for sure. They would have gone through the training to be certified to repair this.

 
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Ford front end section....you can replace the front section....it isn't cheap or easy, probably better to swap the frame....They don't repair well. 

 
My son needed work on his 2006 Silverado and I couldn't find a local shop that would take the job because we were paying for it. They only wanted insurance claim jobs. True frame shops are rare.

 
Where would you even get a frame if you decided to swap it? 

 
I have a 2012 F350 powerstroke that I bought wrecked front and rear with a salvage title. It only had 67k miles on it. The right rear corner of the frame was rolled under and the right front frame horn was bent down and in. The whole right rear corner of the bed was bent down with the frame and that put a big hump in the floor of the bed in that corner. The rear bumper and tailgate were mangled but the bed wasn't bad except for that corner but I didn't know if I could save it. I used a chain and a porta power to straighten the rear of the frame which was easy. I thought I was going to have to replace the bed but one day we put a big block of wood in the bed where the hump was and pushed down on it with a loader and the whole bed just popped right back into place. I didn't know the front frame horn was as bad as it was until I was installing the new bumper but just got creative with the porta power again and it was close enough. It did pop one of the rivets out of the crossmember that goes under the engine but I just left that alone. I didn't do any body work that required paint. It's not perfect but came out really good. I have less than $18k in the whole truck including the delete, wheels and tires, winch bumper and winch, used tailgate that was the same color and a used rear bumper.

Peas

 
Everyone has their tolerance level, it wouldn't be worth the effort for me to put that truck back together again, for the 40 to 60 you say you'll have into it you can buy one that hasn't been wrecked. In the end you'll still have a truck with a salvaged title that you may not be able to insure with comp and collision coverage.

On the flipside, I've changed my fair share of pickup truck frames. To do it without any logistical complications you will need a hoist and a flat. You strip the front end down and lift the cab off, then unbolt and swap the parts from the complete chassis to the bare frame on jackstands next to it. Once you get an assembled chassis, you roll the new one under the cab that's on the hoist and lower it back down. 4 people can pull the bed and sit it on blocks. I used to do them in 2 complete days and get paid about 30 hours on average, maybe 40 if it was a 4wd. I've never done a diesel but other than the parts being bigger and heavier it isn't much different. It was always a pita if the formed brake lines were damaged and I had to make new ones. 

As has been suggested, find a good shop that is certified with a Chief EZ Liner or whatever they're called these days, and see if they can straighten it. A Chief frame machine is strong enough to straighten just about any frame, it is all dependent on how good or motivated the tech is. With the lack of qualified techs repairing vehicles currently, you may have trouble finding a shop that wants to even deal with it, especially if it's not an insurance job. Body shops don't really want to do big repairs that are not insurance jobs. Most of the time there is damage not able to be seen or found until after teardown and it's easy to write a supplement to the estimate and get paid, not so much when the customer is forking out the money for repairs. 

 
After crawling underneath the truck, found the frame does have a few ripples where there is damaged. 

Most of the damage is in front of the motor mounts.

From what I understand if the frame is straightened the title would become a salvaged title. 

However if the frame is swapped it becomes a repaired title. Not sure the difference, but repaired sounds better than salvaged. lol

Did I mention it is a Lariat 6.7 Diesel 4X4 Tremor edition with less than 7000 miles

 
You can take that down to the wreckers in Otay and they'll have it zipped up quick! They probably would just bandaid the frame and just make sure everything bolts up properly and drives straight down the road and roll it! I can't imagine much structural damage there but I'm no expert. If you want perfect it will cost you, but hell there's no way that truck is tweaked beyond safety. 

 
Cable Guy said:
After crawling underneath the truck, found the frame does have a few ripples where there is damaged. 

Most of the damage is in front of the motor mounts.

From what I understand if the frame is straightened the title would become a salvaged title. 

However if the frame is swapped it becomes a repaired title. Not sure the difference, but repaired sounds better than salvaged. lol

Did I mention it is a Lariat 6.7 Diesel 4X4 Tremor edition with less than 7000 miles
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I think once the insurance reports it to DMV as a total loss it will have a salvage title. Probably still worth doing a frame swap.

 
I bought a car in TX that had a "rebuilt blue title" which I think means something like this; the car was in an accident and totaled by the insurance company then purchased, repaired and passed an inspection that says it is once again safe to operate. Apparently different states have different types of titles meaning different things. 

When I titled this car in NM I looked into this extensively because I didn't want it to be a branded/salvage title if I could avoid it. Apparently NM only has 2 types of titles, salvage and the regular non-salvage or clean title. I, subsequently, received a salvage title.

IDK what varying degrees of titles your state has but you may get stuck with a salvage title.

On a side note; if you own your vehicle outright in NM and possess the title when your vehicle is wrecked and totaled by an insurance company you are responsible for having the title branded and changed to salvage. Many people do not do this and it can be difficult to know if a vehicle has been totaled before. Carfax and other vehicle history reports will usually tell you though. My sister's car has been totaled twice and paid out both times because she didn't change the title to salvage after the first time it was totaled.

Peas

 
Salvage titles are fine, if You intend to drive the life out of the vehicle. If your intent is to flip, good luck! Insurance has never been an issue form what I know. They will sell you a policy, the rub will come if there is another total loss.

You add another 100-200k miles and people will have a hard argument about quality of repairs.

 
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My insurance company (Farmers) told me they couldn't sell me comp and collision for anything with a salvage title. I bought the insurance for the car from TX before I titled it in NM and when my agent pulled it up she said it wasn't coming back as salvage so I put full coverage on it. If anything ever happens they might have something to say.

Peas

 
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