Couple of frame trouble spot questions

Getting ready to wire wheel and paint the frame on my cj5 I've gone around the frame and run across a couple of damaged areas that might or might not need fixing. I do not know what margin of extra strength was designed into this frame but I'm sure many of you know this very well. I'd like to get some opinions on the damage listed below:

First and most grave is the Driver side rear bumpstop. This is the most corroded area on my frame by a large margin. Everywhere else I can hit with a hammer and get a nice ring but I tried here and went through the frame. Directly in front of and behind it are solid metal and it seems to be a problem only on the bottom rail of the frame profile.


Here's a view looking up from the bottom.


Next is the edge of the rail at the passenger rear shock mount. I think this one should be fine because I seem to be down to solid metal with only a little lost on the edge.


From the bottom looking up you can see that the rail looks pretty solid here.


The last spot is on the drivers upper hitch cross-brace. It's just a tiny crack in the top face of the rail and I think I can get away with drilling the end of it. I've jumped up and down (I'm 185lb)on the end of the upper brace only and it seems solid.


My big concern is the frame rail above the bump stop. What would you guys do? Box the area? Leave it alone and install a new bumpstop?

What do you guys think?

 

Ill go first...the brace [last pic] I would just patch something in or cut it out and stick a gas tank back there

The area by the shock mount, I wouldnt think that would be a big deal either. Mine was a tiny bit thin there as well on the very edge. I removed the shock mount and it was like new under it so I cleaned it well and put the shock tower back on. IIRC its welded right there and most of the welds on my frame were terrible

The first pic is also an area where my frame had some pitting but was solid. Crud gets stuck between the frame and bumpstop and rusts. If it were me I would blast/clean the entire frame to make sure thats your only bad area and if it is patch in a piece. It should be pretty easy. I would hate to see you do work on this frame and find other bad spots later.

 

Thanks napaguy,

The trouble spots I've listed are all I found on a careful survey of the entire frame. The front 60% of the frame was protected because it was encased in grease. The only two other things I found were a cracked battery tray mount and a kinda funky front frame horn (a solid but awkward repair because this jeep spent it's life as a plow truck) forward of the front spring mount. I've passed a wire wheel over the worst spots and will hit the rest this week. I don't want to blast the frame shiny because I'm using masterseriescoatings.com silver rust sealer.

 

Depending on where you are and what you come across ... it may be easier/better to look for another frame without any significant rust losses. There seems to be a lot more frames available than bodies; the bodies and floors rust out before the frames do.

IMO you're going to have to add new metal to this frame. The rails (top and bottom horizontal parts) provide most of the load-carrying strength, with the web (vertical part) mostly holding the rails apart. That hole at the rear shock mount needs to be reinforced. If you cut out some metal, make your cuts diagonally across the rails as much as possible. You want the welds to not be perpendicular to the long axis of the frame. Put the welds in tension or compression along their long axis as much as possible.