How much rust, is too much rust? - 1986 Chevrolet S10

Question

I’m taking an auto mechanical course in September, and I figured I’d make myself somewhat familiar with cars before hand. So I bought an ‘86 s10 that runs fine, but is rusted to hell and back. The chassis seems sturdy enough, I tore off the bed and I can jump on it and it can still hold weight, but I’m wondering if it’s even worth it... It looks pretty bad, but it seems to do the job. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. I don’t know if this is the right subreddit to ask this on, but any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Is there anything I can do to remove the rust or prevent it from getting worse? The body is rusted too but I don’t really care about the aesthetics, it’s a farm truck.

Answer 1

When you know, you know.

And if you thinking "I can jump on it" is your way of certifying it, you need to take it to somebody else, likely the scrap yard.

Answer 2

Any rust on a vehicle will spread if left untreated. If everything's rusted out, you need a new truck unless you're just going to replace the whole body plus whatever other parts are rusted out.

Answer 3

I'm no mechanic, but I've been doing some research into rust repair lately. I have a car with rusty rockers and I wanted to fix it myself. Basically the only way you can repair rust is to cut it out and weld in new metal. So far as I can tell it is usually worth it to weld in new sheet metal for the body. It usually isn't worth it for frame rot because it's a higher risk and more labor intensive job.