Most Shops Will Not Take a Straight Welding Job
Body shops want insurance work. Muffler shops will not touch structural steel. Dealerships quote a whole new assembly. So when a frame rail cracks behind the cab, a receiver hitch tears loose, or a rocker panel rusts through, most people get bounced between three places and end up nowhere. We take the welding job. We come to your driveway, your shop, or your yard with a fully equipped rig, cut back to sound metal, fit new material where it is needed, and weld it properly. MIG for sheet and body panels, stick for heavy frame work, TIG for stainless and aluminum.
Automotive Welding Work We Handle
• Truck frame rail cracks and fish-plate reinforcement
• Receiver hitch mounts, tabs, and gusset repair
• Exhaust hangers, flanges, and tube sections
• Rocker panels, floor pans, and cab corner rust repair
• Bed and body mount repair
• Custom headache racks, bed racks, and toolbox mounts
• Bumper mounts, winch plates, and off-road brackets
• Aluminum flatbed, toolbox, and ramp fabrication
• Roll pan, skid plate, and rock slider fabrication
• Fleet vehicle bracket and mount repair We work on pickups, work trucks, Jeeps and off-road builds, restoration projects, box trucks, vans, and fleet vehicles.
Frame Repair Done Safely
A cracked truck frame is not a place to improvise. Frame steel is high-strength, it is under constant torsional load, and a bad repair concentrates stress rather than distributing it. Our process: stop-drill the crack tip so it cannot travel while we work, grind a full V-groove for complete penetration, weld multi-pass with low-hydrogen 7018, then fish-plate or gusset across the high-stress zone so load spreads over a wider area. We never weld across a frame rail flange in a straight transverse line, because that creates the exact stress riser that starts the next crack. Done right, the repaired section is stronger than the original.
Rust Repair: Cutting Back to Real Metal
Tennessee humidity plus winter road treatment eats rockers, cab corners, bed supports, and floor pans. The temptation is to weld a patch over the rot. That fails, because rust keeps working underneath and the patch falls off with a chunk of the original panel attached. We cut back to sound steel, fabricate a patch panel to fit the opening, butt-weld it in with stitched passes to control warping, then grind flush and seal both sides. We handle the metal side of the job. Filler, bodywork, and paint are usually finished afterward by a body shop, and we leave the repair ready for them.
Custom Truck Fabrication
A lot of our automotive work is not repair at all. It is building the thing that does not exist off the shelf: a headache rack sized to a specific bed, a winch plate for a bumper that was never designed for one, toolbox brackets on a flatbed, tie-down points where you actually need them, or a ladder rack that clears the cab. Tell us what you haul and how you use the truck. We measure on site, fabricate to fit, and weld it in place. Steel or aluminum depending on weight and finish.
What Automotive Welding Costs in East Tennessee
Exhaust hangers, flanges, and simple bracket welds typically run $150 to $350. Receiver hitch and mount repair generally lands between $250 and $550. Frame crack repair with reinforcement usually runs $400 to $1,100 depending on access and how much has to come apart. Rust panel fabrication and custom racks are quoted after we see the vehicle, because condition and fitment drive the hours more than material does. Quotes are free. Send a photo of the damage with the year, make, and model and we can usually price it before we come out.