Should I buy?

Hello guys,

I'm trying to get into the wonderful world of Tacoma ownership, and I've been scouring the interweb for used Tacos in my price range. My favorite is the first gen, but I'm not opposed to the newer generations. I want a potential Marty McFly truck (extended cab, V6, stick shift, 4x4, diff locker) and I found one in Kentucky with 67,000 miles. With all the rust issues, however, I was leary when I found out it had spent some time up north. I have some pictures that the dealer sent of the undercarriage and I was hoping some of the more experienced out there could shed some light for me.

Thanks!

 

It's a 2003, btw.

 

pics dont work

 

I cannot see pics

 

Also, they want $14,978 for it. I was hoping to talk them down a couple grand.

 

Looks like they painted over rust to me

 

They may have added a little undercoating, but overall the undercarriage looks pretty good.

 

Yeah looks they painted over the rust to me as well. Regarding painted over rust, just for what it's worth, a couple weeks ago I installed a bilstien 5100s and AAL lift on a second gen tacoma, 2013 for crying out loud. I was all giddy to do the install, being on such a new truck that customer tells me had no rust. Well he brings the newish taco over and it's rusted to hell, granted it's surface rust but excessive for the year looks 10 years older, but the dealer spray painted that damn rust converter shit on all the nuts and bolts of the suspension, everything. This made it so the penetrant, pb blaster, I was out of acetone/atf, couldn't get to any of the rust underneath. This made everything take twice as long.
Just so you know what to expect if you get into a truck that has had the rust 'fixed' with that shitty convertor stuff. Now anything you can get a quality impact on, usually comes off either way. But the nuts and bolts that have rust and rust converter on them that you can't get impact or torch on, have to get cut off. Everything is doable and replaceable, but at what expense.

 

Read long boring post above if you want to know about dealing with paint 'converted' rust.

 

I thought it looked like painted over rust, too. I saw pit-shaped dots in the paint the way the light hit it. I don't want to spend a chunk of change on a rolling rust bucket with hidden rust issues. I know these trucks have had problems, but my parents bought a 2001 new, drove it in TN and still has no pitted metal and was never "treated" at the dealer for rust. It has 240K on it now. I thought I could get a way with buying a southern truck, so maybe I should keep looking.

 

Looks like a hole in front of the hanger. Looks like it was sprayed recently. Probably to make it look better than what it really is.

 

I agree that it looks painted which is something id avoid. Honestly you should look for one with more miles (120k ish) and pay half that price. Then you'll have that much more money to dump into mods.

 

I appreciate it, guys. I think I will keep looking. I just joined today, and yall have been all over this thread I posted this morning. This is a powerful tool. Thanks again. Any other advice you might have on buying a first Taco would be appreciated, as well.

 

Don't let mileage scare you as long as it's been halfway decently maintained. Also with mileage will come normal things that wear out, ball joints, bushings, shocks, etc. So don't let that stuff make you think a truck is a lemon.
Be scared of rust. Rust complicates any improvement or mods or even routine maintenance.

 

the hardest part of every job is the rusted and seized bolts.

 

Yeah I got spoiled primarily working on cruisers I guess. On other stuff it all gets cut and replaced I guess
Edit: by this I mean I think cruisers hardware is treated that they use from factory. Anodized, I guess.

 

That is a dimple that all taco frames have, it looks like a can opener pressed the tip into the frame, I think it's from the manufacturing process.

That black shit covers a lot up, if you are close to the truck I'd pole around with a screwdriver and see if it to solid. Hard to tell in the pictures.

 

My frame doesn't have any holes there.

 

It's not a hole. They are dimples. I'll go take a picture of mine.

It's hard to tell with my rust check and dirt all in the dimples. But you can tell they are factory dimples from a machine during manufacturing. My 2004 has them all along the bottom side of my frame rails.