Rust advice for an aspiring Taco owner

Hey everybody,

I'm looking to join the taco nation soon, and I think I found a good deal on a truck. It has relatively low miles for my price range (~130000). The only real issue I see is rust. I've attached some pictures below. It's a lot of surface rust of course, but the owner says that it passed Toyota's frame rust test. They also re-undercoated it and filled the framerails with a self-etching wax primer at that time. Is this just surface rust and the structure is ok, or is this too sketchy??

Thank you and I'm stoked to join the forum.

 

I respect your wanting an opinion of the forum, but pictures can't determine what dealers are looking for, for a frame replacement. Hit that shit with a hammer and see what's up. Also find out if it was sprayed under the Toyota recall.

 

Where are you living? What year taco? People can tell you shit on here all day long but inevitably a dealership will make the decision to replace or tell you to kick rocks

 

Thanks for your thoughts. It's a 2004. I live in washington, but it's owner is in BC quite a ways north of here.

 

Agreed. Hard to tell in the pics. Try to have it inspected by a dealer or local mechanic if it will give you peace of mind!

 

I was planning on having somebody take a look before I buy it. Unfortunately its quite a drive for me to go pick it up, but maybe I'll just have to take the risk of driving all that way and going home empty handed.

 

I have an '04 that's spent it's entire life in the North East with much less rust than that.

 

Rcvruz,
Good Luck in your pursuit of a Tacoma. I also live in Washington. If you need help, please don't hesitate to ask. I will PM you some contact information.
Take it easy,
Paul

 

I'm in Vancouver WA, 03. I'm a newb to the forum, newb to builds, outsource any work I need. So I decided to go outside just now and look for rust under my Tacoma. The guys who posted before me, listen to them, they know what they are saying I do not. But upon my newb visual inspection of mine, vs the pictures you just posted, I too would be concerned about that rust. I got nuthin under mine, and it's lived outside the PNW rain for 13 years.

Good Luck!

 

Thank you everybody! Folks on this forum are clearly very generous. I'm certainly concerned about the rust, but if it ends up just being surface rust then I would end up with a rig already done up exactly the way I want it for about 8 grand. Which seems to be quite a deal. I'm cautious after hearing from all of you, but I may take a weekend and drive out to see this guy, even if I go home empty handed after a mechanic takes a look at gives me some bad news.

 

mine looked like this, and it turned out it is only surface rust. I can see fresh shiny metal when I scratch the rust off.

Though, the real way to determine if the frame is good despite the rust is to hit it with a hammer, especially right behind the cab, in the "S" part of the frame, where the leaf springs attach to it.

If the frame turns out to be good, have it greased. You should be fine then, because the grease will keep the rust from spreading and worsening.

A tip: before having it greased, remove as much loose rust as possible

Good luck with your decision!

 

Toyota wont do anything unless there is a 10 mm hole that is found by hitting the frame with a hammer. Try around the leaf spring mounts and the inside of the central frame area.

 

That's encouraging! For what it's worth, the guy I may buy from seems to be a pretty honest dude. I know I need to be cautions regardless, but he's been very up front about other issues, and says that the rust is surface only.

 

Ah, so just because it passed Toyota's "test" doesnt mean it's ok. Gotcha. Very useful, thank you.

 

rusty trucks also have problems down teh road when you work on them. - all the bolts are seized and break. mine can not be aligned unless i get a lot of new parts. I think the steering rack bolts were seized too so new ends for that if i ever want to get it aligned. The machanic you take it too can tell you all this stuff and hopefully let you get under and check it out as well. But if its a good deal could be def worth it. Also think of how the guy used it. He put money into it so he prob took care of if but maybe he thrashed it off road too. Big tires could mean more stress on the truck. But its hard to say plenty of people put a expensive lift on and never change oil.

 

I might have to take some of these suggestions into consideration and work fast on this integra db7 maintenance. I need to inspect this 1st gen.

 

Fly and drive. Get on ebay or Craig's and find a southern truck, get a one way plane ticket and drive that rust free lady home.