Frame restoration - did it myself

subd

 

SUB'D!!! Totally going to do this later in the year. My truck needs it, I love it and I want to take care of it.

 

Dang nice job bro, it looks brand new

 

Any issues getting to the forward sections of the frame? I read earlier that the OP got to it all with 1" foam brushes, but I just did the same to touch up a few spots with Ospho and it was pretty drippy, as well as tough to access (from the underside, through the wheel wells, etc.). Anyone have some tips?

 

I see you have a first gen. So I’m not sure what is different. On my second gen I just put on all my PPE and a headlamp. Crawling around under the truck was the hardest part. I would take a break thinking a section was done only to look at something from a different angle and see more rust
I realize how lucky I was to have the truck on jack stands for 3 weeks because I had already bought my new truck.
Just take your time if you can

 

Thanks, @SaphiraTaco ! I guess I'll just be prepared to get dirty I went ahead and got the internal frame coat done, waiting to get my DR350S starting consistently before I take the bed off and go to town on the Taco ...

 

To OP, great work!

I'm in the process of buying my first Tacoma.
The truck was driven up north (salt) for the first five years.
Then owner moved down to South (no-snow/salt) for the past six years.
The frame was replace along with the leaf springs in 2014.

The truck, however, still show some sign of rust spot on area and parts that did not get replace under the recall.
I have pictures for anyone that want to pitch in their advice.

The truck is an 2006 Tacoma 4x4 with 180k miles.
I have been back and forth with this truck not sure if I should pull the plug and buy it or not.
As far as I can tell, the truck would need some rust treatment on areas that is critical.

No sure if it's a good call or not.. Thanks everyone for the input!

 

Look fixable to me. But I had another vehicle to use while I took my time removing rust... Looks like the fame and leaf springs are in good shape. Tow hitch is easy to remove and work on. Guess the price will make this a deal for you.

 

@SaphiraTaco that looks great! I dare say even better than mine turned out. Sorry for the late reply, I've been busy. I actually sold my tacoma to my brother (keeping it in the family like you did haha). It always makes me happy that people see this and decide they can do it too.
I also got a new truck The frame is covered in a super thick grease, so no worries on that part. It was the first thing I looked at when buying it.

If you're looking to sell your Tacoma (I kept mine for another 3 years) this will make your truck worth so much more to people.

 

Thanks for the inspiration @SeNate
I actually completed the frame restoration specifically to sell my truck. The frame rust was the only bad thing I could see.
I got a great price also so win win

 

Taking the bed off used up all the project time I had allocated to my frame painting, but excited to get started with the needle scaler tomorrow ... only a week late!

 

So this is probably going to be an unpopular opinion here, but I would definitely not do this job again. It was hard, uncomfortable, labor-intensive, and time-consuming. For a truck I bought for $2,500 - I should have just wire-wheeled/brushed and used a pressure-washer to degrease the back-end (without any disassembly) and sprayed Ospho over everything. I think that would have been about 90% of the benefit and 5% of the time.

Someone asked for time estimates up-thread, here's what it took me. Note, I only did from the back to just before the front wheel wells (my front looks pretty good and space constraints in the back-yard kept me from getting at the front). Add some hours to do the whole job.

• Needle-gunning: 8 hours
• Degreasing/Washing: 1 hour
• Rust Converter: 3 hours (less time needed than painting as the whole truck didn't need to be covered)
• Sanding/Air-gunning surfaces: 1 hour
• Painting: 6 hours
• Total project time: 18 hours

Here are my tips/findings.

• As others have mentioned, if you could get a decent angle on everything, it would probably be faster, but a lot of time is wasted just trying to get into position (I left the truck on its wheels as the ground was pretty soggy for jackstands, but did remove the bed).
• Get full chem goggles or a face shield, even when needle-gunning. I was wearing 'sport' safety glasses as that's what I had up here, and shit flew in the sides all the time, especially when laying down. Took some breaks to eye-flush, especially when needle-gunning. In the same vein, dust mask for needle-gunning, and respirator for painting. Even outside, working up-close to the acid-based rust converters and paint is pretty harsh. My 3M worked great to protect me.
• I applied with foam brushes and a quart can. The foam brushes were exceptionally frustrating. While okay on flat surfaces, they don't apply paint very well to round surfaces (think axle/diff and tow bar), and they don't spread paint well enough on medium pitted surfaces/seam welds, especially upside down. A rattle can of Eastwood would be a helpful addition as the forceful spray would better coat pitting, apply to welds, and get the rounded surfaces done. In addition, I went through about 18 foam brushes - I actually used so many I had to stop painting and go down to Lowe's to get more! While the foam brushes kept some stiffness for the first few dippings in the paint, they very quickly became paint-logged and floppy, and lost all stiffness, which made them very difficult to use, especially upside-down or when trying to force paint into narrow places. In addition, the coarseness of the surface ripped the foam apart, and they quickly disintegrated/tore apart. I really needed firm tips to dab paint into weld-seams on the frame, and a flat brushing surface to get the long straight-aways. The foam brushes provided neither for very long. For what it's worth, I've used foam brushes quite a bit for marine varnishing, and this is the first time I've had issues like this. I used the multi-pack 'Project Source' ones from Home Depot/Lowe's - not sure if there are better ones.
• I used Eastwood Rust-Converter on heavily-rusted areas and then top-coated everywhere with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. The Eastwood Rust-Converter DOES NOT work with a standard trigger-bottle head, despite their assertions to the contrary. It is thick, and very quickly clogged/broke the spray head. To spray hard-to-reach places that the foam brush couldn't get to, I switched to Ospho, which is thinner and sprays very well with a standard trigger spray head (like what you have on a Windex bottle). The Rust Encapsulator, on the other hand, is a great product that creeps very well and spreads smoothly.

Anyways, here's the finished product, now to cut holes in the bed so I can get the nuts out and re-secure them.

 

Might just have to take your advice and do a quick wire wheel and brush on por15. Thanks for the great write up

 

Just to echo everyone else, as well - the mini needle-gun from HarborFreight was great, though it did punch some holes in the bumper where it was really rusted out! Someone up-thread asked what size tank it needed, the packaging says it needs 7+ gallons as I recall, but I used it with a six gallon tank, and it had more than enough pressure. Especially underneath, you'll often take your hand off the trigger to shift position, and the tank has time to recharge. Even doing the flat surfaces, I always seemed to have enough to rip. It did a great job pulling off old frame-coat that looked fine, but was rusted underneath, and that the brush would have left intact. Definitely a requirement to do this job all the way.

 

I'd try the Ospho, first. Spraying that is going to be a lot easier than brushing POR15, and will probably get better coverage. It's not the sort of thing that's going to get it all done (for instance rust underneath the frame coating is pretty common), but I'd just plan on doing it once every six months or a year. It turns the rust black, so you can just go underneath and touch-up any new places every once in a while. I don't think trying to resurrect is worth it, but slowing it down ... definitely

 

Not sure anyone would spend significant time on a $2,500 vehicle.

 

What does the vehicle value have to do with anything? I’d you like the truck and it’s paid for, it’s a golden goose. Take care of it! If it saves you 5 years of car payments it’s incredibly valuable.

 

I have, and have had, many myself. But going to the effort of a professional grade frame restoration isn't something I'd bother with.

 

did you have it inspected for the frame replacement before you put in all this work?