New Member - 2008 Taco with Frame rot

Hello everyone. I hope this doesn’t violate anything as I am new to the forum and this is my first post. My buddy passed away a couple of years ago and left his 2008 Taco to his parents. Anyway I was getting ready to purchase this from them but they wanted to get it checked out before to make sure it was in great running order. Everything was good except for some major frame rust. I told her to have that checked for sure when she took it in. Anyway, the dealerships that she took it to and Toyota said that it is passed all time frames to get this covered and they will not do anything.
At this point I don’t even plan on buying it, I just want to see if I can help them out. Was curious if anyone knew of any dealerships in the Midwest (we are near St. Louis) that are helping out with anything. Also, didn’t know if anyone would be interested in this for parts. It’s a 2008 TRD access cab with 98k miles in it.

 

Has the truck spent all it’s life in MO?

 

Yes it has. It was one owner until he passed. Then his parents took it. Neither of them used this truck to its potential. It was never off road once. He was a bigger guy and just fit in it well and loved the visibility and reliability of it.

 

Can you post some pics of the frame? It may not be a big deal and worth buying if it's only surface rust.

 

I’ll see if the dealer took any photos of it and gave them to them. If not I could run over there and get some. They first took it to their normal mechanic that is a friend of the family. He told them that he didn’t think they should be driving it.

 

Definitely post some pictures like said worth a thousand words

 

Are there certain areas of the frame in particular that are a major problem spot?

 

Crawl under the truck near where your feet would be. You’ll see 2 football shaped things in the exhaust pipe. Look at the frame beside those. If you see a hole the size of a dime, that’s bad. If you see a hole the shape and size of an iguana, that’s really, really bad.

 

I've done two frame repairs to first gen. Do you know anyone that welds? This really is a fixable problem. It just takes some skill and man hours.

 

Unfortunately, I don’t really know anyone. It would be nice if I had some more contacts for this type of thing.

 

Lol! What about a pterodactyl shaped hole the size of a pea?

 

Trying bro. Calm down

 

Welcome to The Forum!

 

Not sure what your situation is but I didn't know a damn thing about welding before I encountered frame rot on my 1998 Tacoma. I taught myslef, took an into class, and bought a welder and was able to save my truck. I did have a neighbor that is a welder check my work but I did 98% of the work myself.

Check out my post history.

 

Frame repair using saf t caps

 

compare to others:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rust-prevention-treatment-consolidation-thread.355928/

 

Thank you everyone for the wealth of information in such a short time. Turns out the family just sold it to a local Toyota enthusiast within the last hour. They were both happy with the transaction and honestly I feel that it was a very fair deal. He was a friend of a friend so it really couldn’t have gone any better. Thanks again.