cleaning inside of frame

hello,

questions concerning the inside of my frame. i noticed recently that i have a decent build up of dirt in this specific area (pic provided).

curious what you pro's do to clean the inside of your frame. also, are there otherareas that are prone to dirt buildup that i need to pay attention to. most everywhere else (it seems) is easily cleaned with a pressure washer. thanks!

 

The fact the drain holes are so small and get blocked so easy does not help .

I point the front down hill and wash the best I can Then get the back end down hill and wash some more.

If I am not soaked I did a poor job.

it end to enlarge the drain holes.

 

cool thanks. it seems like this particular little cubby doesn't even have a drain hole. it's hard to even get fingers back there. just a perfect little pocket for dirt to get trapped in.

 

When I rebuilt my frame, I took a step drill bit and carbide burr to all the factory drain holes and opened them to 1/2" or better and then added additional ones with a drill and die grinder anywhere it looked like water or material would get caught.

Like so.

 

The first time I cleaned mine it was over half full of dirt. Just running water through it on a slope wasn’t getting it done, so I ran a plumbers snake through it as the water was running. This helped break up the dirt and it all eventually came out.

 

Really any frame hole you can get a hose nozzle / pressure washer in is a good place to clean. I've found plugging the factory holes in the wheel wells does wonders for keeping them clean longer too. Left open your tires just fling stuff inside slowly over time, especially bad if you're in the salt belt

 

Does anyone know for sure if the little pockets right above the rear tires are the only place where dirt can intensely collect (bc there is no hole)?

 

I don't know if that's the only place. There are holes I have seen get clogged in other places- IIRC I'm thinking body mounts.

 

The entire boxes part of my frame was over half full of dirt.

 

I looked at a 99 once that was half full of sand. If you get clay in there it can be extremely difficult to get it out. Mud can be quite corrosive too.

 

I bought a beater 96 years ago that was full to the factory holes with mud. After power washing for an eternity, I'm pretty sure most of the frame structure came out with the mud. Definitely a maintenance thing that gets overlooked a lot

 

The problem (obviously) is the dirt retains moisture, which makes the frame rust from the inside out. Every pocket that could hold dirt on my frame resulted in holes through the material. It would have been better if they had either not put any holes in them to begin with, or plastic plugs on the ones that were needed for some option or assembly fixture but not utilized.

 

Yea mud can also have a fairly high salinity, which obviously compounds the rust problem.

 

Foamy engine degreaser. Use a straw and stick it in the hole. Pressure wash everything after the degreaser soaks for 20min.

When it's dry, hose everything down with fluidfilm or equivalent.

 

Needed to inspect my 99 Tacoma frame for potential repair. Bought a 25-foot drain cleaning hose that attaches to a pressure washer on one end and has fittings that look like salt or pepper shaker tops on the other. Fed in through hole at one end, ran it back and forth for 20 minutes. Did a great job. If I'd learned/done this starting 20 years ago I wouldn't need frame repair.

 

use compressed air with a blow nozzle attachment and a hand pick to loosen up sediments in hard-to-get-at cavities and blow that shizzz out

 

The best way I've found to clean inside the frame is to use the pressure washer. There are two types of cleanout:

Non-boxed reinforcement sections - these are places like the OP found - largely under the bed - where sections of the frame have reinforcing. They can be cleaned by directly inserting the pressure washer into the various holes and blasting out anything that's in there. Easy peasy, though a bit messy, as some of the gunk is bound to come straight back at you.

The forward, boxed portion of the frame - this is largely forward of the leaf spring hangers, and is much harder to clean out. Lots of dirt can build up in this section of the frame, and since it's boxed, that dirt gets wet and then holds moisture, destroying the frame from the inside out. The best way to clean it is with a sewer cleanout attachment for the pressure washer. The process is this:

1. Using a step-drill, enlarge the drain holes in the bottom of the frame and/or make a couple new ones. Make the holes 5/8" diameter or so, such that you can get a good flow of water out of them. I enlarged/made one at the rear of the boxed section on each side of the truck, and there was already a rectangular drain hole at the front end of the boxed section of frame.
   
   
   
   
2. Pick up a sewer cleanout attachment for the pressure washer from amazon. Look for one that has a rotating nozzle, as the rotation helps to lift the jet up and over obstructions in the frame as you move it around.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Insert into the large round holes on the side of the frame and run it completely down the interior to the rear of the frame, feeding it back and forth while on full pressure washer power. Watch as all kinds of dirty water (and probably rust) comes spilling out of the enlarged drain holes you made earlier. Cringe.
   
   
   
   
4. Continue to rinse out the frame until nothing is coming out. Don't forget to run the hose forward in the frame as well.