Learn from my mistakes, fixing up my old Tacoma, and hopefully avoiding a car payment

I’ve been hesitant to make a build thread because this really won’t be that exciting, but after being a member of this forum for a good while and reading through lots of great threads I thought the chronicling of rust remediation and bringing my truck back to its glory days could be helpful to someone, if not at least keeping me on track as I embark on this project.

Backstory: In 2017 I sold my 1997 extended cab Tacoma and bought a 2006 DCSB TRD OR. I’m from GA and the 97 had spent most of its life there. When I moved to NY and decided I needed a bigger cab I realized budget gave me some constraints to get what I wanted. For $15k I could get the truck and trim I wanted at 100k miles with one owner and full service records AND a new frame. The new frame was crucial as I needed a clean slate to make my new to me truck last a decade. I knew about rust, but I didn’t really know about rust.

When I bought the truck I was under the impression I could tackle the surface rust and basically keep the truck in excellent condition for the foreseeable future. I failed in two areas:
1) Most trucks that had their frame replaced had a lot of other rust issues so I’d be fighting rust forever.
2) I didn’t know I’d be starting a time demanding career and having a kid within a couple years limiting my time to keep up with the rust prevention.

In 2017 when I bough the truck I wire wheeled the underside, painted stuff with rust reformers, and fluid filmed the frame, I was good right? No. Fast forward to 2023 and the bumper and tow hitch are Swiss cheese, the tailgate is a mess, and theres holes in the rocker panels…this is all in addition to the rust that has formed on everything!

Looking back I shouldn’t have bought this truck, and instead kept the one I had or gone south for a different rust free one, but it’s paid off now and I’ve replaced a bunch of stuff so the plan is to keep it until it dies or until I get rich enough to get a new truck.

So here I am learning to weld and spending lots of time grinding off rust.

If anything this will help fill in some of the gaps where other rust threads fall short and give at least one person out there something interesting to read. And maybe, just maybe, it will keep me on track to get the big fixes done before the salt sets back in here in the Finger Lakes region of New York and I can keep driving this truck until it actually dies.

Photo of the truck when I bought it:

100k on the odometer.

And here she is today, bumper off and covered in corroseal:


150k on the odometer.

I have a company vehicle so this truck really only gets driven on the weekends, mainly during ski season. So I’m lucky that it can sit while paint dries and get taken apart while I fix stuff, unfortunately I don’t have tons of time or money so those will be my main constraints.

What follows will hopefully be coherent.

 

First off a couple lists. One for what I need to do and one for what has been done since I’ve owned the truck (not regular maintenance). Last a list of things I’d like to modify on the truck if I have time/money.

1) Replace rusted out bumper/hitch
2) Fix hole in rocker panels
3) Fix rust on frame
4) Fix rust on body

Details about 3 and 4: The frame was replaced in 2015 I think. When I got it I’m the frame was perfect. I fluid filmed it once and it’s been pretty good. I really just need to wire brush the welds, Corroseal them, spray them with rustoleum, and fluid film the whole thing really good. This is the least of the problems. Only real trouble spots are by the exhaust. That heat and the salt mush up here just accelerates the rust.

The body is a different story. When I got the truck there was som rust staining on the pinch weld. I planned on spraying the rockers inside with fluid film, but I think I forgot and well five years later I’ve got holes. The holes are near the rear of the cab on the underside. There’s also rust all along the bottom of the cab, a couple places on the bed, and in the engine bay. Excluding the bed I plan to wire wheel, corroseal, paint, and then fluid film. For the rockers, I’ll be cutting out, and welding new steel back in. I’m currently teaching myself to weld and I’m not going to beautiful, just functional. My goal is to close the holes to salt doesn’t build up and sit in there, then fluid film the living day lights out of the interior of the rockers. I’ll paint the rockers black to hide my shitty wedding skills.

I’ve also considered welding square tube steel to the bottoms of the rockers like a lot of jeep Cherokee folks do. A rocker guard lite. But I haven’t been able to find a photo of someone doing it on a Tacoma, so I’m hesitant to go that route.

What’s already been done:
-I got a pick and pull tailgate and bumper with hitch. I fixed up the bumper (there was some surface rust) and fluid filmed all inaccessible areas of both. I also took care of the rust where the bumper attaches. It’s goes on tomorrow.
-In the past couple years I’ve done

1. CVJ axles
2. New pulleys in the front and a couple new serpentine belts ‍♂️
3. New exhaust from last cat back
4. Seat covers
5. New power steering lines
6. New brake lines
7. New steel wheels (old ones would leak slowly)
8. Some new transmission lines
9. Valve cover gasket
10. New alternator
11. New coils and shocks upfront (3rd gen TRDOR)
12. New shocks in the rear (3rd gen take off)

My maintenance plan is continue to change fluids regularly, and fix things as they break.

I’ve got an abs/brake light on and a set of new tires sitting in my shed, so that will happen when it goes in for inspection.

Wish I could do list:
If money and time allow I have a small list of mods I’d like to do.

1. New head unit with Apple CarPlay and backup camera. This one really isn’t expensive and is more a if I have time thing.
2. ARB front bumper. I’ve always wanted one and just love the look plus function. If I go this route I’ll need to upgrade front suspension probably.

 

Bumper is back on today. Still waiting on the new bolts and cosmoline to keep the thing from rusting as fast this time. Really looks good compared to when I bought it.

 

In preparation for my undercoating this fall I ordered a bunch of Cosmoline RP 342 Black. I had fluid filmed in the past but I’m going to go with a different approach this year. Cosmoline everywhere I can see and treat with corroseal/paint and then fluid film on the inside of the frame rails and nooks and crannies. Im also planning on Cosmoline for the underside of the body. Something a bit more permanent than the fluid film should do the trick, as long as I’m not trapping rust to fester. I’m those spots ill fluid film.

Also getting a quote from my friends garage on exhaust manifold replacement. This truck will live on!

 

Also managed to get two coats of paint on the rear axle.



I’ll corroseal and paint the rest of the axle when I do new leaf springs and u bolts.


Also kept finding fluid film on the bumper step, realized it’s dripping down from inside the tailgate (I sprayed it when i got a new one all over the inside). And it’s been super hot out lately.

 

Rock on man! I’m following. Had no idea about the rust issues from the road salt but it makes perfect sense. It’s looking good, keep it up.

 

This is truly an experiment, not in the products or processes, but more in can a working dad who also like to ski and hunt and camp find time to rehab his truck .

In all seriousness though, there’s a ton of good info on this site regarding what I’m doing, so I’m trying to pull from all those places and put it into practice on one vehicle that really has a lot of life left in it. Engine and drive train runs strong, never has a problem that wasn’t easily solved so it just feels crazy to not get the rest of the truck in a presentable shape and then drive it as long as possible.

 

Photo of how bad the bumper was:





And the tailgate:

 

I find myself all too often taking on projects that I neither have the time nor the experience to pull it off so I know exactly how you feel. At least you know what you have when you’re done with it. I applaud you Sir.

 

My father in law is a gem and took my truck to his friends shop while I was at work today. He mounted my new tires and put TPMS sensors in all FIVE wheels (thanks 2005 Toyota for putting one in the spare). First time I can remember the TPMS light being off.

I bought the TPMS sensors from TPMSdirect.com. No trouble at all with the preprogrammed ones. $100 well spent.

I went with Cooper Discoverer AT3 4s 265/75/16. Never been unhappy with the discoverer and the mainly road driving I do. And with the 4s I should be covered a bit better for winter.



The shop also scanned my truck and now I know it’s my drivers rear abs sensor that bad, so I can replace that, do an oil change, and then have ZERO unwanted dash lights on for the first time in years!

 

With the rust issues you’ve had, just double check to make sure the magnet on the wheel bearing isn’t bad before you buy the abs sensor.

 

I’ll look into that. Thanks for the tip.

 

best way to check this? Search function isn’t showing me anything good.

 

You may have already done this, but first thing I'd recommend is checking the wiring to the sensor. You don't want to spend a ton of time troubleshooting the sensor/ bearing magnet if you have a broken wire. I think it's 12V across the two pins. If the wiring is good to the drivers rear wheel speed sensor, then it should either be the sensor, the tone ring, or both.

The only way (that I know of) to inspect the tone ring (although I don't think that's what toyota calls it) in the wheel bearing (without removing the bearing) is to take the ABS sensor off and look through the hole the sensor was in. In a rusty car, it's often impossible to remove the sensor without destroying it, which is why you first want to make sure it's not a wiring issue. I've used a borescope to do this, you look through the sensor hole for rust/ defects in the ring while spinning the wheel a full rotation. If the ring is bad you unfortunately have to replace the wheel bearing, it's not a separate part.

Hopefully it's just the sensor though. Good luck man!

 

Much appreciated! The shop my FIL took it to to used (his mechanic buddy’s garage) did a full scan with whatever new state of the art snap on tools and scanners he has and felt pretty confident it was the sensor and didn’t mention anything about it possibly being the tone ring. But checking the wiring is pretty simple so I’ll do that first. Probably going to order a sensor that is returnable just to have on hand figuring I’d break the old one regardless. Since the truck sits Monday through Thursday I’m going to start hitting the 10mm bolt with PB Blaster regularly, hopefully it comes out without too much hassle, rust seems to make 10 minute jobs turn into days long projects.

 

Nice, sounds like you've got access to some pretty nice tools, you should be all set. If you've got a sensor you can return for free then you can just give it a try if you're pretty convinced the existing sensor is garbage.

Rust sucks man, everything on my folks farm is rust welded together and it just makes things take forever.

 

Just ordered a new sensor and blasted the bolt this AM with some penetrating oil this morning. Amazingly enough the bolt head looks pretty good, not a ton of rust. Hoping it’s a quick change out and also that the light goes off.

 

For the first time in five years I have zero lights on on my dash!

Replaced the broken abs sensor (rear drivers side) and did an oil change/air filter change.

Abs sensor was a bit of a pain. 10mm nut was rounded a bit and took some vice grips to get off. Then the sensor broke in half when removing it so I had to get creative and drill it out and then put a screw in it and yank it out. Then the new one was a bit tough to get in. Put it all back together and a 1 mile drive down the road got the light off.

Oil change is no big deal, I even used an oil catch cup under the filter.

Gotta say, this truck runs amazing for a 17 year old truck, especially with the new tires.









Now it’s on to the frame and body rust.

 

Glad you got it fixed! The failed wheel speed sensors don’t like to come out of the knuckle because of the corrosion build up and they pretty much always break in two.

 

I almost didn’t even start when I couldn’t get the bolt out easily, and then I was on the verge of getting frustrated with the sensor broken off…but a quick tacomaworld search showed me the quick and easy extraction method and it needed up being a pretty simple job.

Of course when the ABS light didn’t go off immediately like it did in the video I watched I thought “it’s not the sensor it’s something else” but shortly after all my worries went away.

It’s very satisfying working on your own truck and I’m really lucky to have a company truck I drive 90% of the time so if something does take longer to fix on the Tacoma I’m not dead in the water.