Rust on frame - too much?

If you look closely at my avatar you would see I am driving FZJ80 which is 18 years old and has frame in better shape then my 2007 has, despite me repainting frame few times already I did not have to touch frame on my FZJ80. Paint job quality is not there on 2gen Tacoma. That's the only thing that was not overbuild or oversized. Every other part of that truck has been designed to last forever. Can not see how the same eng would overlook such thing if they spend so much time overbuilding one vehicle in Toyota fleet.

 

Just curious: When did they move production out of Japan?

 

im guessing 1995.

 

Planned obsolescence makes no sense for cars. Profit margins are about 10% for new cars. Profit margins are about 300% for spare parts. It is actually profitable for Toyota if you kept your truck forever and just replace bits and pieces as they wear out. No idea why the frames are more rust-prone now, especially since Toyota switched frame supplier from Dana (1st gen) to Hino (2nd gen). Wonder if the Hino heavy trucks also rust this badly.

 

Wonder what that sticker is made of.

 

Take a look at my rear axle. Noticed the rust when installing my Timbren + U-bolt flip kit. This is after two winters. Areas within reach of the car wash's floor nozzles are in good condition. Areas covered by the stock U-bolt perch are rusty. It is important to hose down the undercarriage in the winter.



The allen fill plug I installed before last winter is still in good shape.

 

Also that area would have trapped salt laden silt against the axle , there are many voids in the frame that hold silt as well

 

It doesn't help that my company's parking lot is salted white like Bonneville in the winter.

 

Holy crap ^^^^

 

That is how all of chicagoland looks in the winter.

Best is when you think it is a speed bump in the road but it just a mound of salt from when the salt trucks adjust their load in the back.

I do not think the steel is an issue. Steel is steel to a certain degree it is the coating that they choose to put on the vehicle.

Hey if they want their money at least let me pic a coating at a option that will hold up and admit the basic coating is a shit smear.

 

that's alot of rust!

 

LOL, factory POR15.

 

yeah
I had a J vin 1995 non tacoma pickup, one of the last before the started making the tacoma 95.5

 

I try to look at everything from every angle possible. So lets examine frame coating options.
1 powder coating. Very strong and long lasting. Can chip, peel, and flake with flexand rocks, etc. Can hide rust and cracks underneath. Can not be touched up.
2 Por15. almost as strong as powder coating. initial application will neutralize surface rust. Same cons as powder coat. Must be sanded down to be "properly" touched up.
3 Galvanizing. Very strong corrosion resistance. better flexibility than 1 or 2. expensive and time consuming to apply. some paints and coating don't adhere to it well. Must be heated up to be properly touched up.
4 Paint. Fast application. Best flexibility. Cracks and rust easily visible through it. Easily chips on rocks, trees, etc. Easily touched up. Top coatings such as undercoating adhere well.

 

Here'a few other things about the salt issue. True it would be good to coat or dip frames in better materials to stop corrosion. Again, Eastwood has some stuff that works well. The thing is most of us spend more time looking and maintaining the top of the truck and don't look enough at the under carriage. I you can find a car wash that does the undercarriage use it if you don't have a shop to do it yourself. I've been told that the corrosion from salt happens when it gets above 32 degrees. So the worse thing you could do is come in off the salted road to a warm garage with all the crap on it.

When I called MO Dot about the salt I spoke with a supervisor and he agreed with me about the salt and said they had corrected some of these crews that were just over salting the roads and bridges. The cost is big due to damage. They are mixing beet juice with the salt treatment so that they have to use less salt. He also said that the general public has this idea that even after a snow storm, they should be able to drive 70 mph on the highway, so they are caught between a rock and a hard place. Years ago a legislator ran for office in PA. who said he wanted to do away with salt or using so much of it. I guess he lost. I remember getting on the turnpike at Donegal, PA. a few years back and it had snowed. I remember literally driving over piles of salt on the road. I think rather than plowing the road they just dumped salt on it. When I got back to MO that night the truck got a shower before I did. Awful. So, I don't go back there in the winter anymore.

 

While the OP's pictures look like a lack of proper maintenance for the conditions, I wonder how much of the frame rust others experience has to do with changes in paint formulation due to environmental regulations? Lead based paint would probably never rust through, especially if it was embedded with asbestos fibers.

 

This maybe true, but I like to chew on the paint chips that fall off my frame, I would be screwed!

 

Just few points here
1. Guess what happens when you wash your truck with water while its -14F. If you guessed IceBrick you guessed right.

2. Washing only works for people way below salt belt living in paved communities driving to work over very frequent roads. Those living in salt belt where you need 4x4 just to get out of your driveway would need to wash truck daily and dry in warm place. Guess what,,, if you keep steel wet all the time with water that has PH under 7 its going rust even quicker.

The problem is simple Toyota put very little corrosion protection on this trucks. There are engine parts that rust like crazy then there are parts that sit next to rusted once that look like they brand new. Since parts tend to come from different manufacturers its easy to see there are ways to make that truck better corrosion resistant but Toyota had chosen not to.

 

That's a short and incomplete list. Powdercoating and stardard paint are not suitable for an undercoating application. Undercoating is typically a very thick, rubberized/oily product.

Check out products like Tnemic coatings. They impregnate themselves into the steel surface and can not be removed, not even with an angle grinder. The product soaks into the steel to protect it. It's overly cheap but if it was applied at the factory before anything else is put on the frame, it wouldn't add THAT much cost to the overall truck vs. the coatings they use currently.