Frame rehab plans on my 99

You can do it lol but yes start spraying everything now with pb blaster

 

Since time is somewhat of the essence on this project I've decided to just buy the OEM body mount brackets (both rear ones) rather than try and fab up my own. Browsing the various OEM parts websites I've come across two part numbers for what looks to be the same part:

51705-35170 and 51705-35110

The first one comes from a parts catalogue for a 2001-2004, and the second for my year (1999). There's a significant price difference between the two with the 2001-2004 one being cheaper, even though they appear to do the same thing. Did Toyota make changes to the frame or body mounts in those years? Unless there's a huge difference I'm planning on ordering the less expensive ones...

 

And so it begins...

More pics to follow...

 

Dinner break... holy crap. You learn a lot about your truck and yourself when you start something like this. Started working on removing the bed yesterday afternoon when I got home from work, and finally got the damned thing off around 7pm, so about 3 hours. Rusty bolts are from the devil...

As it stands now I have the brake lines drained and disconnected, the fuel lines drained and mostly disconnected (waiting on PB blaster to work on the fitting closest to the gas tank), the coolant drained and disconnected, the AC disconnected (had it evacuated the other day), and anything else I could see connecting the cab to the engine. I've been taking lots of pictures, which I'll post in a bit.

The biggest discovery was more a confirmation of something I suspected, that there is another and much larger hole in the frame under the driver's seat. What blows my mind was how it was "repaired." A previous owner took sheet metal...not sure what gauge, but very thin, and made an aesthetic patch, and slathered it with what kind of looks and feels like roofing tar. I knew that area was going to need my attention, but I'm rather flabbergasted at how idiotic, stupid, ignorant, mind-numbingly dumb, and terrible the previous owner's attempt was. The good news for me is that all around the hole the metal is original thickness, so welding reinforcement pieces won't be a problem.

What's left for this evening... undo the mounting bolts and get the cab lifted. My goal before I collapse in a heap (my arms are rubber from fighting rusted bolts all day) is to have the cab up on the wooden frame I'll build under it so that tomorrow I can begin removing the undercoating...

My wife might need eye surgery to repair the damage she has sustained from all of the eye rolling she has done today...

 

You might look at products at www.monstaliner.com.

Both encapsulator and finishes. I think they are quite competitive to Eastwood with great quality.

 

I am in

 

Hahahaha, you gotta chuckle outta me.

 

Lifting the cab is slow going... taking a break...

 

You bet your ass it's gonna be slow going if you're laying down with your feet crossed! No wonder the old lady is gonna need eye surgery! just messing with ya amigo. Lol

 

Ha! I was just stalling at that point. It was getting precarious with every inch. The whole cab was teetering and I didn't have much faith in my blocks.

All's well now though. Took forever to get high enough over the transmission for the cross bar. Talk about nerves.

Dinner break now though. Then I'll build some legs for the support to get it all the way off the frame...then I'm done for the day. Wrenching on rusty bolts is exhausting...

 

Well expletive... damage is more extensive than I initially thought. The day was spent getting my wooden support structure totally built so the cab is now entirely off the frame. Then I went around with a small hammer to use percussion to get the loose rust chunks to break free. An alarming amount of rust came chunking off. Turns out the typical rust hole near the front leaf spring hanger is more extensive, and the passenger side is a few whacks of a hammer from breaking through. So I'm kind of taking an emotional break...haha. Necessity is the mother of all motivators... I'll figure it out. What I think I will do is have the local machine shop I've talked to make my own version of the Safe T Cap, only I'll extend mine further down the frame.

Certainly feeling like I've bitten off more than I can chew here, but at this point that's kind of a moot point. One chew at a time now...

 

A few inspirational quotes from the red green show to help you through this

Keep your stick on the ice

Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together.

Edit red green was a Canadian tv show that I loved, you guys might not know what I m talking about

 

Haha, Red Green is a classic. I recall one where he spliced a car together with duct tape, or something like that. Perfect inspiration!

Yeah, after staring at it for a good while I'll just do what I was thinking and make a Safe T Cap on steroids for each side...

Thanks for the moral support!

 

Now go show that frame who is BOSS !

 

Really nice to see you made progress on this man. The cancer that is a Toyota frame is emotionally devestating ha .

 

That's the only way to do it proper anyway I really hate when I see people patching frames with all just scraps welded all over the place you need one complete piece to tie it together or down the road you're going to end up with the same problems

 

So here is a panorama of the damage on the driver's side. The driver's side is definitely the worse, although the passenger's side will need attention. I'm probably going to preempt any future issue and do to the passenger's side what I will do to the driver's side, or at least 75% of what I'll do.

This picture is the result of me aggressively smacking on the frame with a hammer (not a ball peen, but a smaller metal working hammer). As the hammer would strike the seemingly solid areas would break loose, and chunks would start falling. I'm kicking myself for not finding this when I bought the truck, although I did tap fairly hard, and it did sound solid. Anyway, I've got some more smacking to do, but the extent of what I will do won't really change I don't think.

This picture shows up to where the transfer case is, and there is damage forward of that, so I will basically encase the entire driver's side up to the engine in a "U" of new metal. The top third of that entire section is solid, so I will bring the "U" probably within an inch of the top. The outside of the frame is also solid, so I don't have to bring it up as far.

The passenger's side is not anywhere close to being as bad, although the area where the leaf spring meets the frame is compromised. Hard smacking might reveal some more damage, so I'll do that, and then reassess. Either way I'll make my own Safe T Cap-esque piece for the passenger's side, only I might not have to extend it so far down the frame.

I'll have to remove my brake lines on the driver's side which will probably break the frame mounts, and with the new metal I'll have to figure a new way to attach them.

This has certainly exploded into a much larger project than I anticipated, but I'm not about to throw in the towel, and really can't afford to. The next couple of days will be getting patterns made to take to the metal shop. Part of the reason for doing the panorama is that I can make a paper pattern based on the pictures in photoshop that will at least get me started. Then I can trace the paper onto some plywood and cut it out. I can fine tune from there.

I'm working the next 5 out of 6 days, then I'm on vacation with the wife, so there won't be any substantive work done until I get back. My goal is April 8 to be done... at this point it's hard to picture that being achievable. One step at a time.

 

You have your work cut out for you !

I included a few pictures of a 2004 i bought that someone else had repaired with angle iron

ZOOM in on the first picture above the sway bar and you can see more frame rot, you might want to check in the same place on yours

I have searched all the scrap yards in my area and there are ZERO frames, they all met the same fate.

I have been researching making my own frame rails or if i could use a different frame older or newer, 4 runner, tundra, or just use it for its inteded purpose as a parts truck for my 02 .....

Keep up the good work !


It looks like the po took flat bar for the bottom then angle iron, this might be a suggestion for you as you have your truck apart now might be the time to REINFORCE it ALL

 

Yeah I don't expect to ever do this again so I'm going to do it right or not at all.

Which leads me to this question:

Cut out the rust or treat it (Ospho, etc) and just cap over it? I'm a little concerned about supporting the frame if I cut out all suspect areas...

 

I would definitely try my best to cut out as much rotted metal as you can that way it doesn't sit in there and fester causing more rust support everything with Jack Stands then before you weld everything just tack it up then measure it the best you can when I was finished with mine and a lot of it was a shot in the dark because my spring mounts were rotted off I ended up with in a sixteenth of an inch which is close enough