Frame Rust Second Opinions Needed

Hey guys, going to potentially look at a truck over the weekend. Here's what he sent me for frame pictures. Looks kinda iffy to me, especially the second one but I'm no expert. Thanks!

 

Looks mostly like surface rust but you're not gonna be able to tell for sure till you see it in person and bang on it

 

Yeah surface rust for sure, gonna need to address that quickly though before it gets worse.
Bring a hammer.

 

Where is the truck from

It does not appear to have been undercoated maybe it was inspected ??

Does not hurt to check .

While your in the horse trading stage if your unable to weld figure in the area of $2000.00 sooner or later to have things fixed in the frame unless your moving south .

Is a timing belt going to come into play??

 

The timing belt has been replaced (allegedly) 20k ago. The truck is otherwise clean. I asked if he knew about the frame issue and he seemed clueless. It's in Glenwood springs, CO. I'm not certain of the climate there but I'm thinking it's covered in snow 3/4's of the year.

 

My frame looked similar to this when I got my truck but it was a bit better than this. It ended up the frame was all good. Only surface rust

The frame might look solid from the outside, but these frames rot from the inside out, so the only way to tell if it is good is to hit it with a hammer, as others have sugested.

The part of the frame to check first is where the leaf springs attach to the frame, right behind the cab. It's usually the first place where these frames start to rot.

Also, I heard that the inner frame rail by the gas tank is commonly rotten on good looking but rotten frames

Since they rot from the inside out, try to poke a finger through the square holes that run along the sides of the frame rails, to see how much rust flakes and chunks there is in there. If it's full, probably not a good sign, but the hammer test is really going to tell you if this frame is still good or not

good luck

 

Wish my frame looked that good.

CO was not included in the list of cold weather states where undercoating was required, if that's were it was back in 2010-2012. What year is the truck? Extended frame warranty may be in play for model years 2002-2004. Trucks are aging out of warranty every day though (like the 2001s).

 

It's an '02. I know the rot happens from the inside but wouldn't one expect a high amount of surface rust to indicate in the very least a high exposure to salt? My 2000's frame looking pretty damn good by comparison is why I'm on the fence. The truck has 240,000 miles so it's no puppy either. It's about a 3 hour drive for me to check out so I'm just trying to get all my ducks in a row before I start making executive decisions. Thanks for all the help so far guys.