Yet another rust story - how screwed am I?

The new frame has been completely prepped and treated. We’re now waiting on the new suspension to come in; going with Fox 2.5s (with reservoir) front, likely an add a leaf and Fox shocks in the rear. I’ll post some pics when the new frame is ready.

Lots of activity on the body of the truck though. Completely repainted to the factory original color, dashboard that was fading has been dyed back to the original color and looks new again. Once the truck nears completion I’ll put up a separate build thread on it. Love how this truck is turning out!

 

New frame looks awsome !! You guys are doing a first class job on it. Not to Jack your thread but does anyone know if 4Rinners have similar frame issues ? Going to go look at a 2007 and am wondering. This is a truck that has been up here in NYS it's entire life. Good luck with yours and keep up the great work.

 

I believe the 4Runners sourced their frame from a different vendor; not 100% sure though.

 

I know older 4runner frames were prone to rot in certain areas, but not sure if it was as large an issue as the Tacoma's, or simply because they were 15+ years old.

 

Old 4 runners frames rusted out at the frame arch and the last 1/3'rd of the frame and the X member.

Yota could have fixed most of the issues a decade and 1/2 ago if they had just galvanized them, I still don't understand why they don't do it to this day myself.

 

I had a 1992 remeque snowmobile trailer that was galvanized and it didn't have a spec of rust on it. It was a snowmobile trailer, so its whole life was winter use.

It can be done, and should be done, these trucks last a long time, but if the frame rots than the rest of the truck isn't much good.

 

I agree that galvanizing frames and rust prone parts would solve a lot of problems, but unfortunately, if manufacturers start galvanizing stuff, their cars won't rust and rot anymore and people won't buy new cars, or at least, much less often. Manufacturers don't want this.

Actually rust and rot is to the manufacturers' advantage, as it makes people buy cars after a while, when owners are tired of fixing rust or when the car breaks in half

Also, if manufacturers ever end up doing so, they will refill the costs to the buyers, making the cars more expensive

Of course, there is still the option of rustproofing, but it has to be done since new, as if it is done when there is rust already, it's too late (depending on the severity of the rust)

 

Toyota does. Up here a Tacoma will look like that in 5-7 years. Hence they are worth nothing on CL

 

I'm talking about the owners. Yes, Toyota didn't properly coat or protect the frames, but do people only look at the bottom of their trucks every 5-7 years?!

 

They rot from the inside out quickly. That one isn't bad at all honestly.... You can look at it but there's not much you can do about it, salt spray gets in unimaginable places.

 

Been a little while, time for an update. We're waiting on the new suspension to arrive but it's close so the process of pulling the old frame off has begun. Thanks to some advice here I found a video about how to remove the frame without pulling the motor - took my brother's guys all of about 5 hours to drop the frame off (bed was already removed) by keeping the motor mounted. Here are some pics of the freshly painted cab on the lift sans frame:






Next up, the frames...

 

It's not until the old frame is completely pulled that you can appreciate how bad it was. For perspective I tried to match up pics of the old frame with the new frame where possible. The new frame came from a California based Tacoma - it was perfect, though my brother cleaned the hell out of it, prepped it and painted it with a couple of coats of POR-15. Keep in mind that the old frame had been cleaned with a couple passes of naval jelly to try and remove the surface rust.

 

damn that looks all sorta bad but glad you getting a new frame

 

For those still watching this thread, Rusty now has a build thread

 

Wow!!! That is some serious rust there!!!!

 

Dan, that looks bad

 

sadly its the second worst one ive seen. theres been one other that was even worse since then

 

I realize this is an old post, but dude, that truck just wasn't worth what you did to it. Whatever you did. Anything with that much rust is a goner, eventually. There's no way to solve a rust problem like that short of tearing the whole thing down to every little part and restoring it from the ground up. Rust like that will never sleep.

 

.. he replaced the frame 6 posts above yours.

 

Well, now that I have traveled further on your restoration it seems that you are doing it the right way. But what about the rust on every component on the truck I saw rust everywhere from the A-Arms to everything that was ferrous metal under the truck.