frame repair( rebuild)

Thanks for your post! I'm curious, was the frame ever undercoated prior to you undertaking the repairs? I'm wondering if undercoating, and also spraying POR15, etc. into the frame is even effective given the fact that design won't allow drainage and encourages a rust from the inside out scenario. I have an '01 Ext. Cab that I got from AZ last year and I had it undercoated (and sprayed in the frame) the day I brought it back to VT. I hope that since I've undercoated it since day one in VT that the frame will last indefinitely as long as I keep undercoating it...

 

Dang, I think you are changing my mind about moving to Alaska lol. I thought we had enough rain and moisture here in Washington state. I have no experience with those coatings so I can't really help you there.

 

Just don't go to Juneau or Ketchikan... Even just 50 miles north the climate is totally different... Clouds and rain just stack up due to the topography... I LOVED Kodiak!

 

Here we are with the Safe-T-Caps all fitted ready to go for the welding!



If you look at some other threads on these caps you'll notice a common issue... They don't fit 100%... No amount of persuasion could get one end to sit flush when the other was good. So I made some cuts to allow them to fit nice and flush on both ends, really pretty simple.

 

I'm liking the tutorial as I am just starting frame repair on my 71 bronco, not quite as bad as your frame though. Detailers use compressed air to clean out areas where a vacume can't reach, would this clean the death from inside the frame better? In the fluid film kit there is a hose to insert inside the frame openings, that would work well for cleaning and then protecting when you are done, blow it out rather than suction out the smaller debris. Nice work.

 

Frame caps and reinforcements are welded in! Quick job when you've got friends who know what they're doing. This is really motivating me to pick up a welder and learn!

 

You have some great friends. That looks solid.

 

Nice work and good job! I love seeing a first gen being kept on the road / trail and kept out of the graveyard.

 

Got her back together enough last night to drive her over to another friends house with garage space! It was fun wrangling the tank into place, by myself at 1 am... But I got'r done. Putting the leafs back in with the tires still on and lined up took up most of my evening... 3 car jack's a hilift and a multiple jack's... But that worked out as well. My output line on the LSPV took a dump... Luckily I was only a mile away... Must have been the "rust" seal on the fittings I knocked loose.... I'll be dealing with that before I can drive her back home. I might just cap the line at the t fitting up front to get me home, then install a manual proportioning valve.

Anyways... Here is one coat of POR15

 

Impressive work!

 

https://www.autorust.com/product-category/toyota-tacoma/

 

I'm happy to see the autorust guys expanded the tacoma product line massively. WHen I bought my frame caps, earlier in the year, thats' all they made. Now I see they make all kinds of products, nice!

 

Yup, you could cap the entire frame if you wanted to. I want to say they started out by making caps for jeeps and went from there... You know, just by looking at their inventory you can see which makes and models have frame issues!

 

They have a great assortment of parts available. That makes me less worried about my frame after the corrosion warranty runs out next year.

 

Well $100 in new tools (brake flare kit, tubing cutter etc..) and a bit of practice on some unused brake line and I got my LSPV ripper out including the return line. I used a bleeder fitting at the front T fitting to cap the return line. I also installed a Wheelers Offroad extended rear brake line and connected it to the new fitting on the original brake line I placed where the old, rusty crusty one used to be. I bled the brakes and no leaks, hopefully my work was satisfactory. I'll be getting a manual proportioning valve in the mail tomorrow, so I'll install that to the frame where there original one used to be, but the hard work is done... that should be a simple job.

Driving her back to my house this morning and getting my buddies from work to lift the bed back on! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

 

My frame was half full of hard packed dirt. I got it out by parking on a steep incline, and putting a garden hose in one of the holes at the high end. I then took a plumbers snake and ran it in another hole. Ran the snake back and forth while the water ran. Took about an hour, but got it all out.

 

I pressure washed the inside of the frame on my '01. It didn't help. It rotted out within a year, and the frame was replaced by Toyota. That was back in 2012.

 

I tried a pressure washer first, and it didn't work very well. I didn't have a hill I could park it on near the pressure washer. I think having it on a slope made the most difference. If I lived on the east coast my frame would probably be toast, but it's real dry here. My frame is still pretty solid.

 

I used the hose and pressure washer, the holes I cut out of the frame were big enough to allow the crap to flush out. Now my driveway looks like the surface of Mars!

 

I'm curious how this ended up for you. Any pictures?