Substitute frame ever been tried?

That’s no small task.


I’ve got a spare frame, should totally make a jig and start selling replacement frames.

 

Lol that would be awesome. Using a taco frame to make a jig would be the way to go.

 

I know your just thinking out loud.

Look into product liability insurance .

Look at most vendors of parts most have a disclaimer such as Not suitable for street use etc

Then building one at a time for every10 people who say I want one 1 might reach for the wallet .

Not bad to build a frame for yourself working with all new steel is easier then old rusty rotted steel.

Now if your paying $5000.00 plus for the frame and shipping someone to install it under your 15 year or older Tacoma

Would you spend all this money or spend it on a newer truck

If this was a viable market someone would have filled the niche by this time .

 

Oh I am. Bud built tried with the old pickups, but it didn’t pan out.

I also don’t have the room to do anything like that right now

 

Exactly 0, because I don't live in a rust belt. But I've seen plenty of Rusty frames. Just not loving in a rust belt state doesn't mean you won't have issues.

Don't fall prey to confirmation bias

 

Well, no, nothing is a guarantee.

Coastal areas will get a lot of rust too. If anything, that's worse than rust belt since they get salty air/water 24/7/365.

I see a few rusty cars in Sacramento, but hardly any. Live on the coast or the rust belt and you'll see 5 year old cars with holes in the body panels.

 

I know it’s been brought up elsewhere but what’s the number 1 fix to treat frame after/before I install it... POR-15?

 

This is the recipe for a good frame restoration job

1. wire brush the frame to remove flaking paint and loose rust
2. treat with rust killer/converter
3. paint (POR-15 or any similar rust metal paint)
   
4. rustproofing (fluid film or have it done at at rustproofing place)

but if you are making a frame (or parts of it) from scratch with fresh new metal, skip to steps 3 and 4

 

but in my experiences their body panels are horrific!


my sister's family has a very old Ram

 

POR-15 can only be applied effectively on rust i think i read somewhere in data

 

i must be doing better than good frame restoration then

only the best for my older-than-dirt Tacoma!
do the job right and no more worries
but its been a massively taxing endeavor so far
hopefully when the weather warms up here things can get much more real to completion but IDK yet

 

95/96 F150 reg cab short bed frame. You get a half ton frame, PLUS you get the benefits of dirty hooker travel and a drop-in MAF/OBD2 V8. What else could you ask for?

 

Putting a Tacoma Cab on a Ford Drive Train is pretty simple compared to fabricating a frame for the Tacoma drivetrain

 

Hell, I live in Florida now about 2 miles from the ocean. Definitely no road salt. I've come across a couple vehicles that are OMG rusty, but they're few and far. Prior to that, lived most of my life in Wyoming and have driven over metric tons of salt every year. It snows like crazy for at least half the year, but the environment otherwise is really dry. Very little rain. I've had every major make of vehicle from tiny jeeps to 3/4 ton trucks, never treated a frame. I honestly don't think I've ever even rinsed one off. And I've spent hours under almost every vehicle. My oldest was a '50's jeep willys that had spent about 6 decades in the weather, we used it as a plow vehicle. I've had 2 tacomas. The 1st was a 96, the frame on it looked almost new. The rest of the truck.... well I paid $200 for it, and that was about right. The 2nd was an 01, and the first time I crawled under it to figure out why the brakes were seized led me to finding out about the rusty frame issue. It's not purely a 'road salt' issue or I would have seen it a few hundred times by now on every ford/chevy etc. I wouldn't expect to see it on a dodge regardless though. They roll of the factory line and fall apart, they're not going to survive long enough to rust...

Right now I have an 01 explorer in the driveway, light surface rust underneath. And our 2 DD's that are completely rust free. But they're months old so they don't count.

I recently sold an 01 bmw that came with us from colorado, no rust, an 09 bmw that has been here since day 1, no rust, an 03 jeep from Wy, no rust, FIL ford expedition with rusted out nerf bars but no frame rust from wyoming again, an 01 mustang, no rust... Before we moved I sold 2 jeeps, an f250, an 86 samurai, 2 geo trackers... all driven on a lot of salt and never treated or cleaned. I collected vehicles obviously, it kind of sucked to sell my acreage and my shop to move into a 2 car garage. But it never snows here, so worth it. Rust was only an issue on the tacoma. And if it rusted LIKE THAT in a non-rust belt state, I can only imagine how bad they are in a rust belt.

Anyway, before the tacomas I've never been concerned about frame rust. Toyota was an education in that respect. They did the major recall (warranty, whatever they call it) for years, and they sued successfully the frame manufacturers. I don't think that anyone else has ever had to go that route. Even then you read about people with new/treated frames failing the same way. So better, but still not good. Yes it is an issue with everything made of metal, but it's apparently a substantially larger issue with the tacoma than most others.

 

Yea right.. have you ever heard of Jeep? they are worse than the Tacoma frame issue. Been there done that, that's why I switched to a Tacoma, no issues with mine so far.

 

I posted about the Jeep above.
I believe ram trucks are manufactured by a different company than Jeep.


Jeep frames are made by Dana. Just like the Tacoma frames and I’m pretty sure Chevy frames

 

have you seen the pics of the salvage lot tacoma from NE on the Missouri River, i found one there this past summer, a '97 v6 single cab
its as REAL as it can get until the bitter end...

wonder how the salvage lots look in places like MN, WI, IL MI and OH, etc. the really bad cold climate states i read about, not to mention the north east and Canada

 

They seldom make it to salvage yards the ones get parted fast what is left go for scrap in pieces

 

even ones that have made it past 20 years, slipped through the cracks, and still 'sorta' driveable

the few i have inspected locally in the mid west the interiors have been very beaten down

there are probably 100s of dakotas rangers s10s here in the lots

 

I call these places rotten frame land

Many of the trucks and cars in pick-n-pull/salvage yards here are total rustbuckets and/or very beaten down... but this is why they ended up at the junkyard in the first place. Sometimes the body is not too bad but the frame/undercarriage is always rotted. You'll have better luck for interior parts but sometimes the interior is beaten down pretty much too

but toyota trucks at junkyards? They are rare and if there is one, it doesn't take long for people to completely strip it down