frame rust inspection

Hey guys, I'm looking at this 2009 Tacoma. The frame has not been replaced, but was coated by Toyota with a rust compound. Does the undercarriage look as good as it appears, or do you think it's hiding something? thanks in advance

 

Where was this truck driven? If it has salt miles its basically immaculate, assuming no tricks.

Pay attention to the areas near the cats on the inside of the frame at the boxed section, the cab mounts (especially the front and rear faces), and the frame near the muffler, especially the top section that you have to really crane your neck to see on top of the muffler.

I would want to go over those areas with a screwdriver to look for thin spots or rust held in place by paint/goop.

Edit - with a closer look there is bad rust inside the frame - look at the bottom of the frame where the sections are laminated - bulging and rippling tells me either that truck got dropped on its frame a lot or the rust was cleaned off the outside and painted over. Look at the condition of the e-brake brackets too, they are toast.

There are also deep pits here and there that were painted over at some point as well.

That frame has been cleaned up for sale one way or another.

 

^This

 

ok, got it. It lived in west virginia its whole life, one owner, low miles.
which photo do you see the bulging and rippling? thanks!

 

From your pis I see some pitting...You need to check out the inside of the frame..Where is the truck from ?

 

which photos is the pitting? it's from West Virginia

 

That’s been painted

it doesn’t look terrible, just means you need hands on to tell actual condition

 

They have clearly painted over the entire undercarriage. The shocks, cv axles, etc are all the same matte black color so I’m assuming they all had some sort of at least surface rust recently before being painted. Like deanosaurus said, the frame likely has rust sandwiched between the layers which is what causes that wavy look on the bottom of the frame rail. Granted, my truck’s frame looks about the same as that (west coast it’s entire life), and I have been driving it that way for over 8 years, just doing treatments with a wire wheel, OSPHO and paint every once in a while to keep the rust from worsening.

I would take the advice of others and do a real solid investigation of the frame and all problem areas to see if it has rusted through anywhere. If it still seems to be solid, and the price is right, you might get a decent amount of life out of the truck if you take preventative measures.

 

10/10. Looks like a new truck.


Looks better than this guy.

 

Need to crawl under the truck and inspect the frame from the inside and carefully look around the cat and the frame bottom from the inside. ANY delamination is a no buy unless one heck of a cheap price. I'm always leery when everything is completely painted. Either they ALWAYS took great care of it or it was neglected and shot just to flip the truck.Some portions of the frame look really good. Others need to be inspected closer. The wavy bottom of the frame is one of those areas for sure. Don't let the seller tell you they came that way, they didn't.

On the plus side, at least it's not 20 pounds of asphalt goo.

What is the selling price?

 

thanks, guys

thanks, guys, this is all really helpful. I'm just learning my way around. It's a 2009 with 117K miles, asking $17k.
Would the anti-rust compound look this way, or does it not look like black paint?

 

haha yes it does

 

Looks road and seaworthy to me.

 

The circled areas are showing deformation from encapsulated rust. The circled part of the brace area need to be scraped with a screwdriver to see how deep it is. IMHO, you need to see the inside of the frame rails and the inside of the C channel where the layers of steel are showing. FWIW, IMHO, 17K sure seems like a lot!

 

For real, check the intermediate steering linkange...can't be faked.
This was a 2010.

 

Also,
The power steering ended up splitting RIGHT here, an impossible fix

 

ok, that's awesome, thanks for doing that.
as far as pricing, most tacomas are priced this way right now, as far as I can tell - prices seemed to have jumped in the last couple months, it's crazy

 

If a newer generation comes out and has issues, it almost always spikes the prices of decent used earlier generations. And a decent number of people really don't like all the baby sitting and spying manufacturers and dealers are now doing.

 

Take a good look at the inside frame rails by the catalytic converters. They will rust from the inside out there. Also, look at the areas where there are multiple layers of steel sandwiched. You will see rust jacking if it's started. Not end of the world, as a Lil fluid film will slow it down or stop it. Just have to coat regularly. Here is a Pic of that laminated section rust jacking.

 

Whatever they sprayed they did the floor pans also. Like others have said, it needs a closer, hands on inspection.