2001 Tacoma Rusty Frame

Hello, i just bought my first Tacoma. I am 19 years old and earlier today I bought said truck, I did an inspection of it and couldnt see much rust at all. Turns out all the rust was on the inside of the frame rails and I didn't realize that before I bought it so now im stuck with it (newbie mistake). The rust goes down pretty much the whole passenger side rail and its bad. I am wondering what would be the best course of action, get some patch kits and try to salvage the existing frame or if I should try and get another frame entirely. I purchased the truck for $5500 so I am already out a good bit on the truck. The bed is also rusty in some spots but i'm not worried about that right now. My father suggested parting it out but I do not really want to do that. The exterior isnt in the best shape, its got its fair share of scratches and the clear coat is peeling on the hood and roof so I dont think id be able to recover much money from it, the truck has 238k miles. Thanks for any advice.

 

Welcome to the forum. It sucks that you wound up with a bad frame on your truck. I assume it was a private party deal. If it was from a dealership, I’d try to get them take it back, if possible. For rust repair, it really depends on how bad it is. You could try to find a frame for it of try Safe-T-Caps https://www.autorust.com/

Best of luck

 

Yeah it was a private party deal. The guy that I bought it from was an honest guy he thought the truck was clean too but he offered to chip in for some patch kits if needed so I might go that route. I have another car so at least i'm not out of a ride lol. Just trying to do some looking to see if its worth it just getting a new frame but I cant seem to find one. For right now the patch kits might be a good option as a temporary fix to get it back up and in good shape until i can get a frame so i can sell my car to make some of the money back. Here are the pictures of the rust. This might help to get some advice if i should do patch kits or not.

 

Does your state have safety inspections?

I'd ask the seller for my money back. Maybe you'll get lucky.

 

Oof that’s bad. Try Car-part.com to locate a frame.

Edit: Bill’s right. It wouldn’t hurt to ask for your money back.

 

That can totally be sleeved with the safe T cap parts. You can make this safe and functional but you need someone who can weld. Mine had one side like that and it’s now solid for $950 all in.

 

second the notion that the frame is not too far gone for SafeTcaps. cutting out the old rusty metal and putting the sleeve over it will fix that issue and allow you the chance to get your money out of this deal.

 

Thanks for all the replies, i was talking it over with my uncle and father and we came to the conclusion that it can be fixed with the cap. we may have found the bigger issue though, front side of the frame just above the sway bar we found this crack running along the frame. Correct me if we are wrong but my uncle thinks its a C style frame with a thicker piece of metal facing away from the center of the truck, and the thinner piece facing inward. This crack is on the bottom of the thicker piece of metal and we are not sure how to take care of it. It is on the passenger side but the drivers side does have a rust hole about the same spot. The drivers side rail also has some small rust holes by the leaf spring mount but nothing like the passenger side rail.

 

I live in indiana so we do not have safety inspections thankfully lol, and i did try to ask for my money back but he said i had already signed the title and given him the money which is true so i dont really know if i could do anything about it. That conversation was made over call, i had already left his house. Lesson learned for sure. my dads calls it a stupid tax, you do something stupid you have to pay for it which is for sure what im going to be doing with this truck. You live and you learn i guess.

 

Doesn’t sound like an honest guy or he would give you your money back. He knew the frame was like that and found someone to unload it on. But I’d go the route of trying to fix it IF you know someone who can weld it up

 

Yeah the more I think of my decision he wasn't up front about the stuff that it needed up but it seemed from the way he acted and talked that he was being honest and I believed he was. I try to see the better in people, but with stuff like this I really shouldn't have let that get in the way. Yeah I have someone to help me with welding so hopefully soon I can get all the stuff I need and get her back on the road safely.

 

Man that's a tough one. I used Safe T Caps on my 4wd truck that I did with great results. It wasn't nearly as bad as the pictures you posted. If you do it right. Plan to spend a good amount of time doing it. Since it looks like its in the cross members as well as the front of the truck. You can definitely fix it but be sure you find someone who can weld and fabricate well. As some of the areas you have show will need plating that is not sold by safe t cap guys.

 

I have been looking at this brand called rust buster and they sell that cross member which has plates on the end you weld to the frame. Has anyone used them and are they good or should I go with safe t caps? The rust buster stuff seems to have mostly 4+ Star reviews.

 

I can only speak for the Safe T Caps. I just looked at the Rust Buster site. It looks to be decent stuff as well tho.

 

Your dad is exactly right though. Another quote I’ve always remembered is “The hardest lessons you learn are the ones you don’t forget”……we’ve all been there at some point or another. I traded in a slick ‘95 Chevy stepside 4x4 for a ‘95 Dodge Cummins dually I thought I had to have. Dad wasn’t able to go look at it with me so I went ahead and traded for it. Got home with it and Dad takes one walk around it and says “I smell antifreeze”. Come to find out, it had a blown head gasket BUT got it fixed and drove the heck out of that truck and it was a good one