1999tacoma. At a crossroads

I've owned my 1999 Toyota Tacoma for 5 years now and I have fallen in love with this truck. Currently it has 201k miles, but unfortunately it is unsafe to drive at the moment due to rust on the frame, along with electrical problems and a bad power-steering pump.
I bought a newer truck recently and am now torn on selling my Tacoma or putting it into storage and try to restore it.
I am very inexperienced working on vehicles but have always been interested in working on my own vehicle. I still get excited every time I get in my truck and would love to own it and pass it down to my family. The amount of problems that are amounting up seem very daunting and would take many years for me to work on and fix.

I will leave some pictures of what I am dealing with at the moment, but I would love to hear from someone who has maybe been in the same situation or has any tips or knowledge to pass down.

 

That frame is toast unfortunately. It's going to be an expensive and difficult endeavor if you had to swap that frame at a shop.

 

If I were to do it again, I'd fix my frame with another frame from car-part.com. I fixed my frame with the frame reinforcement kit and it worked great and it was as bad as yours, but it doesn't look stock anymore. Here's a look at what you'll see when you click on car-part.com website. I used it to find a gas tank in mint condition. Maybe take a look on there, see if a nice frame pops up and buy it. The ones in New Mexico or Arizona would be best.

 

What you need is one of those $1000 ones with a blown motor.....
they are sitting everywhere.....DLX frames....

But still after winning the lottery its still gonna cost you a lot of money to swap everything out...

And count on a bunch extra parts that also got ate up....do some cuttin....

Facebook market place I've seen a lot of interesting investments.....
even a new crated engine.....2Rz.....


If you dont enjoy wrenching hours on end or have means....A-frame and what not..
I would sell.......
....and then maybe watch for another.....
there's a steady slow supply of em.....

But be weary of the ones in the snow country....the two dont seem compatible.....
even the ones with new replacement frames rust just as fast...
a heated garage just seems to speed up the process.

 

Strongly recommend that you do research here on how to protect your newer truck from developing the same rust problems. That truck has had little to no attention in that area.

Personally I'd sell it to someone who would benefit from a few of the parts. Maybe glass, interior bits, maybe some of the cab parts (but doubtful.

If you sell it to a wrecker it will get deboned and the remnants crushed.

If you have the space, time, tools, inclination, you could learn a lot just taking it apart, sell some bits locally and then haul the rest to a recycler.

Best of luck.

 

There's a lot videos out there on how to treat.....
and how to get fluid film down into rocker panels and other hard to get....

Those '4-way spray' long straws that spray inside the frame box.......like $8 for half dozen of em...amozon...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364059976515

 

I looked on Facebook Marketplace and found one in very nice shape for $1500 in Colorado. I could see buying that and stashing that away until needed.

 

Oof

There are so many here; there's like 2-3 free not far from me

And a few hours within driving distance

 

Free frames? Wow.

 

Keep in mind the 5lug frames are different from the 4X4 and pre runner 6 lug frames....

If I was to get a frame I would try a WTB in the classifieds here for first couple months....

Here in the south a lot of tacoma stuff comes across FB market.......
a lot of scams too....

 

The law of supply and demand. Do you have links to any of the frames? Original poster in South Dakota needs a rust free frame and many of us in Nebraska need frames.

 

I had posted one in another thread not long ago.

Another has a thread in the for sale section and has posted many times throughout 'free frame'.

And the third is a former-member that just got out of Toyota's but has had a free frame up for months now, he had also posted in the marketplace for sale (then changing it to free).

Problem being all these frames are in CA as none of us need them. They're found that way because they're vehicles that were stripped for other reasons.

 

Its same with the asian engine remanufacturing facilities......
90% of them are on West coast.....

and most keep a steady inventory of the toyota and honda engines..