99 Tacoma rusted out frame, any recourse?

Another option, is to find someone on here that is willing to buy it and part it out. There are several that knows what everything is worth and could make the money back easily. You might take a little loss.

A good idea, when buying used, is to have a local shop take a quick look. You would be amazed at what you can find when you put something on a lift.

Insurance? I don't know, but maybe they can do something.

 

Sorry to hear about the bad frame. Unfortunately it's very common on these trucks, and lots of 'boxed' frames in general. Yes, there was action by Toyota to try to make amends for it, but it's pretty much over now. Your truck is almost 20 years old :/

Your situation is tough. Honestly, I wouldn't bother trying to go back to the seller. He was completely aware of the issue, and it's a buyer beware world. As much as I hate dealerships, this is one of the many reasons that you go to a dealer and pay a premium - so you do have some sort of defensive measures IF this does happen to you. With a private party sale, it won't hold up in court, and it's not worth the money.

The other posters have offered some good advice. 1) repair the frame yourself. I really liked the mention of this being a good excuse to learn how to weld. Pretty much on the money. Not much risk of doing damage here. 2) buying a rust free frame and doing the swap. Probably not worth it tbh, but it's an option. Consider the cost of the frame (can't imagine it being less than $2k), then shipping (likely all the way across country), the time involved, all the rusty nuts and bolts, and all the little plastic connectors you will break in the process.

This is probably only worthwhile if, by some crazy coincidence, some stupid clean, low miles truck had a rusty frame. Like a $12k Tacoma that JUST needed a frame ('just needs a frame' right?) to be mint.

Option 3 is getting you money back some way or another. Selling the truck as is at a loss, or parting it out.

Basically how parting it out works is you sell parts of the truck individually.
You can either pull the parts yourself and list them individually (this is how most places do it and use eBay to maximize profit.) or you can list the truck and say "let me know what you need and I'll give you a price".

Sometimes parting a vehicle out can return much more money than the entire truck was purchased for. Especially when very simple parts can list for high dollar on eBay. For example, the infamous dash clock in tacomas, just a simple LED clock you could make yourself, usually fetches $40+ on eBay. An oem window motor might go for $70. That type of thing. Then the big dollar items are just gravy on top.
I suspect MOST businesses who would bid on a rusty Tacoma such as this, would buy it solely to part out and end up profiting thousands

 

Have you seen this thread? OP is doing a frame swap, just to give you an idea.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/1st-gen-tacoma-complete-frame-swap.499441/

 

Please post up just what drive train the truck has .

Do you have friends that can help you repair this ??

The thing with going the Lawyer route is the lawyer always gets paid !!

You have to prove criminal intent it is quite possible the seller may have been correct when they did the hammer test they missed the bad parts or it just degraded that fast after one more winter.

I am guessing you never crawled under the truck and looked at things as part of your inspection prior to reaching for the wallet .

 

Being that it was a CL buy, you're lucky this motherfucker even picked the phone back up.

You don't have much recourse unless you want to spend the energy going to small claims court, IMO. And that process is painful. Post #24 above me highlights some great reasons why.

 

I bought one a whole lot worse than that about 5 years ago and fixed it. About 25 bucks worth of steel and a whole lot of welding. I'm very experienced with these trucks and new it was a little crusty but when I started swinging a hammer things got ugly quick. Luckily it was a lot less than you paid and besides the frame it was a very clean 1 owner truck. But eventually I grew tired of all the rusty fasteners whenever I went to fix something and traded it. But I did just buy an 03 that got a new frame. Just wish the rest of it wasn't quite as crusty. But it's all good.

 

I'm sure there are some others on here from OH, possibly is your home town, that would be willing to help a fellow Taco owner out. Maybe teach you how to weld if not do some welding for you... You could probably, with the right tools, repair the frame with less that $100 worth of steal. I'm not a welder but I plan to learn and patch up my frame. The tools and time will cost more them the steal.

 

Trucks with rusted out frames aren't worth much, even if the rest of the truck is clean and good

I'd say it's worth $500 to $1000 max, depending on what engine, trim level, drivetrain and the condition of the body

 

This company has replacement patches for Toyota's.
http://www.autorust.com/

 

I just had an offer to have it welded back for about 2,000, as he did say the rest of the truck is in great shape. How much do you think it would be worth once the frame is fixed? its a 99 tacoma prerunner 4 cylinder with 109000 miles

 

What ever those trucks bring in your area with the same drive train

Depending How good of a job they do that is not a bad price.

 

#31 X2

 

Usually the PreRunner 4 cylinders are worth a lot less than say the v6 4x4 models or the PreRunner v6 models, but they're worth more than the 5 lug trucks. 109k is super low for a Tacoma, I find it hard to locate a 1st gen on Craigslist with less than 150k+ miles. Value really depends on where you are. Here in California, a Tacoma with 200,000 miles will sell for upwards of $10,000. They hardly depreciate here simply because the demand for compact trucks is so high. My '98 PreRunner 2.7l 4 Cyl was valued in the range of around $12,000 back when it had 70,000 miles a couple years ago.

I would be wary of re-selling it with a welded frame. It does lower the value a bit. With you mileage and if you had a weld repair I'd value it at at somewhere around $5,000. (In my opinion of course) I could be wrong.

For $2,000 you can drive to a dry state like California or Arizona and buy a decent frame for under a thousand dollars. It would be a hundred times better than having a patch-job frame, arguably it would even raise the value of the truck.

 

Your forgetting one thing Swapping the frame is not going to be done for free.

I would rebuild a frame before swapping one it is much easier .

 

You're right, I mean of course I'd prefer a new frame over a rust-patched frame but if you do the work yourself or find a good deal on someone who will do it for you it's not a bad option.

 

I have an ex wife you could sell it to. I might help her with the first couple of payments.

 

You guys are all awfully nice to help me out so much, really appreciate all the comments!
I think i'm going to get it welded back together so then if i sell it i can at least do so with a clean conscience, I've already accepted taking a loss of at least a few grand because I'm young and acted impulsively, but it's only money and i am taking it as a learning experience.

 

I can't believe all of the suggestions to take a welding course and learn on this rusted frame. Welding a frame is structural. If you don't know what you are doing you won't know when you are doing it wrong. Add to that rusted material is much thinner and it is easy to blow holes in it. So if it can be tough for someone experienced why are we suggesting someone with no experience can learn on a project like this? Who even says the frame geometry is straight and not bent or sagging?

I have done frame repairs that went from what seemed solid material to holes I had to plate real fast. There is no easy solution to the OP's problems. A full frame swap is time and labor intensive. If you can't do it yourself the cost will quickly make it cost prohibitive. A frame patch job can only be assessed by someone who has fully inspected the frame. IF $2000 is the total cost of this repair and you trust the person doing the work this may be the best option. But it could go from $2000 to much more as they find new issues.

I really feel for the OP. $5000 is not an easy sum to eat at any age. But your safety is at stake here. Do it right or sell it whole or in parts. Let an expert assess your truck and don't let someone on the internet steer you when they haven't seen it in person. Good luck. Many of us have been there ourselves.

 

You cant believe it? Welcome to the internet, kind sir. Advice is always free, but mostly correct a small percent of the time.

Good post.

 

Living in the Northeast USA Every Toyota 4x4 I ever bought I have a few needed some sort of Rust Repair .

It is a fact of life .Most pretty much needed a Drivers side floor .

I think it is a great Idea for the Op to learn to weld and fix this with some help.

If I lived close enough I would be glad to teach them .