Frame rehab plans on my 99

If you start cutting out large portions, it would be a good idea to tack weld in some support braces between the frame rails. This will help to keep everything lined up. It will also help to reduce warping when you do weld in your new pieces.

 

Gah...that looks ugly. Any pics of the repair?

nzbrock, good point. Also, sweet sculptures...

Well, what I'm going now is working to get everything pulled off the frame, and then make patterns. My brake lines are toast...not the lines themselves but the nuts on either end. So I'm going to order new ones, as well as a new main gas line. I couldn't for the life of me get it unscrewed from the tank, so I cut it. In a brief moment of idiocy I about grabbed the torch to heat it up...haha...common sense prevailed.

This thing is going to be awesome when I'm done.

Oh, the metal on the frame under the bed is in mostly decent shape, but I'm tempted to reinforce it a bit. I don't do any wheeling, but I use a truck as a truck on occasion... any recommendations on that?

Thanks for the help. This is a great community.

 

Not sure what ypu mean by the metal on frame under bed ,but on mine the top section of the frame was really the only good steel left so i ended up cutting my patches about 1/ 4 short so i could lay a good bead into the top then i had a length of 1/8 steel sheared to 2 1/4 x8 feet " i think it was then i laid that on top and welded it in as a cap start at one end then i welded about a 1" section both sides and then kept hammering it to shape and weld as i went

 

Wow that looks great! Very inspiring.

I meant the rear "C" section of the frame that's under the bed. I see you extended yours up the outside a good ways...that's a good idea. I'm just wondering if it would be worth it to do some reinforcement on the "C" section.

 

I looked at that too but that section was in good shape on mine so there was no need to reinforce it i mainly focused on the major stress area where the front leaf mount is you need that to be very strong ,i wasnt sure what to do for spring hangers i googled some that were for sale but just didnt find anything worth buying so i just cut all the rot off the stock ones and rewelded them back on im glad i did it was easier to line everything up and i didn'thave to make anything ,i do recommend the polygraphite bushings though for the leaf springs tthey have worked well for me i really lubed them up when i put them in with neversieze and truck really rides nice now with good flex from the springs ,when it was stock the bolts were all seized in the bushings so the suspension wasnt really working

 

I made my patterns out of cardboard so that i could actually put them up to check for fitment ,actually made the whole cap piece out of cardboard that way i could slide it right up and be sure everything fit

 

Mmmm I actually think I have some spring hangars from back when I thought about fixing my old frame before I got a new frame . Would this be something you'd be interested in ? You can go to the All pro website I have the front and rear hangars

 

I think I'll try salvaging my current hangers. Thanks though.

As for bushings all of that is going to have to wait until I can afford new springs. Mine are toast. That's this fall when I'll do suspension all around. In the meantime I'll just live with the crappy ride.

I like the patterns. Cardboard would be easy to trim...

 

Got in a little time today to work on my bumper I still have a bunch of welding to do so I feel for you

 

Hi guys, I'm following this thread and I am amazed that you can still repair such corroded frame. I'm glad my Cali truck does not have any issues yet, but if it gets the rust problem I'm SOL for the truck age reason (22 years).

Anyway, just thinking at loud, while the truck is great but frame is shot, is there an option to replace the whole frame (buying the whole frame from parts store)? I don't know how realistic it is, but parts store show the frame price around 2700 dollars for the whole frame. Would it be easier to just put brand new frame instead of patching the old one in so many places without 100% guarantee for success?

Forgive me my ignorance, but I just thinking that welding plates to mostly rusted frame is just extending the agony. I must be wrong, seeing so many people doing that, so please correct me and explain.

 

Yes if the rot is beyond repair that is the only proper solution, on mine it was mainly just in the rear leaf mount section which was a doable repair if its rotted up in the front its a much harder repair sometimes not repairable in which case youd need a frame which i priced new here was $3500 probably not worth it once your that deep

 

Back from vacation.

Full frame replacement isn't really an option for me. Had I known this truck was as corroded as it is I wouldn't have bought it, but I'm too deep to just say, "Oh well."

I'm working the next couple of nights but will be digging heavily into the truck over the weekend. Hoping to have patterns taken to the metal shop the first day so they can have them ready early next week. Having stared at it for a while today here's what I'm planning to do....

A full one piece repair isn't possible I don't think. I'm going to make the patterns for the sides in three pieces. I need to do a little repair toward the front where it begins to curve from the straight section inward to go between the front tires. The beginning part of the curve is thin. So my repair will be a curved section up front, then a straight section under the cab, and then the section going up by the leaf spring and over the rear wheel. I've got good metal up top to weld to. I'll fit each section, weld them in place, weld them to each other, and then weld a splice piece over each joint. Not as ideal as a single piece, but fitting that would be a total pain, and I think with the reinforcement of the splice I'll be fine.

Plan of action would be to do the outside first, then cut out the worst areas of rust which are on the inside, then weld the bottom on, and then weld the inside pieces on, with the same splicing. The passenger side isn't nearly as bad as the driver's side, but I'm going to duplicate the same repair.

Same rust treatment applies, so I'll use phosphoric acid to halt rust on remaining metal, use Eastwood to coat and seal it on the inside, and then coat everything with chassis saver. Per their instructions I'll have to rough up the new metal to enable adhesion.

I have a feeling I'll be riding my bicycle to work for a little bit in April...haha...here's hoping for good weather.

 

What's a bicycle ?

 

It's like a Tacoma except it has 2 inline wheels with no motor and a better frame

 

Got my metal today. Made cardboard patterns and took them to a local metal shop. With as much as I'm doing (which is slight overkill) I had to get a lot of metal so it ended up costing me 600 bucks. That was basically the cost of a 4x10 sheet of 1/8 steel plus a little labor to plasma cut the pieces out. As I've said I have enough to box in the frame from around the leaf spring hangers up to where the frame curves in to go between the front tires.

Here's some of the pieces. They're double stacked so there's actually more than what it looks like. I'm excited. Gonna spend most of the day tomorrow welding.

 

following this thread!

 

Damn man, solid work.

I've seen stripped Tacomas with just the frame and cab sell for under a thousand, the frame is still good too. Any reason why a frame swap was out of the question?

Of course I'm in California and nothing much rusts, so the frames/bodies are pretty much rust free. I'm sure you could find one from a different non-salt state though.

 

I've done some poking around and the odds of finding a decent frame for a swap are next to nil where I am. It's a shock to even see one on the road...

 

Looking dope . Get the cab raised and all ?

 

Yup. Been raised a while. Getting close!