Looking at a 2012 TRD Sport

My son is looking at a 2012 Access Cab TRD Sport, 6 speed manual. It has 87K miles and looking at the dealer pictures it appears to be in good shape. We did request frame pictures and also if it was serviced under the TSB. Not sure if it applies to 2012's or not. Anyhow, most of the pics of the frame were worthless except for the two below. It looks like there is a crack in the weld area. The truck is an hour away and he doesn't feel like wasting his time if this is a show stopper. Any thoughts?

 

Overall, that's not in terrible shape for a truck in the rust belt. But, that does appear to be a crack which would trouble me unless I could actually lay hands on it. That area will continue to get worse though. I'd really want to see pics of the inside of the box section of the frame up near the catalytic converter. Overall, a big yellow light is on for me.

 

a 2012 should still be covered under the current frame replacement campaign
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/frame-replacement-extended-to-2011-2017.632285/

 

Looks like minor surface rust not a crack. Seems to be in good shape from the pics

 

Wait… isn’t a show-stopper generally a good thing? To me, an hour away for a good deal just means you found it before anyone near you could.

But. Had I welded that, the ABS inspector would make me re-do it before moving any further. Definitely a crack, but for me being a welder and having access to the means in which to fix said crack, I wouldn’t discount the whole truck over it.

No telling what you can’t see tho if the seller sent a bunch of fluff and tried to bury that pic. I’d say it would be worth looking at her in person, albeit with a skeptical eye. Again- I wouldn’t discount the entire truck over a crack. Rust is a different story…

 

I look like the paint is flaking because of the rust under it i'm sure it's juste surface rust peeling the paint. I see a shiny bolt near the bracket at the right and some plastic cap plug, it seem that this truck have the bracket to cap the frame opening after the cat (where the frame rot inside). Be sure they did the "CRC" campaign and it's done proprely, usualy they put Noxudol 300S on the frame, some say it's a bad thing (keep the moisture trap under the coat), but not seeing the black goo on the frame raise a question if the Nox-Rust 712AM (white goo) was done inside the boxed part where the rust problem is. If you are curious this is the pdf of the procedure.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10169417-9999.pdf