massive frame rust crack, I need your help!

Ditto.

 

Another victim of the new vehicle lust it happens to most all of us

I do think the price was a little high then I was not there so who can say

Might have been worse it could have been perfect till after the first or second winter

Manygoodies added to the truck.

I hope you luck out with Toyota !!

If you were close I would fix it for materials Best of luck

 

if you can't get anywhere with Toyota, I would lawyer up and go after the stealership that sold you the truck.

 

Impossible to weld? As someone who makes a living off of this trade id weld the fuck outa that.

 

X2

 

I welded my last tacoma frame, looked similar. Its not hard if you have some basic welding skills.

 

Most people that say lawyer up have never had the pleasure of paying a lawyer's hourly rate. If his bill of sale says as is he's pretty much boned and getting a lawyer would just did the money hole deeper.

 

I'm pretty much sure that there will be no recourse from that car dealer. But, you do have the option of writing scathing reviews on their sales practices.

 

He's still correct in that with that much corrosion it's not going to be a cheap and easy repair and whether it would still be legal is also a question. Some states require an inspection and I'm not sure what can or can't be done structurally and still retain roadworthiness. Here in Colorado there's no reason you couldn't grind back to solid steel and start rebuilding, but I dunno if that's true everywhere.

 

Right, at least the inside frame rails is beyond welding and would have to be cut off to see the extent of the rust and integrity of the metal. With that long of a crack and if Toyota would not assist (most likely they won't), I'd be looking for a donor truck and just swap everything out. Time consuming and expensive, yes it will be as I'm assuming there will be plenty of little bits and pieces to replace along the way. I believe i saw a link somewhere where you can buy a new frame for around $2500. Even with a cheaper donor truck, this will be one expensive lesson. I'd expect at least $2K-4K depending on which route to take and that's doing it yourself.

 

Even if it can be welded, that isn't to say that's what you should do. God forbid that you are ever in a serious accident after doing a major repair on an old vehicle. Don't think that insurance companies aren't above getting a metallurgical expert in court to say that it shouldn't have been welded and that you were negligent and contributed to a serious accident. If there are big dollars involved, of course they will!! Find a good frame and swap it out, sell it for parts, or junk it and move on. Life is too short to sweat small stuff like this.

 

I've always wanted to do a tube frame build!

 

Welding over something that is rusting internally is like putting clean pants over over poopy underwear.

 

Then cut it out into a c-channel, clean out all the rust, protect coat the inside, weld on a new wall and beef up weak areas with extra plating.

Beats buying a new frame. You guys expect your frames to last until next century.

Its not a death sentence. Chasis is just metal. Metal can be fixed. Think outside the box a little.

 

Save that dealer letter. That dealer should have liability if you depended on that letter to be correct on "structural damage"
Especially if it was a Toyota dealer

 

I'm willing to bet that as soon as he tries to section that frame he's going to find a lot more rust. pitting and heavy scale. It's not like they can just start sectioning every inch of the frame to find out had bad it is. The frame is junk

If it was me I'd start looking at parts trucks on CoPart in the southwest or hope that Toyota comes through.

This thread should bode as a warning for anyone looking to buy one of these trucks. They could have rust or some hack repairs done to the frame

 

I had one of the original Hi Luxes in 1980, and you could hear it rusting from about 10 feet away. Up here in the rusty north where winter is real and salt is used by the millions of tons every season, my truck lasted about 7 years and it was junk. Like a lot of Toyota guys, I liked the truck so I bought another one. Same result. I remember visiting a dealership in the 1990's and having a sales manager tell me that the new Toyotas had solved the rust problem, and for me not to live in the past. haha. I drove Fords for a few years, and then bought another Toyota in 2015. Let's face it they're great trucks. And in Southern Cal, New Mexico and Texas they stand up ok. If I get 10 years out of mine, I'll be happy. And I'll be doing all I can to accomplish that goal, undercoat, washing, fluid film, you name it. Its too bad though, that Toyota couldn't spend $1.50 more on their frames so that the enthusiasts among us could run their trucks forever.

 

...^^^... This for sure ... get your money back --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq1KeyEARBU

 

In for outcome

 

what?????? and to all the people questioning if you can weld it look at my build