McCrusty Rust - 1999 Tacoma

Hey all! I know there are several threads with some serious rust. I think my taco has a fair chance but not 100%. I am on the fence about selling or repairing. I am possibly moving so I am leaning more towards selling her than keeping it. Anyway, I have included some pics of the rust.

 

Welcome to TW!

I'd try fixing it first...

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld
Coroseal and paint the outside of frame. Coroseal and Fluid Film the inside of box sections.

 

For what it is worth your Truck will be worth much more if the frame issues are addressed correct

 

Very carefully check the section around the front leaf spring hanger (both sides). My previous Toyota truck (a 89 pickup), had the passenger side front leaf spring mount separate from the frame, twisting the remaining three when leaving a gas station.

 

I won't trust that frame from here across the street! Rust is coming from the inside out. If selling, please make full disclosure!!

 

Yes, I have included that in my post. I believe in karma and wouldn't be able to sleep otherwise.

 

Op where are you located ?

 

The rust generally looks mild and addressable. Gas tank skid is intact…frame may be fine.

 

Take a ball peen hammer or similar and tap along the frame, particularly near the leaf spring hanger where others have mentioned. Pinging is good, thuds are bad.

I'd personally sell, OP, but that's just like, my opinion, man.

 

@Bivouac I am located in Northern Virginia.

 

Yep, thats about ready to fall apart. Bummer it didnt get the frame warranty work.

still, might bring a few $ for someone wanting to mess with it.

 

Yep, bummed out about it myself. My buddy who I bought it off of did not take advantage of it and I am paying for it.

 

I suspect if you start chipping away at the rust flakes you're going to find some of the holes have made their way through the frame. Probably repairable to someone willing to weld in some patches, but I wouldn't want to drive that as-is.

 

Thanks! I do not drive often and if I do it is about a 5-mile round trip.

 

Your Truck is not near as bad as the one I just bought then I paid $400.00 .

If I had to I would drive to El Paso and back .

Then it is the only vehicle I have at the moment .

 

If you sell, you're going to take a serious hit on its value. But if you choose to repair, you can easily open a can of worms, and end up doing a bunch of work only to find out you just need a new frame.

Slapping some POR15 or whatever on it now won't really do anything. That stuff is a rust preventative, not a cure.

If you repair, keep in mind it rusts from the inside out, so whatever you see on the outside, it's 10x worse on the inside. so it entirely possible that by the time you remove ALL the rust, you may not have much to weld to for frame plates.

Not saying it can't be done, plenty of people have done it, but it's not going to be as simple as welding a few plates to the outside and smearing POR15 on it. Frame plates really only delay the inevitable, especially if you don't remove the rust from the INSIDE of the frame.

 

Incorrect.

You can see several holes in the frame in those pics and most of it looks like puff pastry dough.

And that's just what we can see on the outside.

While that's not the worst frame I've seen posted here, it's far from "fine"

 

I'm just having a little fun here, but jeez, you desert-dwellers can be awfully squeamish when it comes to a little rust....just drive it until it's too expensive to make it pass safety inspection, either due to repairs or bribes for the inspector.

More seriously, and where I think we would agree, is that any frame with rust needs to be properly inspected. The layers of tender, flaky, golden (ok, reddish-brown) crust that you note appears to be paint bubbling off from surface rust, but again, it needs to be inspected. Potentially concerning is that it looks like someone may have painted over rust without treating it first, so the overall paint condition may not tell us much.

Lastly, if you had read my post more carefully, you would realize that I wrote it *may* be fine (I didn't write, as you imply, that it *is* fine), so technically, I'm not "incorrect" as you so eloquently phrased it.

 

Pictures only tell so much You gotta be up close and in person !