New Adventure - Rusty Start

Navy guy in the Tidewater area of Virginia.

Bought a well used 95.5 a few months ago for light utility work and hauling a trailer around the house/property. Probably paid more than I should have, but I've always liked the first generation Tacos.

Earlier this week I discovered the rear passenger shock mount came through the rusted bed - the frame and bed had been encapsulated.... Couldn't really tell the rust was an issue, they sprayed over the rust. The frame rusted through due to what I gather to be the well known factory issue. Also a lot of caked, moist, mud inside the shock mount bracket.

Had intended on shifting to a flat bed when the bed finally gave out... Just figured that I'd have a little more time. But here we go!

Anyone know what to do with the bed? Junk it, I imagine.

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld

 

Welcome to TW…Thank you for your service!

 

I'll end up doing a build thread on it, I suppose... as long as there isn't a lot of duplication of what is already on here. There is so much information, its a great resource. I appreciate the responses already - look forward to being part of the community.

I don't think its salvageable - the flatbed is kind of where I was headed. The rusted out bed is problematic and since I was already thinking of it, figure I might as well just go ahead and do it. I can't say that it'll only be on the property the whole time, so I'll try to get a fabricator to install the frame patch.

Thanks for the diagram, I apparently had been looking at the wrong one on the website - so I'm glad I didn't hit the buy button already.

I had been creeping on the rust prevention/treatment thread and knew the Rust guys seemed to be the right way to go.