Plating the frame on my 2000 taco

My frame was plated prior to me buying it, but they stopped at the wheel wells. And the repair job looked like it was fairly well done. I knew I would probably end up plating the rest of the frame at some point.

I started working on my rear bumper over the weekend, and before welding anything to my brackets I decided that I should plate the mounting area. Took some measurements, modeled up the plates in cad. Cut them out on the plasma table, and bent them in my swag press brake.



I should have extended them forward another 6+ inches, but was to lazy to deal with the exhaust hanger at the time.

After I finished working on my bumper for the weekend I pushed and pulled the bumper up and down a few times to feel how rigid everything was. I noticed my bed flexing as I did so... Looked closer at the frame and found a crack on the passenger side.



Tuesday I traced the frame profile onto some wood and cut it out with a jig saw. double checked that it looked about right. Then dropped the photo into cad and drew up a patch plate. From there I sent the file to my laser cutter and cut it out of cardboard to verify the design. I had to adjust the angle by 4 degrees, and the second cardboard template looked good.





Last night I knocked as much of the rust off as I could with the needle scaler. Then followed up with a wire wheel and flap disc. Finished the prep work with por15 metal prep.



Little bit of zinc primer on the frame, and the backside of the plate. Then clamped it in place.



Burned it all in, welded ok for the most part. The bottom was fighting me. I will go back in and finish welding that edge at a later time. Probably when I am ready to plat the top and bottom of that repair section.



And finished it up with a few coats of paint.


I do plan on plating the top and bottom as well, and maybe boxing the frame in? I will also be adding diamond plates between each of the plate seams/joints.

 

Whats the inside of the frame look like where the factory boxed it in? Mine was full of rust and thin, in the process of rebuilding those boxes from scratch.

 

I'll be cutting those sections out and redoing them, also filled with rust and crap. I managed to mostly clean out the section around that shock mount by holding a vacuum above the "rust access port" and blasting the air gun through the same hole.

 

Yeah, thats about the shape of it. I just sawzalled them out and cleaned it up with the grinder, then broke off the layers of rust flakes with a hammer and chisel.

 

I just finished mine a few weeks ago. Not pretty because I flipped the plate in several spots to save material when cutting things out. But, it's a frame. Nobody will know but us, right?

Anyway, just wanted to let you know these rear spring mounts are no longer available, so take care to salvage yours if you can. I had to make mine. The inside diameter is an odd size. The only pipe I could find that was a perfect fit for the inner sleeve was from an old Nissan spare tire carrier I had laying around.

 

Nice work, I'm jealous of your access to that machinery. I often struggle dealing with plate steel.

How are your front spring mounts? I've seen those break off because of rust.

 

Thanks, I may or may not have a slight tool addiction... Having the CNC plasma table has made fab work so much more enjoyable. Wish I had the space for a larger table at times.

The front seems to be pretty good. Though I will take a closer look at everything up front soon.

 

Check out this Safe T Cap application on my 2001 taco

 

I think a way you could’ve reinforce that patch was by having some holes in it where you could do some plug welds. Looks good though.

 

Are you guys spraying anything on the back sides of the welds? Welding opens a large area prone to rust, 3m makes a long flexible tube to spray areas like that.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/collision-repair-us/featured-products/cavity-wax-plus/