Rust repair project (and a buch of other stuff)- my build thread?

Looking forward to updates. That is some inspired metal cobbling there...

I'm just starting to get into my 2002 Tacoma that I got. It's been in the Grafton, WI area since new. Frame didn't look too bad and thought I was just going to have to replace a corroded brake line. WRONG. Fed Ex guy dropped off my big order from SafeTCap this afternoon and the Toyota dealer will have the cross-member in by Wednesday....

 

Bummer. Start a thread showing the repairs. Always interested in seeing it.

 

Taking pics as I go and will start the thread soon. I've added some temporary bracing in case the cancer goes too deep. Back to the OP...

 

Mailman actually delivered my Boroscope today. Cheap item off Amazon, connects to the iPhone. Got it to look in the cylinders. Good idea to look inside the frame. The interior of the cab is actually really clean for its age. I was surprised at it. No smoke, rips or tears. Everything works.

 

@gzig5, I like how you rigged your supports. I’ll be relying on jackstands and 2x4s.

 

This is why I don't want to take my truck from CA to NY......

 

Nice, getting after it. That rear diff looks really clean compared to everything else.

 

You're guys trucks make mine feel good, although I have also rust repaired my frame haha

 

One of the most asinine things I've seen in 40+ years working on cars. The body is nearly perfect and the suspension components don't look too bad for 20yrs in the salt-zone. But the frame is a complete train wreck from about midway back. At least fixing it is pretty straight forward, and in this used car market even if you had to pay someone to do it, the resulting value of the truck makes it a lot less painful.

 

I'm relying on my brother for the cutting and welding. That's not in my skill set. He's made a living welding for the past 20 years and I trust him to do it. I'll be doing the disassembly/reassembly. He's giving me the family rate of $30/hr. Can't argue with that.

 

Yeah that is pretty wild. Did you have to cut off all of the bolts or torch them to get the bed off?

 

I just found your thread…Cant wait to see the progress! Real nice project truck.

 

if some company could come up with a cheap back-half frame prebuilt for these trucks, they'd make a killing. safe-t caps are good for little sections, but when these trucks go, the whole back end seems to go. would be nice to be able to just hack the old off and tie in the new rear and GO

 

A few folks have rebuilt their back halfs entirely, as far as main frame pieces go it isn't a whole lot to remake yourself.

 

Actually, I was able to get the large bed mount and bumper bolts and others to break loose after soaking in Kroil for two days.
A bunch of the smaller M8/M10 bolts holding brackets, cross-members, or the fuel tank sheared or the heads rounded off because the heads shrunk from rust loss. Frustrating. I would rather have them break so I only have to get the stub out. If they round off it needs to be cut/ground off and still get the rest out of the hole.

 

My bed is actually missing a few bolts, so I may only have to cut half of them

 

That's essentially what I'm doing. Here are the rear half rails I got from @Tour991. Cut in half so they could be shipped standard without freighting. They arrived last Friday. My wife texted me a pic of the bundle and said she couldn't bring it in the door. It was heavy. Had to move it with a wheelbarrow and then unpacked it in the shop. My brother picked them up Saturday and returned them Sunday welded back together. He did a clean job of it I'd say. He had to heat and bend one of the tall bed mounting brackets because it was slightly twisted. Other than that, its a solid set of rails free of rust.

 

Awesome.

 

for sure. it would just be nice if you can buy it complete, take it to a welder and have them attach it all one piece rather than having to fab anything

same thought process as something like a steel bumper - sure you can make your own if you know how to fab, but buying one already made that you can just bolt up or weld on is much easier

as a consumer and somebody who has had several toyota frames rot out, if this option was available to me i would have went that route. i cant weld and had several shops either say they aint working on it, or the price was sky high to fix correctly (key word being correctly haha)

 

Very nice! Don't take this as a comment on your brother's welding (they look good) but I would strongly recommend grinding the welds on that joint flat and adding 4"-6" or longer gusset plates across that junction and welding them in on all three surfaces. If I had a choice, I'd do them on the inside to keep them out of sight. I don't doubt the welds are good, but a joint like that can see a lot of stress and could crack alongside the weld. In industry/engineering you will never find an butt joint on a stressed member like that that isn't reinforced with extra gusseting.