Sluice mod

Yes, I figured it wasn't as bad as a rust hole developing.

 

The idea here is not to make access hole for flushing the frame, but to make a drain hole big enough so it will not get easy clogged by road debris. The frame has enough holes on the side to easy pressure wash the interior, the problem is with not enough drain holes. If you look at the 3rd gen frame, it will look like a Swiss cheese comparing to the first gen.

That's easy for you to say - you are in dry California that will shut down the highway before even thinking of using salt on the snow covered roads. This is the only thing that California did right.

 

Too bad the factory didn't just blend in some chrome to the steel. It wouldn't have took much. Rust is the only thing that ever killed Toyotas.
edit: and oak trees.

 

That's fair. Usually after trips up north I get a couple pounds of sand out, but occasionally a piece of rusting frame will get caught in the hole.

 

does that sand internally scratch the paint coating

 

Well, you either control where and how big the holes are, or you let road salts and grime accumulate inside the frame and the holes grow on their own.

 

i am still looking into how exactly it creeps up that far unless the frame is totally blocked from draining of sand/dirt peeling paint on top and bottom allowing the internal water level to just sit at that level and rots

 

Probably not. It's just sitting there, it doesn't really have any force behind it.


This is of course, assuming there is any paint. Mine looked pretty bare.

 

I think a fair amount of water does sit there if the truck is level. Next time I wash mine I'm going to get the frame good and wet then scope it and see where the water sits.

 

i will be interested in your findings

there was good paint at one time!

 

Again, it's not the water that's the issue. The water drains out or evaporates (or freezes, lol), but it's all the crap that came with the water that ends up sitting there - primarily road salts.

What do you mean "creeps up that far"? Water/road grime gets splattered *everywhere* underneath the truck. It takes more than one drive through the snow, but it will accumulate inside the frame. That, or one good dunk in the water at the beach (ocean water).

I would think getting access from the rear of the frame would be the best way to get a hose in there with a spray nozzle. Maybe some 1/2" PVC (still pretty flexible) and a nozzle attachment, and you got yourself a Tacoma frame enema.

 

Don't hold your breath. I just washed it last week. It could be months.

 

Tree didn't kill this one: (skip to 1:02)

Okay, so not an Oak. What is that, an Elm?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnWKz7Cthkk

 

by creep i mean it starts in the bottom channel around the drain holes and progresses upwards underneath the paint

there is a TW member from Canada that has some thoughts on the evaporation and condensation problems in certain humid locations


the entire history of this truck is unknown, just its registered location for 22 years
it may have been flooded at one point

 

I mean, sure, you could do some computer modeling on the situation and figure out evaporation and condensations rates, and apply that to material science properties. Don't forget to add in how gravitational forces and precipitation rates will effect the growth stages of the rust for different environmental outcomes. Then you need to model the application rates as it relates to different driving conditions.

Or, just wash the frame down and coat it with fluid film occasionally.

 

If I remember right, salt by itself isn't a big deal, water by itself is corrosive, but when you mix them, that's when it gets nasty corrosive. If you get salt dried into your frame, then every time it gets wet you get salt water.

Couple that with capillary action and it's pretty easy for rust to climb the walls.

 

i get plenty of roadspray salt dried up my body panels that turns white on black! i certainly get it hosed off regularly in the winter

when it gets humid in the winter the whiteness goes away lol before i get it to the wash

so maybe not just 'wet' but very humid as well in the spring

 

Yeah the other place to wash carefully is the body panels. There's weep holes in the bottom of the panels that collect stuff just like the frame. Its been a ritual in my family for decades to wash out the panels via those weep holes using the above sprayer. Its a messy job, and you will get wet, but I think its worth it.

 

There are enough evenly spaced holes on frame sides to allow flushing inside. I hole sawed in the exact same place as OP and use 120 psi 360 wand starting at the rear open end of frame and working hole by hole towards the added hole in front while parked on a slope nose down. Easy Peasy. Cutting and welding were quite a bit more effort.

 

fluid film in action right here, its powerful protection
FF for the win against flash rust on the naked frame
i now have capabilities of 120 psi but not sure about sprayer, maybe the blast gun i have been using is appropriate if properly cleaned out of aluminum oxide