The old gen 1 rust problem

1998 Tacoma SR5 4x4

So, I recently purchased into the Toyota world entirely ignorant of the frame rust problem. I have built an entire new front end, soon to do shocks and struts and looking to have just a generally decent daily driver that I can hunt and trial out of. However, I discovered the rust.

Now that I have researched it I am familiar that this rust is common place on the gen 1 Tacoma. Had I known I would have looked more closely at the frame when purchasing. I was unfortunately starry eyed by the price and the year. Front end work, shocks and struts and new tires seemed like the gist of it.

I guess I am looking for hope, or ideas on what I should do next, finish the repairs on what I have and sell it off to a ambitious welder? Or should I attempt something myself? (I can weld, but I wouldn't trust my life on it, or anyone elses. Its bad)
Paying someone else to do the repairs isn't in the cards, and doesn't seem worth it frankly.

Looking at the pictures how dire would you say a frame repair is? Is it "repair that soon" or "how do you get that home?!"

 

Yeah, I won't sugar coat it. That's bad guy, is it fixable. Yeah it could be fixed, but I personally would turn it into a crawler or something I only needed a cab for. Sorry that happened to ya I'm currently fixing one with minor rust damage.

 

Breakfast food unless you could somehow find a good rust free or close gen 1 frame.

[ie, toast]

And the more you look and tap with a hammer, the more holes will appear.

Sadly, Tacoma's are much more ''check the frame'' and less ''look the body over.''

I looked at a really nice looking gen 1 a while ago that looked great at a customers house, then I looked at the frame, swiss cheese had fewer holes in it, I was surprised that it wasn't broken in half. The body looked like the truck had 10 more good year left in it.

 

Time to upgrade to a chromemolly tube chassis , that oem stock chassis is unsafe

 

Idk where you are but a frame just popped up for sale in Seattle for $900. I’m in the middle of a frame swap on a truck I’ve only driven up onto a trailer and then into my shop.

 

Autorust.com sells sections of frame to weld in place of the common sections that rust out...but you might be beyond that kind of repair tbh.

 

Even FlexTape, a product in the FlexSeal family can’t save that…. I don’t see it even being capped. It 100% needs a frame replacement. And exhaust….

 

Basically what I thought too. Oh well. Thanks guys.

 

Where and who did you buy this from? And how long ago?

 

ugh, that sucks really bad. Sorry to hear about that

Well, you could try fixing it with plates and frame sections but at this point, it's just going to be patching and a temporary fix. TRuck definitely needs a new frame

But be aware that the more you will work on it, the more rust, holes and nasty surprises you will find.

Also, when dealing with frame rust, what you cannot see is often worse than what you can see. Truck frames tend to rust from the inside out, unfortunately

 

Jesus man, you definitely had the blinders on there... Like, you didn't even need to get on your back to see that rust.

Let this be an important (and expensive) lesson. *Thoroughly* inspect every vehicle you buy, top to bottom. And I'm not even talking about taking it to a mechanic, which you should also do.

I live in CA where rust isn't even really "a thing" and I've been looking under the body/frame of every vehicle I've bought since since before the first Tacoma ever rolled off the line.

I'm sorry to say this, but you really only have a couple options, unless you can some how miraculously get your money back:

1) find a donor from a "dry" state like AZ or CA, and swap it. Don't bother with frame caps, there's not enough there to weld to! Expect you replace a lot of stuff, too. Like I said, the frame isn't the only thing that's rusty.

2) light a match, collect the insurance, and start over.

Do NOT drive that thing.

 

A non mechanic city guy about 5 days ago. Lol.

 

Tough love, lol. I actually did look at the rust but mostly on the front end. I admit I was foolish, and it's my fault for not seeing it.
Live and learn, glad I didn't drop alot on it, but still.

I would go with the 2nd option, but my luck I'd be caught in the fraud.

 

Yeah, sorry, don't mean to sound harsh but yeah, that's a tough lesson to learn. I've learned several that way lol..

The price was "too good to be true" eh?

To be honest, you'd probably get just as much from insurance if you were driving it and the frame fell apart. Although that'd be more dangerous, lol...

Maybe part it out, I'm sure there's plenty of stuff on it that's still good.

Or, watch those grindhardplumbing guys on youtube for some inspiration, and hoon that bad boy until it breaks in half.

 

Likely part is as a whole, if I can find a taker, lol.
Hooning it to death sounds fun though.

Actually I'm looking at a 96 t100 v6 4x4 with ZERO frame rust at the moment. Its a good truck. It's got 255000. The guy is asking 6k USD. Is thst a fair price? KBB in the area is 5k, but like I said I checked this thing front to back on my hands and knees for about 15 minutes and its immaculate. The frame was factory dipped or something.

 

It wasn't dipped. Don't get bit again. Look inside.

As far as I know, the T100's never got replacement frames and parts are harder to find for everything but Toyota redundancies. (engines, brakes, seats.) I love the T's though if it IS that nice.

I'd just be concerned with starting with a 25 yr. old vehicle if I wanted to keep for 20 yrs.

 

Thoughts on the price? Say it was in good condition, is that a fair price for these trucks? 255k miles, body and frame are solid and rust free, engine is clean and purrs, transmission is solid, 4x4 is strong and easily engaged. Owned by a mechanic before this gentleman apparently a few years ago. Only reason he is selling is he is moving to a smaller lot and his wife is retiring from work and doesn't need the vehicle. And I know she didn't get on it hard and rough it up. Lol.

Parts shouldn't be a major problem.

 

Most of the T100's I have seen [I live in the rust belt] were ate up as bad or worse then Tacoma's were with rust under them. Heck, I'm less then impressed with the Tundra's myself, the Toyota dealer had a 3-4 year old one up on ramps advertising it for sale and the underside of it looked like steel pulled from the Titanic 100 years after it sank. Body looked great, frame, you could get tetanus just from getting near it.

 

Lol. Well this one came from a dry state, amazingly its like its never seen salt except for the last couple years. Wish I had gotten pictures. Coming from a rust belt state myself body rust and frame rust isn't uncommon on brand new vehicles, so I amazed to see a 25 year old truck in such clean condition, especially a 4x4, since they usually get muddy and hold moisture on the frame.

I'm familiarity with frame rust probably is why I didn't look closely at the Tacoma thats toast. I saw rust, but no more than usual on the outer frame inspection, it was the inner frame I had missed .

 

No. Like houses, they all sound insane. With no new supply, it's confusing an already tight market.