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There is an ad on FB Market place by what I assume is a small welding business looking for frame repair jobs. He posted pictures of a Toyota pickup that they patched the frame on. I would think it would have been easier and safer to just replace the frame with a donor frame. If the overall truck isn't in good enough shape to do a frame swap then I'd say scrap the whole thing. Second thought I had if I was a business I wouldn't have touched this project with the proverbial ten foot pole just because of the liability associated with doing something like this. If there is bad visible rust there is usually more in hidden places.
I just thought this would start a good discussion because I'm sure some members here have run into this with their trucks. I'm not criticizing the weld job, I personally think it looks pretty good, a lot better than I could do, I just think it's a lot of work for very little return.
This was a Toyota Tacoma that the client bought very cheaply but the frame was very rusty, we practically did it from end to end. We also cleaned and welded where the frame was still secure and left very robust. Satisfied Customer.
If the business model is to work on rusty Toyota frames, he'll be busy forever. There's 30 years worth of failure to correct.
None of the mfr's of trucks have done much to address salt damage, I'm not sure what you could do anyway. I can't believe NHTSA hasn't at least mandated corrosion resistant brake lines.
Toyota has been replacing prematurely-rusted Tacoma truck frames here in Maine for about 10 years, free of charge to the owners. I know they are still doing it as two days ago I drove behind the local Toyota dealership and they had a fresh pile of rusted frames out back.
I know of three people who got free replacements and were happy with the outcome. Toyota would give them a loaner for a few weeks while their truck was disassembled and placed on a new frame. This is offered even beyond the warranty date. Alternatively the owner could choose to take a buyout of their rusted truck and get 150% of the current market value, or a super sweetheart deal on a new Toyota. I know of two people who took the sweet deal instead of the frame repair. All were happy with outcome.
I don't know the exact details but I heard that Toyota is honoring a 15-year replacement plan on models as new as 2017.
Maine is a sea of prematurely-rusted cars, since they pour trainloads of salt per mile on the roads. Toyota is the only manufacturer that I know of that will honor a courtesy repair beyond the term of the regular warranty.
Boxed frames are known for being worse for rusting out more than C channel frames. There is not a good way to clean them out when they get salt spray inside them.
Wisconsin doesn't have a vehicle inspection program but I can't imagine any state that does vehicle inspections would pass a vehicle with this type of repair, I could be wrong. I think the FB poster was posting in Illinois, I don't know if Illinois has an inspection program but down there I'm sure there's ways to get a pass $$$
Wisconsin doesn't have a vehicle inspection program but I can't imagine any state that does vehicle inspections would pass a vehicle with this type of repair, I could be wrong. I think the FB poster was posting in Illinois, I don't know if Illinois has an inspection program but down there I'm sure there's ways to get a pass $$$
Here's what my 2004 jeep Grand Cherokee Freedom frame looks like. It has very little visible rust and looks very presentable:
I looked into having it repaired and had someone willing, but in the end decided to just retire it. Junk price was $400 a ton. For now it's still in my yard because I've been pulling parts off of it.
I pulled it together with a ratchet strap so it was somewhat drivable. I was able to get it home and figure it will make the 15 mile trip to the junk yard under its own power when the time comes.
I'm not sure I would even consider what the guy did as frame repair. All he did was weld new metal over rusted junk. I would call it a cosmetic band aid over any other term.
True repair should have been cutting out all the rot until you find solid metal and then weld in a new section. Problem with that is once you start cutting you'll never stop since my guess is that whole frame is gone.
From the pics above, the old metal will continue to rot away and in parallel start eating away the new metal.
I'm currently working on a a 68 mustang where the PO decided to weld new metal over old rotting metal, as well as use body filler to mask a bent frame rail & firewall from a previous accident. As you can see from the pic, the only solution I found was to cut out the radiator support, old frame rails, inner fenders, radiator & firewall so I can start over with all new metal. Wasn't a single place you couldn't push a screwdriver through on the frame rails (both old & new metal was rotted). Big job, but after it's done you'll no longer see the whole front end twist when you jack it up.
For going on 40 years I have been oil spraying the undersides of my winter driven vehicles every fall. Like Tom I live in Maine. I prefer 2 cycle oil in that it atomizes well. I have a lift, spread a tarp, mask up and run a fan pulling outside. I do inside any frame box sections using a gun that has a 3' flexible extension. When I replaced my 2003 Ranger in 2019 The underside of the truck was still very solid, all Maine miles. It takes about a quart of oil to do the full underside. A problem area on essentially all current trucks is the eyebrow area over the bed wheel openings that by design have an extremely narrow gap between the outer bed skin and inner fender area. I equip my grease gun with fittings reducing to a section of flexible translucent tubing as used on old timey mechanical oil pressure gages to snake the grease up in the gap. On my current truck I R & R the inner fender splash guards to do that additional area every other fall. Being well retired I look for years more that miles out of a new vehicle.
None of the mfr's of trucks have done much to address salt damage, I'm not sure what you could do anyway. I can't believe NHTSA hasn't at least mandated corrosion resistant brake lines.
Here's what my 2004 jeep Grand Cherokee Freedom frame looks like. It has very little visible rust and looks very presentable:
I looked into having it repaired and had someone willing, but in the end decided to just retire it. Junk price was $400 a ton. For now it's still in my yard because I've been pulling parts off of it.
I pulled it together with a ratchet strap so it was somewhat drivable. I was able to get it home and figure it will make the 15 mile trip to the junk yard under its own power when the time comes.
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