I'm going to for sure!! I never realized the questionable drainage these have and always being up at the sand dunes creates the need for some bigger holes. Thanks!

sadly I've only owned my truck a year or it would also look like that. I'm in the middle of doing a full undercarriage resto. It's honestly not even bad mostly just the back. Wire wheel then xylene then phosphoric acid then POR-15 and Eastwood coating on the inside which I'm going to clean out with a chain attached to the end of a steel wire ran through PVC. Put it on a high powered drill and get as much of the shit out as possible then a good washing and spray it.

Got the frame rot completely cut out and patched. Also added a Borla XR1 muffler as well. Cant recommend this enough!! The Gibson catback honestly sounded like a ricer on the videos I saw and the flowmaster 40 series seems like it would be extremely loud and drone which this Borla does NOT do. Fortunately the only rot I had was this area and now it's taken care of so I will now continue restoring the rest of the undercarriage! I also dumped my exhaust in front of the rear axel instead of pointlessly running it back past the rear bumper. Turned out great! Deleted one of my cats already in the past and nodded the rear o2 sensor. Had 3 inch pipe from that so I continued with the 3inch into the muffler and out of it as well.

Attached Images

     

that is going to sound so cool when you go thru a couple feet of water, blub blub blub...

so you like that Borla, I will be looking here for my exhaust setup in a little bit. any chance you can post a video of it running? I will give you my free internet points.

Hopefully where the exhaust blows out like that doesn't heat up your rear end and dif. I had my tail pipe break off and left it a couple weeks, it was blowing right at the rear end. It heated up the lube and took out my new pinion seal.

This is probably a dumb question but I know they had anti-rust undercoating available 1996-2002 so why wasn't it applied to all T4R's sold; especially in the rust belt as part of the dealer prep? At minimum one would think this would have been option that was heavily recommended. A couple hundred bucks spent then would have made a huge difference in these rigs now.

Hindsight is always 2020 I guess... (or in about 5 months).

I've been trying to get a good video of it! Obviously the video is great quality but the sound isn't it's hard to capture the sound of the exhaust.

This Is the clip that made me go with the XR1

YouTube

And let me say it for sure sounds exactly like that in person but better. Idle sounds amazing too

That is a very good point! However the exhaust is level with the bottom of the axel so especially while driving there should be no heat or at least not enough to hurt anything. The size difference of this muffler is amazing too. Far smaller dimensions and it doesnt even heat up the frame so maybe if I do end up driving it this winter the inside of the rail wont be soaked 24/7 lol

Well in all fairness these trucks did come with a decent rust proofing from the factory. If you think about it it's extremely rare to see Rot on inner fender wheel wells or body rust around the fenders because of the way they're sealed up. More commonly I see rust forming around windows from drainage from the rubber seals. My dads runner is like the rust eze guys on the first cars movie however. But that vehicle has never left the state of Michigan and people out here really dont take care of the vehicles they call their "winter beaters" as I'm sure his was for many people here. I honestly thing better drainage would have been more effective than further rustproofing. The guy that welded my frame sprayed rubber on it without asking me and it kinda pissed me off because now I've got to strip all of that off and paint with POR-15. He better have done a good job on it and not just tried to cover up shotty work. It does look good though so well see.

I hear you the front left and right of my frame has rust. Had to get a shop to cut out the rust. They did a great job. Did the same thing 5 years ago with the middle right and left side interior of the frame and it’s still solid. Rust doesn’t have to end the life of a vehicle. Especially if you are thinking of how much money a different car would cost.

Attached Images

           

I have 5 3rd Gens and live in the rust belt. I have been experimenting for years on how to not only strengthen these frames, but seal them while fixing the rot in the frames.

The best way I have found so far (though very time consuming) is to cut the bottom of the frame out (as you can then easily see what the inside frame clean it out) and plate the inside of the frame by grinding slits where your plates meet and welding it all back together. I even paint the plates. Then before resealing the bottom back up using 1/8 plate as well I give it a major heavy coat of fluid film inside the frame. This way you hide almost all of your work, and can grind the outside welds smooth. Repaint the frame and fluid film it again.. By removing all the frame holes, this seals the frame from dirt. I use 1/8 in plate. This basically gives a u frame within the frame to weld new body mounts on etc.

OP, the repair job looks great! Its always nice to see people spending the time and money to patch versus letting it get so bad that a frame finds a new home in the yard. Enjoy the next who-knows-how-many hundred thousand miles on this frame

That was some really bad rust. I am surprised you fixed it.

What time zone do you live in where you have 25 hrs a day & eight days a week?

You got me... Reside in Western PA (GMT -5:00). Where in the winter time if Penn Dot sees a snow flake they Dump Tons of Salt on the roads not to mention mix it with calcium chloride. It really eats the metal on your winter rides. :{