I see a lot of parts trucks, shot frames etc on the 3rds, and early 4ths. I’m torn between where do I draw the line. If I can find a clean 3rd for reasonable I’ll take it, but a lot are still demanding a high price. To the point of saying to myself, “why would I pay north of $6-8kfor a clean high miler when I can save up and get a late 4th or early 5th instead?

Dilemma

Hamilton area. Where's the truck listed? Although 350K is pretty high. The one I'm looking at is 260...but more rust...
I agree with you. Might start looking at 4th gens....

No pics of the rear section behind the tires, that is usually worse than than everything else, from the pics it's obviously a 96-98, sometimes the km don't matter if it just sat around and rusted. Any pics showing the door jambs and rockers? A lot of people just top wash their vehicles without ever getting the frame treated or at least spray it off. Always see a few for sale here in Ontario where someone recently bought one for cheap that looked good on top but when they went to get it certified and put it on the road it had frame problems that weren't worth the money to them to fix, then they try and re-sell it for an inflated price because they basically overpaid for a parts truck. Basically with all of these trucks up here or probably everywhere at this age if you can't do the maintenance or repairs yourself it's not worth buying, luckily most people who own these and are on this forum are mechanically inclined and almost all problems/repairs at this point have been documented

Oakville. Body looks nice in pics. Feel free too look at it. I think I’m just going to continue socking cash aside and wait for better

1996 Toyota 4Runner Limited/TIMING BELT REPLACED BY TOYOTA ON 2017 | Cars & Trucks | Oakville / Halton Region | Kijiji

Ah, I actually did see that ad before. The rust holes frighten me though.
Seems there is quite a bit of V8s available in this area. Might take a look at those. Do you know if those engines are as reliable at the V6?

This one does look nice on the topside though.

I’ve read here that the v8’s are the legendary Lexus motor, but they need timing belts replaced semi regularly. Can’t recall exactly, like every 120k-is-ish (kms) it’s a big flat cogged belt like an early supercharger belt.

If I go 4th gen, I’ll probably go v8

There is still a lot of paint on the frame. It may look uglier that it really is. They always rust around the welds first. Make sure its solid, check around the rear lower control arm mounts inside and out really well, check the rear upper shock mount area, where all the crossmembers are welded on, the rear near the back bumper and the front right behind the front tires inside and out. Make sure its not rusted out from end to end with a bunch of small holes. A small area of frame can be repaired, a frame that's rusted thin from end to end cannot.

Looks like way too much rust to me. I'm not from the land of maple syrup but that looks pretty flaky and has some holes visible in the rear control arm area. I would not feel safe driving that. I had a section of my frame cut out and patched for wayyyy less. I do not think fame failure is something to take lightly. At highway speeds or in the event of an accident, it could have serious consequences.

NSTD: Not Safe To Drive. Just got my 2001 fixed with a SafeTCap for the rear passenger side. The rust that caused me to need to do the SafeTCap was 1/1000 of what I'm seeing in your photos. So the only money that should be changing hands is them paying you to take that road safety hazard off the lot and to the junkyard. You'd have to be legit crazy to pay anything for that hunk of junk. Seriously.

I bought one like that. i only paid $500 though. this was the frame after i tapped around with a hammer...

couple nights in the shop and it’s as good as new....


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The hole that has formed on the skid is very worrying, especially with how rough everything else looks. A thing to remember too is many times we get fixated on the major things like the frame, subframe, body, etc., but don't forget that when the frame is in that rough of shape you're in for a HELL of a ride doing any wrenching - probably gonna be snapped bolts and rounded nuts left and right. Just a thing to consider as it's often overlooked until people are trying to squeeze on a lift or similar.
I'd try to look for better, personally - but it's also how willing you wanna put in work. If it passes the hammer test, usually it can be fixed to some degree. I hardly had any rust but still completely redid my rear just for the protection and cause it was easy. Looks nice too.

Has anyone seen, have pictures or experience a frame break on a 3rd gen 4runner like a 1st gen Tacoma rust out? I’m assuming it would be hard for it to come down to that being the body would keep it in place, but seriously. This doesn’t included rear control arms or shock houses rusting out.

If you lookup "3rd gen 4runner frame rot," you do see a lot of torn up frames. It's sad that Toyota didn't cover the 4Runners but did cover the Sequoia's, Tacoma's, and Tundra's.........

I wanna see if a 4runner frame can do this.

That’s the articulating model they had. Was great at going over very sharp crests.