Frame Rust Help - Toyota 4Runner Forum

KuEis · 05-18-2024, 10:32 AM

Help with frame rust.
1998 SR5 with 55000 miles, older couple owned. Garage kept. It looks new other than the rust. I just picked it up a few weeks ago.

Hello, most of it looks like surface rust. I will need a new frame at some point. I need someone in South Jersey or PA who can wire brush it down and coat it so it lasts a bit longer.

Any place that can do it would be great. I can't find any.

or anyone selling a frame in the NJ PA DE area would be great also.

19963.4lsr5 · 05-18-2024, 11:08 AM

Post some pictures please

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TheDurk · 05-19-2024, 01:45 PM

If you want to see a DIY frame swap, check my sig. I don't recommend it, but I'm glad I did it. My '99 is still on the road, with a new life. It's a bear though. Really takes an overhead hoist. Ironically, my new house actually has one in the garage.

To find a frame, Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market is your friend. I found one off a 2001 that had been wrecked in 2006 so it was in great shape. Cost me $600 plus $150 to deliver, with some goodies thrown in.

TheDurk · 05-19-2024, 01:49 PM

If you want to see a DIY frame swap, check my sig. I don't recommend it, but I'm glad I did it. My '99 is still on the road, with a new life. It's a bear though. Really takes an overhead hoist. Ironically, my new house actually has one in the garage.

To find a frame, Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market is your friend. I found one off a 2001 that had been wrecked in 2006 so it was in great shape. Cost me $600 plus $150 to deliver, with some goodies thrown in.

brillo_76 · 05-19-2024, 03:13 PM

You can see in my build thread how to rebuild sections of the frame to prolong the frame swap. As The Durk has mentioned its a project to swap a frame. The frames mostly rot from the inside out on the 3rd gens. So it is important to keep it clean and the frame coated inside with paint and rust inhibiting solutions to slow the oxidation process. The rockers and body supports under the floor are next. As the rockers and the support channels are the next to go on the actual body in the rust belt.

Gizmo McGee · 06-03-2024, 01:48 PM

Hard to tell without pictures. My 2002 frame looked pretty rough when I bought it but it passed the hammer test.

First weekend I had it I went to town on the frame with a cheap harbor freight needle scaler, knocked off what must have been a pound of pure rust, then hit the frame with some lanolin. Looks a lot better now and I appreciate the comfort of knowing I went at the frame with power tools and nothing broke through.

Now all the bolts in the frame are another story...

diverscale · 06-05-2024, 11:54 PM

if everything is still solid and it's not rotted through (you say surface rust), no holes, and no weak areas, why not just grease/oil rust treat it every year?

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