LOL....I was in the EXACT same position a couple months ago.....passenger side rear control link rusted off the perch. I have a great "indy" mechanic who was able to fab some parts and get my ole girl up and running. Rust/road salts will eventually kill any northern 4runner. If you could find someone to do a frame swap for around 5k, that'd be ok.....otherwise better to put that money towards a new ride from a southern state. Gonna be a sad day when I have to put my '05 out to pasture....far and away the best vehicle I've ever owned!

You in MA? Call these guys in RI. They fixed the frame on mine.

autorust.com - Makers of the Frame Saving Safe-T-Cap Kit

So one of these rust threads got me to finally remove the rear bumper cover to make sure my hitch was still well supported. The pointy hammer created some nice holes in the corners on both sides. Fist pic is after cutting the metal back to solid steel. You can see in this picture that they can rust from the inside out. It doesn't help that there was 5 pounds of sand packed into this area, the pic is after cleaning it out some and hitting it with the scaler. This section looked decent from the outside until I rapped on it. Second pic is one side repaired, you can see some of the rust wafers on the ground. I did bore some access holes into the new steel and sprayed fluid film in there. Plus rust trapped the exterior. It should last me awhile this way but I think oiling the frame will become a yearly thing to do.

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Actually just picked up my 4runner from this place this AM.

They capped the entire passenger side mid section, replace parts of the frame on both front (behind bumper, near radiator) and at rear bumper, sand blasted the entire bottom and undercoated (think super thick tarry stuff that takes a while to harden)

$2300 and it took a week. This is actually my 2nd 4th gen that I got for a song, which is why I wasn't too worried about spending the $ for the frame repair/coating)

ETA-weird thing about this one was passenger side frame real rusted, holes flaking etc. Driver side nearly perfect (at least for the northeast). Tech said the AC drain line was responsible.

Toyota’s placement of the drain line is arguably the most boneheaded design flaw in 4th Gens. That said, it’s very easy to extend it down past the frame and every 4th Gen owner should do it ASAP.

Can you post some pics? I'm especially curious as to what they did for the front.

it's located in the upper control arm link of the frame. i hammered it to remove the scales of rust and has a little metal left on the attachment point. it's still good though on one side of the bolt but the other side of the bolt, there's a hole on it already.

Yes, i'm in MA. I'll call them up. I appreciate it.

Thanks for the link, plan on doing this ASAP.

ETA-I plan to do a post showing what the passenger side vs the driver side looks like.

I'll try to post pics, but with the thick coating it is tough to show what they replaced.