Originally Posted by 4runherpow

@rdruss

Heck yea, man. Toyota needs to address this! I'll donate some time if need be but have very low expectations as well.

Update on repair options:

Took her too Off-road Innovations in Winchester, VA. Nice crew they got there. John walked through the underside with me. Good news is that not too much more in way of suspicious spots that need immediate attention. His initial estimate/recommendation - which I'll revisit some of this - are as follows:

-Safe T Cap both front A-arms. This is where I'll need to chat about "why" both. The front passenger perhaps is bad enough to justify a long section like Safe T Cap. The drivers side just looks like it needs a small plate.

Both front safety caps and labor - $2,400 (16 hours labor)

-Wire wheel entire frame, coat with rust inhibitor, seal with POR-15. I noted that issues can arise from inside out, which they are well aware of. However, he said that they do not have a decent way of removing debris from inside (cost prohibitive if they attempted this). But by doing the rust mitigation and seal on the outside a) they drop the fuel tank so they would be able to fix that strap without extra labor, and b) it will help at least slow down the outside progression, plus make the frame look consistent if an inspector was wondering about a repair job.

$1,400 to do this.

I would try to bring this down to $3,500 out the door. I do think this is high. But my area seems to be elevated on cost, for everything really.

One of my thoughts is the passenger side does not need a Safe T Cap and that time+materials should be cut down. My goal is to get all this under $3K. This also does not address the holes in the rear bumper area or the bumpstop. MY plan for the rear holes is to metal plaster patch them after they complete their work. My thought is, yes, they are frame homes but they are in the edge of the rear bumper area where there's no suspension parts connected, etc. They are not really load bearing. So I'll fill them and move on.

Am I thinking along the right lines here?

@MikeinNH67

I'm thinking that I need to get another 3-4 years out of this frame. Then I'll probably have around 210-225K on the whole vehicle. If I do well financially, I'll give her to a place like this Off-Road Innovations and say, Here's $40-50k take her for next 6 months and go new frame, rebuild the FU-Z (325hp+), entire suspension rebuild, repaint, restore interior. Basically try and make her as new as possible. That's the dream at least, lol

Originally Posted by AuSeeker

Good luck on the repairs, I hope it goes well!

As far as 3-4 years down the road and dumping $40-$50K into a total restoration, I would instead invest that money into another 4th Gens that has a good frame and low miles for about half that much money with plenty left over to do whatever upgrades you want....or for that much money you can get a low mileage 5th Gen.

Originally Posted by moshrider3

I do this type of work for a living and $3500 is not far from where I would charge for something like this. There will be many different opinions as to what you should do. However I would recommended if you do decide to fix it to fix it properly this time so you do not have to keep bringing it back to be fixed. The most concerning hole to me would be the one which looks to be on the rear bumper reinforcement. If it’s rotted behind the plastic bumper cover it would need replaced. I worked on an 08 last month and it required dropping the fuel tank and spare tire to get to the problem areas. The front frames near the control arms are very common. The safetcap frame sections are the way to go in my opinion unless you do a full frame swap. However the rear bumper is only available from Toyota as far as I know. The best way to clear the frame of the silt you’re talking about is when it is repaired. If you go to a good company they will clean it out when preparing the frame for the new sections of frame.

The possible reason for the safetcap recommendation on the driver side is the people who work on vehicle frames know, if you’re going to fix it, fix it properly the first time. The hole may only be the size of a quarter but once it is being worked on it generally expands, being as the vehicle has been exposed to road salt for many years.

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