Help with a few repairs

[daprotege5]

Included a pic of my front sway bar, the bracket was missing but i found that in a junkyard. but when i went to install, one bolt is spinning in the hole(stuck), and the other is obviously broken in there from the picture. i was thinking go up a size in bit and retap the hole to another thread size.... what you guys think??

i was intially thinking to Fluid film everything to prevent rust continuing as it currently has lite rust. But read somewhere that Fluid film tends to eventually fall off when getting wet. I'm in Florida so it rains constantly, plus she's gonna get muddy. obviously i plan to wire wheel and scrap off whatever i can. but soon i plan to change the whole suspension and bushings all around so thought it was a good time to tackle the rust prevention while its cool out in florida instead of 1000 degrees.

what product would you guys recommend??? i intially thought por15, than read somewhere it builds up moisture, than someone commented FF it all and call it a day but than i read it falls off and has to be reapplied to certain areas.

also what part were you guys using to relocate the a/c drain line??? mine is a hose just pointing straight down to the frame, do they make an adapter and than you just connect another hose to it to where you desire.

 

[aemravan]

if you ask 10 times, you'll get 10 different answers on best rust prevention.

I found that POR15 would probably work, but you really need to spend the time to prep the surface. It doesnt hold up well if you simply paint it over the areas, whether rusty or not. I can confirm that less than 6 months in I was able to literally peel it right off of the areas that didn't come off already themselves.

What I have found after that seems to have decent overall opinions on is this blaster surface shield: Amazon.com: B'laster Surface Shield Complete Corrosion Protection for Long Lasting Automotive Undercoating Applications, 12 oz Aerosol, Pack of 6 : Automotive

Have yet to spray down the frame with it but know folks that have used it and swear by it.


regarding the broken swaybar bolt.. that's crappy.. going up a size would work, in theory, but you still need to get both bolts out. My only concern would be tapping the one hole closest to the support member since you won't be able to get fully turn the handles.... maybe if you used some sort of an extension .. but you get the idea. I've gone up bolt sizes all the time to fix similar issues.

It could be easier to try and carefully drilling out the bolt so you don't screw the threads up too much and then just chasing the threads to clean them up, but that depends on why your second bolt is spinning.. something is stripped .. either the bolt or the threads in the frame.

 

[MikeinNH67]

I would try drilling/tapping first. Obviously you'll need to cut the one that's spinning and drive what's left up into the frame. Depending on where this falls there are sometimes holes in the frame you can drop a bolt through from the side. Lastly a Rivnut setup would make for an easy fix.

As for rust, if your location is Florida then I wouldn't be concerned about it.

 

[Syr4RinNC]

I would take the painstaking process of drilling out the bolt thats broken. In terms of the one thats spinning, try to see if you provide some good downward pressure on while ratcheting. If you can get some help, or hold part of bolt with pliers and pull down, slip a wrench between the head and rest of the bolt to push it down and see if you can get it to catch

Ive tried about all ways with my skid plate bolts that have frozen - using a larger bolt, retapping and using rivnets. I had the most trouble with re-tapping

Every rust treatment has its detractors. sand what you can, treat it with a rust converter and then use fluid film, wd40, some sort of rust preventor, but based on your picture it may be more cosmetic than anything serious so just consider how much time and effort its worth and what sort of outcome youre hoping for

 

[Bluesky 07]

My approach with rust is to remove the loose material, paint with Rustoleum Rust Reformer, then use Fluid Film. The paint should prevent further corrosion of that spot by itself but I add Fluid Film as an added layer of protection. I find it sticks pretty well and I don’t reapply it though unless the need is evident.

 

[daprotege5]

cut the one that was loose and took the piece out with a magnet. theirs definitely not enough meat to thread that hole, so most likely gonna fish a bolt into their and use in impact to get it on tight.

side note - i was starting to wire wheel the rear end and noticed that my exhaust pipe is touching the wires that are connecting to the charcoal cannister, so having to rig exhaust hangers to pull on the exhaust towards the passenger side as theirs no exhaust hanger on the back. so more fun stuff to deal with.

 

[Keros]

The sway bay bracket is a captive nut on the inside that's broken loose. I've seen people cut a hole in the frame, weld a new nut on, and then weld up the hole. I'd be suspicious that just tapping the thickness of the frame rail would produce enough thread to reliably hold the bracket on.

For rust prevention & remediation, POR15 works great only on bare metal that's been pockmarked by rust. Once it's painted on, it'll need to be physically cut off the metal with some serious wire wheeling. However, on smooth surfaces, it doesn't get the mechanical bite needed. A friend of mine did his FJ60 axles with POR15 and a chisel would barely put a mark in the glossy finish. But, there's many stories of guys taking off big chunks of it at the carwash because it was applied to smooth metal.

I'd suggest RustBullet, if you want to do something more serious than a rattlecan. It's got a complicated setup process with cleaning and etching, but it's held up pretty well under my truck. I did my hitch receiver in 2016 in gloss black and it still looks like it was done yesterday. The frame rail sections I painted looked pretty good as well.

Anyway, the problem with the 4Runner frame is it's a structurally great design but a terrible design for longevity. The closed boxed section gets filled up with debris, dirt, grime, and all manner of porous material that holds moisture against its virgin steel interior. Then, obviously, it rusts from the inside out. Treating the outside will make it look pretty, and arguably, last slightly longer; but if you really want to fix it, you've gotta clean out the inside and protect that metal.

Dealing with the rust on the outside of the rails is great but it's the internal rust that's gonna kill our trucks. Take a ball peen hammer up and down your frame and give it a decent whack. If it rings as good clear metal on metal, great. If you punch through, you may have saved yourself a lot of trouble.