Hello all, looking for some ideas on what to do next with our 2004 4Runner plagued by the infamous Toyota frame rust. All the posts I've read on this frame rust topic have been related to how to prevent/slow the decay, bickering about who's fault it is that they rust, class action lawsuits, and so on...but I haven't seen anything in regards to what to do with a truck that's already plagued. Just scrapping/crushing them all seems extreme, they are good looking rigs and rust free bodies will be hard to find someday in the not too distant future I bet. This might turn into a bit of an essay, bear with me...
The background:
The 4runner in question is an '04 Limited V6 4x4, ~170k miles, gold exterior and heated tan leather seats, mild spacer lift, like new graphite TRD pro wheels with great Hankook tires, & rust free body (keep in mind this is in the midwest). I bought it in 2017 knowing there was some surface rust developing on the frame, which I thought I could get ahead of with some prep and coating, but I underestimated the severity of what I'd later find. The body & paint, along with all of the suspension, was spotless without any rust, so I didn't suspect anything, and the frame looked solid when crawling around under it to inspect before buying. Turns out, I was duped by a previous owner who "body worked" (not kidding) the rusted out areas of the frame to hide the issues. Lesson learned the hard way there.
After grinding and removing glued & bondo'ed on pieces of sheet metal from the frame to find out exactly what shape it was in, I decided to repair it. The heavy rust was limited to the areas just before the lower links (see pics). I plated the rear section of both frame rails with 3/16" steel on 3 sides, from about the front of the rear doors, back halfway up the arch over the axle (going well past the affected areas to weld to good steel), and also reinforced the lower link mounts to the new steel. Also went through intensive prep work and POR15'ed all the new and existing steel at that time. 4 years and about 50k miles later and haven't had any issues with the repair.
However, the garbage steel that led to that frame rot next to a spotless rust free body (still true today) has continued to decay in some typical areas. Both front tow hooks are gone, along with a good amount of the small crossmember under the radiator, having rusted completely from the inside out (literally the exterior coating was the last thing holding together). Best I can tell, this isn't structural (just some routing retention for some lines) and short of loosing the tow hooks I don't see any major concern with driving it like this (worst case maybe a change in front impact structure?). I looked at repairing, but options are limited with complex geometry and no real good starting point to weld to good metal, so I've left this as is and haven't had any issue yet. It appears this hasn't reached back into the body mounts or more importantly the lower control arm mounts, and there's no other areas affected to this level I've found.
The dilemma:
We recently replaced this vehicle in our fleet, so its no longer needed and is an "extra" taking up space and $'s. It still gets driven, but its time for it to go. Besides the frame, this is a very nice truck and at this point still fully functional and usable as is. I'm certainly not about to go the route of owner(s) before me hiding such things and dumping it, so here are the options spinning in my head...
-Keep it and drive it into the ground (as I said, don't need it, so not ideal)- hope the frame rot doesn't make it to a control arm mount before the truck dies of natural causes (or Toyota decides to replace frames on 4runners like the Taco's).
-Sell it, fully disclosing frame repair and current state (and hopefully find a buyer who fully understands this)- this is option #1 I think currently, but the magic question is what's a fair price?? With a perfect frame, from what I can tell in used market its probably a ~11-12k truck, and I'm thinking fair would be maybe 3-5k off that considering frame. Am I way off?
-Swap/replace frame - Get ahead of the eventual demise of this frame by getting rid of it now before it causes some other issue. Don't want to put another Toyota frame under it considering the seemingly inevitable rot, so then what? Build my own front frame half from scratch and SAS? JK roller/body swap? Turns into a big project quite quickly and would rather put that time/money towards my actual project rigs, so not high on the list for me right now
-Part it out- Seems odd to do to a fully functioning vehicle, but maybe best bet so it doesn't create a problem later down the road for someone? Is there a market for this? Financially worth the effort? I know wheels/tires would go quick, but what about the rest of the big stuff (drivetrain, body, interior...)? Not yet convinced I'm up for this space & time commitment, or dealing with prospective buyers of parts, but maybe an option.
Hope you enjoyed the light read. Thoughts???? Any and all input/opinions/ideas appreciated!
The background:
The 4runner in question is an '04 Limited V6 4x4, ~170k miles, gold exterior and heated tan leather seats, mild spacer lift, like new graphite TRD pro wheels with great Hankook tires, & rust free body (keep in mind this is in the midwest). I bought it in 2017 knowing there was some surface rust developing on the frame, which I thought I could get ahead of with some prep and coating, but I underestimated the severity of what I'd later find. The body & paint, along with all of the suspension, was spotless without any rust, so I didn't suspect anything, and the frame looked solid when crawling around under it to inspect before buying. Turns out, I was duped by a previous owner who "body worked" (not kidding) the rusted out areas of the frame to hide the issues. Lesson learned the hard way there.
After grinding and removing glued & bondo'ed on pieces of sheet metal from the frame to find out exactly what shape it was in, I decided to repair it. The heavy rust was limited to the areas just before the lower links (see pics). I plated the rear section of both frame rails with 3/16" steel on 3 sides, from about the front of the rear doors, back halfway up the arch over the axle (going well past the affected areas to weld to good steel), and also reinforced the lower link mounts to the new steel. Also went through intensive prep work and POR15'ed all the new and existing steel at that time. 4 years and about 50k miles later and haven't had any issues with the repair.
However, the garbage steel that led to that frame rot next to a spotless rust free body (still true today) has continued to decay in some typical areas. Both front tow hooks are gone, along with a good amount of the small crossmember under the radiator, having rusted completely from the inside out (literally the exterior coating was the last thing holding together). Best I can tell, this isn't structural (just some routing retention for some lines) and short of loosing the tow hooks I don't see any major concern with driving it like this (worst case maybe a change in front impact structure?). I looked at repairing, but options are limited with complex geometry and no real good starting point to weld to good metal, so I've left this as is and haven't had any issue yet. It appears this hasn't reached back into the body mounts or more importantly the lower control arm mounts, and there's no other areas affected to this level I've found.
The dilemma:
We recently replaced this vehicle in our fleet, so its no longer needed and is an "extra" taking up space and $'s. It still gets driven, but its time for it to go. Besides the frame, this is a very nice truck and at this point still fully functional and usable as is. I'm certainly not about to go the route of owner(s) before me hiding such things and dumping it, so here are the options spinning in my head...
-Keep it and drive it into the ground (as I said, don't need it, so not ideal)- hope the frame rot doesn't make it to a control arm mount before the truck dies of natural causes (or Toyota decides to replace frames on 4runners like the Taco's).
-Sell it, fully disclosing frame repair and current state (and hopefully find a buyer who fully understands this)- this is option #1 I think currently, but the magic question is what's a fair price?? With a perfect frame, from what I can tell in used market its probably a ~11-12k truck, and I'm thinking fair would be maybe 3-5k off that considering frame. Am I way off?
-Swap/replace frame - Get ahead of the eventual demise of this frame by getting rid of it now before it causes some other issue. Don't want to put another Toyota frame under it considering the seemingly inevitable rot, so then what? Build my own front frame half from scratch and SAS? JK roller/body swap? Turns into a big project quite quickly and would rather put that time/money towards my actual project rigs, so not high on the list for me right now
-Part it out- Seems odd to do to a fully functioning vehicle, but maybe best bet so it doesn't create a problem later down the road for someone? Is there a market for this? Financially worth the effort? I know wheels/tires would go quick, but what about the rest of the big stuff (drivetrain, body, interior...)? Not yet convinced I'm up for this space & time commitment, or dealing with prospective buyers of parts, but maybe an option.
Hope you enjoyed the light read. Thoughts???? Any and all input/opinions/ideas appreciated!
