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Finally got around, over Christmas vacation, to re-installing my factory receiver hitch. I pulled it to get blasted and re-painted and in the process several of the mounting bolts broke off inside the frame rail upon removal. Reading input from others I figured I would be forced to have the hitch welded back into place.
Thanks to ram http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/146219-replace-stock-hitch-remove-rear-bumper-cover.html I was able to easily remove my rear bumper (cover) and perform some cleanup of surface rust.
After cleanup and painting
Upon further investigation I began to think the possibility of accessing the welded nuts within the frame rail. I did some poking around and found that the thin metal covering the end cap of the frame rail is nothing more than an end cap and not structurally significant given where everything is welded and re-enforced. So I simply took my jigsaw with a metal blade and cut out (like cutting through cardboard) a small rectangular access on either side.
This allowed me to easily install new hardware (thick fender washers & nylon nuts) with a magnetic wand and tighten them down with box end wrench.
Finally all back together without any welding.
I suppose I could easily weld a small plate back over the access hole I made but I decided to leave it open instead so that water and dirt can easily drain out. Upon accessing the frame rails the dirt was literally 1.5" deep inside. I used my tank vac and some hose to clean up what seemed like a gallon of dirt from either side. Poor design on the part of Toyota in my opinion.
Inside frame rail cleaned up.
Thanks to ram http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/146219-replace-stock-hitch-remove-rear-bumper-cover.html I was able to easily remove my rear bumper (cover) and perform some cleanup of surface rust.
After cleanup and painting
Upon further investigation I began to think the possibility of accessing the welded nuts within the frame rail. I did some poking around and found that the thin metal covering the end cap of the frame rail is nothing more than an end cap and not structurally significant given where everything is welded and re-enforced. So I simply took my jigsaw with a metal blade and cut out (like cutting through cardboard) a small rectangular access on either side.
This allowed me to easily install new hardware (thick fender washers & nylon nuts) with a magnetic wand and tighten them down with box end wrench.
Finally all back together without any welding.
I suppose I could easily weld a small plate back over the access hole I made but I decided to leave it open instead so that water and dirt can easily drain out. Upon accessing the frame rails the dirt was literally 1.5" deep inside. I used my tank vac and some hose to clean up what seemed like a gallon of dirt from either side. Poor design on the part of Toyota in my opinion.
Inside frame rail cleaned up.
