What do y'all think of this frame?

[fan of fanboys]

I am looking to buy this 4runner from another member here. The rest of 4runner is in great shape, price is fair, he has been very honest and upfront about everything. I personally do not know much about frames so just wanted more eyes on it. He says it can be fixed and gave me price on quote he got.

I live in the south so it will never see ice/salt/snow.

Thoughts?

 

[fan of fanboys]

Ok I used imgur link. How do I post pictures haha

 

[ZionXIX]

I am looking to buy this 4runner from another member here. The rest of 4runner is in great shape, price is fair, he has been very honest and upfront about everything. I personally do not know much about frames so just wanted more eyes on it. He says it can be fixed and gave me price on quote he got.

I live in the south so it will never see ice/salt/snow.

Thoughts?

This link goes to a page with more than one picture. Not to a picture itself.
If you want to post these pics, then save them from imgur and reupload on your T4R account and there will be a posting link available for
each picture. It will say "BB code" above the link after clicking on pictures you uploaded.

https://imgur.com/a/9Xx6s

 

[fan of fanboys]

 

[fan of fanboys]

also, what is everyone's thoughts on this company? it is pretty popular on some jeep forums I have been on (used to own a TJ)

Toyota Tacoma Archives - autorust.com

 

[IBallEngineer]

I am looking to buy this 4runner from another member here. The rest of 4runner is in great shape, price is fair, he has been very honest and upfront about everything. I personally do not know much about frames so just wanted more eyes on it. He says it can be fixed and gave me price on quote he got.

I live in the south so it will never see ice/salt/snow.

Thoughts?

Anything can be fixed, that doesn't mean it's the right way to go. That rust is pretty bad, if it were me I'd swap it rather than repair it. But ultimately the decision is yours, what's your goal, what will your total investment be? I see vehicles for sale that have $2500 worth of damage and they discount the vehicle $2500. What's the point if you can just buy an undamaged one for the same total investment?

 

[MN4runnerman]

My buddy bought from them a few years ago for his jeep and it's held up pretty good especially since he likes rocks. No one I know of here has mentioned them and if you look on the website they don't list something for a 4Runner. I just made my own to fix the same spot that your dealing with this past month and finally finished up this past weekend.

 

[Mark_BC]

That rust looks pretty scary to me, if you can find someone to fix it I guess that works but I wouldn't want the worry about the one spot you missed... I just bought one with some rust underneath but the frame is decent, only some pretty minor surface flaking surface on the welds. You can replace everything except the frame so I'd be careful about that because you are stuck with it unless you want to do a frame swap like TheDurk did.

I would take a screw driver to the differential housing and poke around, it's surprising how deep the rust goes there. It rusts in layers and they just stick there, it doesn't look too bad until you start digging and it just keeps going.

 

[TheDurk]

The control arm bracket is what killed my old frame. That one is well on its way. It is a difficult thing to fix and a very high stress point. It is NOT fun when that puppy lets go; I was sure I'd lose control of the truck before I got it stopped. (By the way, if it happens, DON'T slam on the brakes, just let it coast to a halt. Braking and especially accelerating do wild things, but it will roll in a straight line pretty well missing one rear LCA. Not something you want to find out for yourself. I was able to drive it home once I figured it how--VERY gentle on the pedals.)

I would never recommend buying a used truck with the intention of doing a swap, unless I REALLY wanted THAT truck and I had a good donor frame ready, and I could do the work myself, had the time and tools and wanted to do it. This is not easy to do and it takes a LONG time.

I'd find a different truck than that one. I'm no expert on repair possibilities, I just know I was chicken to go that route and folks I trust around here weren't willing to do it on mine. Yeah, mine was worse, but not wildly worse.

 

[gamefreakgc]

Rust kills cars. You fix one spot and it'll show up somewhere else in a few more winters. Keep looking for something else that you know is solid. Much easier to replace seats, carpet, engine, etc. than a rusted frame.

 

[Nervo19]

I bought the Autorust things for our 2000 Tacoma. They are only 30" long. They seem good but they are for a specific part of the frame. Our 2000 had damage in more places which needed custom work. If I'd known that I wouldn't have bothered ordering them and let the welder fabricate it all. The first clue I had was when the passenger shock perch let go. The truck had been undercoated and the rust came from the inside.

In the picture you show the frame is rusted where the leaf spring perch is. One good bump and the whole rear end can detach. Unless you can weld and have a place where you can take your time fabricating some plating I would run from this truck. If the seller has a good estimate on the repair why doesn't he have it done before he sells it?

As I said I had similar rust on a Tacoma. When they took the bed and gas tank off there was sooooo much more damage. It rusted badly on top of the frame. I wish I had pictures of that. How does that happen? I ended up trading it to Toyota for a 2016. They did not give me an especially good deal either.

4Runners have much better frames than same age Tacomas. Our 2000 4Runner still has a great frame. I did not like the idea of my son driving this Tacoma 200 miles to college so I gave him my 2000 4Runner and drive the 2016.


The frame did not look bad at first glance:





Here the leaf spring perch is about to let go



It was a beautiful truck. It was one owner and previous owner was a member of the US Senate. LOL that probably explains a lot.

 

[fan of fanboys]

dang it!

I was really hoping I would be told not a big deal, can get fixed for $1000, etc

I will get about $4k cash from the dieselgate fallout after car is paid off. The 4runner is a 2000 with 132k miles, limited and guy said would sell for less than $2k. gave me over $2k to immediately put into and plus the money saved each month on car payment. figured I would be up and running with a sweet ride in no time

but this has been unanimous so far. kind if disappointed. I have not found anything noteworthy in the $4k range unless I go well over 200k in miles. and I really want to avoid another car payment. want to pay cash and then just put, as needed, $200-$300/month into maintenance and replacing items until it is a smoother operator

 

[Kmurt]

Run. Rust problems are such a headache.

You live in the south = no rust. Be patient and wait for a clean one.

 

[Scramble]

Run. Rust problems are such a headache.

You live in the south = no rust. Be patient and wait for a clean one.

I agree with this 100%.

 

[T4R2014]

When the frame looks like that, I don't pay over 1000. I consider that to be a nonfunctional vehicle. It can be fixed if you have a welding connection.

 

[Zacher]

If I see rust I don't buy. It can be fixed if you're willing to pay though.

 

[JBurt]

With 4 grand you could buy a plane ticket and buy a rust free vehicle and drive it home.

 

[fan of fanboys]

With 4 grand you could buy a plane ticket and buy a rust free vehicle and drive it home.

I have been searching autotrader within 500 miles for a couple months and have not found anything without crazy high mileage.

I am not ready to buy until VW actually buysback the car but that should be in Nov. But I have been looking just to keep eye out and get feel of market

 

[thegipper]

Do you have a VW TDlie?

 

[frodiesel]

You can run into more problems in the south, salt water floods. Sun damage, cracked dash, interior bleachd