New 04 owner panicking over frame rust

Just bought a 2004 Tundra as a utility truck that's not going to get many miles put on it each year and I'm worrying I should have been more critical of some rust on its frame.
I don't have photos at the moment, but there's a small hole in the frame rail visible near the back of the driver's side front wheel well. I'd estimate it's about the size/shape of a credit card if it was cut in half diagonally. I'm not too familiar with the frame parts, but based on what I've been able to find online, it's just in front of the body mounting hole and well behind the suspension arms.
Since it's a 2004, it's one year too "new" to be included in the frame recall, as I understand it. Based on service records, it never had its frame sprayed through the Toyota service campaign. I called Toyota corporate with the VIN and they said there are no outstanding recalls for it. My dad is going to be taking it in to a place or two to have it looked at. It was just inspected and passed, but apparently on condition that the hole in the frame would require attention.

Is it possible the type of hole I described in the frame can be patched relatively inexpensively or am I out of luck already? Assuming it can be repaired, I plan on having the frame and undercarriage treated to try to buy as much more rust-free time as possible.


I'll try to get photos the next chance I have. Truck is parked elsewhere.

 

If the metal around the hole is relatively sound it's an easy welding job. I weld myself so I can't tell you what it would cost...but its the kind of thing I could do in ten minutes in my driveway.

The big IF is if its just a hole or if all the metal is rusted thin and that spot is just worse than the rest.

But don't panic. It's just simple steel.Its not magic, its not advanced technology, its a plate of iron and carbon alloy. $2 worth of 3/16th steel plate, $2 in welding rod, and ten minutes time with a grinder and a welder and its as strong or stronger than it ever was. Of course a welding shop will probably charge you $100 anyway to fix it but thats how they make their money to do things like hire welders and buy equipment.

There are many highly engineered parts with critical tolerances on our trucks....the frame is not one of those. Any hole can be fixed as long as most of the metal is there so you have something to weld to, and you have access to the location so you can get in there and fix it.

 

Thanks, that's at least reassuring that it's something that should be fixable. I've seen some scary pictures on here of rust that's orders of magnitude worse than what we're dealing with, so that got me worried more than I was when I initially found out about the hole. To my untrained eye, the metal around the hole looks like it should be relatively sound. The hole was smaller before the inspection, so I'm thinking the mechanic poked and pounded around the hole and what's there now is the result of knocking out all the soft stuff around it.
Outside of the rust concern, everything else about the truck was perfect for what we were looking for.