Hey look! Rust!

I recently sold a vehicle suddenly and was in need of a new daily quickly. I had been looking at 1st/2nd gen tundras for the past couple months almost nightly on various marketplaces, but with the situation I was put in I needed one quickly and didn't mind paying a premium for a good truck.
I came across a single owner 2001 ac v8 4wd 90k miles in California from a small dealership in “excellent like new condition” . I’m I Texas but my cousin actually happened to live just a few miles away so she went to check it out for me and take some photos. I had done some research about common issues like TB, ball joints, starter location, rad, etc. none of which scared me too much (should have come here to the forums first). Cousin came back with a plethora of photos/videos, and a test drove the truck. Everything looked great so I went through with the purchase. It was. Very expensive. 15+ with shipping but I thought, “I’ll drive this thing until the wheels fall off.. I'll get another 200k it’ll be worth it in the end…” spoiler* wheels might fall off sooner than I thought.
So yesterday I get the truck, looks great, exterior and interior are 9/10 for its age, the engine bay is immaculate, crawl under the truck and woah, I think I might be sick. I am a welder by profession and feel confident in the work ahead of me after looking at N84434's thread on his journey. I haven't dug too deep and found similar trucks with comparable rust and treatments but I'm sure there are some here. I'm located in Houston tx, the truck turns out wasn't from California at all but came out of Utah so I doubt ill have the same speed of corrosion here than it had there. I'm planning on redoing the front end completely anyway but all of the components are pretty rough. I'll work on what i can reach for a while and eventually take the bed off for some more rust prevention. I really do love this truck it runs so well, I'm pretty upset I paid a premium price for a what is definitely not a premium product but I will live with that mistake. There may be recourse with the dealership but I think its a "shame on me" situation and I'll own that.
I'm not asking for your opinion on what I paid or how I went about purchasing a truck I've never actually seen. Please keep it to yourself. Upon first glance I thought the dealership or original owner had spray painted the rust but after looking over the whole truck for a couple of hours it appears it may have been the LSC or a professional attempt to combat the rust. someone definitely had the body off years ago to coat the frame. There's not one section from what I can tell that has rusted through. What are yall's honest opinion on the rust on this truck and components? I'm actually happy to do the work I'm just looking for a little pep talk I suppose, or should I send the truck back to the dealer and waste $3k in delivery fees. Yall think this thing has a bright future or what?

Full album https://imgur.com/gallery/odZ3pSS

 

That's not the most rusted out truck I've seen on here. It will still be a ton of work if you EVER need to take nuts or bolts off anything thats rusty. Crackie approved!

 

Oh, just looked at your imgur album. Still not awful... Have you run the vin number through toyota owners dot com??? Pulled up any service history? You might be eligible for a frame replacement from toyota. Read through this thread. https://www.tundras.com/threads/early-1st-gen-2000-2003-tundra-frame-replacement-faq.54331/

 

The first two pics you should be concerned about. The last three are just surface rust. Hit the frame rail with a ball peen hammer to break off the delaminated bubbled rust that was covered over in paint or whatever to see how thick the metal really is there. I’m not sure how to treat the second but that’s the area in the rear with that secondary reinforcement.

 

Yeah, I will take a hammer to them but I'm pretty familiar with rust and nothing seems even close to rusting through. I'll post some more pictures this weekend as i start chipping crap back. those frame supports do have me concerned not that they're too rusty but how well I can rust proof between the two sections. But the more I think about it the more I think if it took this long to get this bad, I at least have a few years to tackle the rust.

 

That doesn't look too bad compared to most in my area I see on the daily. Some needle scaling, rust converter and a woolwax or similar treatment and it's got tons of life left.

 

and, yeah i checked my vin no recalls, maybe because it was not a rust belt truck? Anywho I'm growing more and more confident every time I crawl back under the truck

 

How’s the underside of the bed? Has any rust started to eat it’s way through under any bedliner?

 

Looks a lot like mine. I'm not worried.

 

Someone coated it with something. You may want to see if it had the coating done.

I'm sorry, but at that price point I sure as hell wouldn't put up with that shit. You got sold some bullshit right there. That is NOT a California truck, and you paid straight up California pricing on it. I'd take the loss and try to recoup the money in small claims court.

 

Yeah, I didn't see the price at first...my truck was $3k....which effects how much I worry about it since it paid for itself in the first couple months.

 

OP's is a $7k-8k truck all day long in Atlanta

Even if he took the L on this one, he could still pick up a better frame'd truck here with the residual.

 

There are 2 rusty spots on the bed 1 side is bulging through the liner a little but honestly its not that bad id say 5% of the bed has rust. The body overall has little to no rust whatsoever its kinda bizarre. The two spots on the bed are really the only rust I can find outside the typical frame rust and bottom components. I really do think the OG owner took very good care of the vehicle. The timing belt was changed 9 years after being purchased at only 50k miles.

 

OEM recommendation is 9 years / 90k miles on the timing belt. That would suggest the previous owner was actually doing the right thing.
(misread, sorry)

But you can't beat rust. And you got screwed.

 

Meh, I’ve seen worse. Appears to be mostly surface with a few questionable spots. Clean it up and treat it and it won’t progress much in Texas. Otherwise appears to be a solid well cared for truck. Plus, it’s arguably the best best-Gen color, Thunder Grey Metallic.

 

There are some areas that concern me in pictures but it's hard to know until you see it in person. I would get to work on it immediately though and not wait.

Especially these areas. Looks like it's rusting from the inside out. Not surface rust.

 

Don’t see any of the severe delamination that the bad ones have. Looks like a coating that was ill applied separating from the frame that was probably rusty underneath. The hammer will tell you the real story.

 

Just checked Atlanta Marketplace... Send me a 1 owner less than 100k miles 4x4 in excellent exterior and interior condition in Atlanta and I'll buy it. From what i see at first glance "all day" is rebuilt titles $10K+ 2wd multi owner pieces of shit. I mean every 1st gen on marketplace in Atlanta is garbage where are these "all day" trucks? please send them my way I'll give you 2 days actually!

 

You're right. It looks like it's been coated. And what happens when they get the recall coating is just that - they rust from the inside out.

I stand by my 1st take: OP got ripped off. I'd be returning this faster than your head could spin.

 

I agree this is the most concerning bit to me, but I actually chipped that away, its definitely rusting from the inside out but the metal is not compromised by any means. sure looks rough though

 

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/sear...=tundra&min_auto_year=2000&max_auto_year=2006

Hold on, I've got another search query I use on CL, I'll pull it up, that's about half the usual results.

 

?? I don't see anything even remotely close to 90k miles 1 owner 4wd for $7k. What am I missing?

 

Is this already turning into some sort of pissing contest?

 

If it's rotting from the inside out, who cares if it has 5 owners or event 900k miles? It's what you can get out of it in the long run, and what you paid for it.

This is the wrong make/model of truck to have a "virgin" complex with. You really want 90k miles? You want to hear all the crap I've dealt with on my low-mile (73k) truck because it was only driven on short trips, hence the low miles? Wanna see what my heads look like? Best target range for these trucks at their age is ~ 130-190k miles.

There's plenty here, you don't need 1 owner, and I don't need to hunt to make up for your bad buy.

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/sear...to_year=2006&postal=30303&search_distance=200

Lots of lower-price stuff in Phoenix also:

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/sear...to_year=2006&postal=85016&search_distance=200

You do you, at the end of the day. We've got trucks over here with no rust, some as low as $5k. Might have 180-250k miles, but that's nothing for this generation.

 

I agree with you on one thing, it's what you get out of it in the long run. and if this truck lasts me 10 years or 100k I'd say it was worth it to me.

Anyway, I'm going to plan on tackling the rust myself, rust doesn't come from the inside out, it may be behind the coating that was improperly applied but that can be fixed. I shouldn't have mentioned how much I paid that's on me too.

 

I think I'll keep this post up for a week to see if I get anymore constructive comments with the occasional toxic comment or two then I may make a restoration while being a daily driver thread to keep me motivated with the process and potentially help anyone else out along the way.

 

You're much less petty than me on big purchases. I'd have lawyered up already, and not even bothered talking to the seller 1st. I've gotten screwed enough in life, I don't need to get swindled again at my age.

Take some inspiration from @N84434, I think you found his thread already, good guideline to go by and follow.

This is arguable. If steel starts to de-lam at a hole, it will absolutely rust inside out. We've seen pics of it on here from others who got juked. If your truck did receive the recall coating (vs. frame replacement - it'll be in the Toyota Owners website history), topically it covered the problem, so it rusted inside the coating out. Semantics.

It's a fair thing to list all the facts, at least if you really want honest feedback. I know it's not nice to hear, but I don't mince words, it's not my nature. That kinda thing isn't for some folks, and I get that. Doesn't mean I won't help you with any advice or suggestions I might have, though, if you choose to keep it. Doesn't mean I'm a dick either, I'm just honest, sometimes brutally so.

You have a unique professional skillset that will aid you in giving this truck the most life it would've gotten from anyone. But I still think you got ripped by that dealer. Either they're f'n stupid, or they knew damn well what they had, and sold it to you knowing you're out of state and probably wouldn't put up a fight. It's happened to others on here, buying from auctions and dealers several states away. We've seen a lot of sob stories.

Scrape the shit out of the outer broad sides of the frame with stiff bristle or putty knife and get that coating off. Roll lock it. See what's under there. Then get to work, if you're keeping it.

 

Based on what you showed you should be ok. I think it will just be a lot of work but you seem willing and able. Please share some pictures of your progress. This forum is actually very helpful and would be a great resource if you decide to stick around. It sounds like you would be a good addition to the group.

Good luck!

 

It doesn’t look unmanageable to me, especially if you have the ability to handle it yourself, but it does sound like it was misrepresented and I’d be making a lot of noise to that dealer and trying to get some compensation.

 

I don't think you paid a bad price for the truck, as you didn't know about the rust. These trucks are a little tricky to spot the rust compared to others, you need to get under them and do some poking around and really know what you are looking for. From what I can see, it doesn't look that bad. The only real beating you are going to take on this truck is your own extra labor. Lots of work cleaning it up, and then the wrenching will be a pita with broken bolts and such. You might not even end up having to do any welding on it though. It's a good looking truck!