buying a 1st gen tundra... this undercarriage/frame (rust) looks pretty good, right?

hello. i'm looking to buy a first gen tundra... this one has lived in a snowy state the past 7 years. prior to that it was in california dry weather area. the owner says he rinsed underneath religiously after driving during snowy times. i'm really bad at finding rust in photos... and my initial thoughts all of this is surface rust and it's not actually that bad. what are your thoughts?


thanks for looking!

 

Looks damn good to me. Is that even rust or is it mud/dirt?

 

Personally, even if it was washed off, it's a 9 out of 10 considering it's ~20 yrs old




Added images for for ease of discussion....

 

Good to excellent frame, buy it.

 

Is in excellent shape.

 

I beleive that's gonna be

 

Looks good to me. Clearly it's seen some stuff, but that's the type of condition we on the east coast would expect to see from a NC or TN truck.

EDIT: Had to delete my reply after this, just realized those are 6112s and not 5100s. At least you don't need to spend any money on suspension! That's a pretty nice setup.

 

That's what I thought. Thanks guys!

 

Good luck with your purchase. Also, welcome!

 

Make sure you physically lay eyes on it just to be safe. Check the spare tire crossmember. Poke around with a screwdriver. Looks good from here though.

 

Looks good to me. Check other areas as well though.

 

Why is this even questionable? The welds are the first thing to experience surface rust. It's not like they use a stainless steel filler rod.

 

I wish my frame was that clean. Buy it!

 

Makes one wonder given majority of posts since he joined 2 years ago he has been considering. Suppose he simply wants to make sure of his decision

 

I mean, it is a sizeable investment to make. I've seen the truck in question. Best one he's posted yet. Fingers crossed OP will be in it by EOW.

 

Great....was somewhat fond of this one myself.

 

Ha! That blue.... I feel like it should live underwater. Someone needed to paint a SpongeBob on the side of it.

 

I'll post some news tomorrow. Thanks for all the help guys. My eyes told me it looked good, but I wanted a second set

 

Just to wrap up this thread... I'm finally got a first generation tundra. Been wanting one of these for a while. Big upgrade from my two-wheel drive Tacoma long bed. I needed something bigger for my family of 4 plus large dog... And I've been wanting to get a truck camper put on the back of a truck so this is going to be the perfect platform to build upon. Right now I'm looking at the OVRLND Campers builds and a have a pop up camper trailer and the Tacoma to sell.

Thanks everyone for the input. Was a long drive back from Denver to Southern California, but I got to see some cool shit along the way! The drive was beautiful.

Big thanks to @shifty` for all the help. I do plan to contribute to this forum and make a build thread.

I have a trip coming up in a few days... Any recommendations for a bed mat? I doubt I will find one that could ship in the next 2 days... So I might have to find another solution to keep stuff from sliding around in the bed temporarily. Maybe I'll see how my Tacoma made fits just for this trip.

 

Congratulations!

 

Thanks! Pretty excited

 

Looks good, now build the chit out of it.

 

Congratulations, nice looking truck! Added bonus that the tires are new.. that's a ~$1200 added cost if you had to do it after purchase. As I have said before... if you can have patience during the hunting phase, you can sneak up on a good deal. It just takes time.

 

That's the plan. Suspension in the front is already done. In the back. I need to figure out how I want to support a 400 lb camper. Most likely going with this company...

https://campovrlnd.com/

The camper I could use almost daily at work because sometimes we have a lot of down time between shifts. Also, we'll come in handy for my kids hockey tournaments to have a place to relax with them between games and sleep overnight... And of course for camping trips. Have a pop-up camper in the driveway that I'm excited to sell

 

How much for the popup? Can pm to avert the rules, but no rush, i'm at least 6 months from needing a pop up.

 

That's awesome can't wait to see yours!

 

It's Livin Lite Quicksilver 10.0 with the off-road and LP package, last "good" year model 2015. Pretty awesome little setup. Probably will list it for $8k