Hidden Rust?

Hi all, I (finally) found a first gen that seems to tick all the boxes. The seller sent frame pictures but I don't have the best eye for hidden rust. Anything here stand out as terrible to y'all? I really appreciate the help, I'm terrified of accidentally buying a pile of junk.

 

Looks like all the existing rust was just sprayed black with a can of spray paint. You can see it on the muffler as well. There’s quite a bit of rust bubbling and peeling that needs to be properly treated to keep it from getting worse. Do you really want to do all that? Since that wasn’t taken care of since day one, I’m sure there’s quite a bit of corrosion inside the frame rails, the part you can’t see. I’d walk and look for a better deal elsewhere.

 

Truck has definitely had some rust, but it's like Colorado/Utah level rust, i.e. it's not everywhere, saturated, but it definitely got into some stuff and did some damage, but it's not like "I lived in the rust belt for 20 years" level damage. And clearly someone has Fluid Film'd it or something. In some areas, not all though.

Some things that jump out at me are here. Note the rust inside the framerail on the 1st pic.

​

 

I think they used the black-tinted Fluid Film (or whichever company makes the black tinted rust sealer product). Globules don't look fine enough for paint, and the coating looks oily more than anything.

And I say that based on the spatter over the cat shield around the middle of the pics.

 

I sort of don't mind putting some work in in the next year or so to make the frame as good as possible. I *need* a truck fairly soon and even with a wide search area in the south (I'm in the rust belt, so no good buys here basically), I'm not finding the holy grail. Since this car checks all the boxes except "perfect frame", I don't mind putting in some money to bulletproof it with some SafeTCap or other stuff in the next couple years and have a low-mile DD/lumber hauler for basically forever (it only has 140k).

 

As mentioned to Jack, I don't mind putting in some time on the wirebrush or having it patched up a bit in a couple years time as long as none of that damage would be a huge problem. I'm trying to buy my first and last tundra and I simply cannot find any that don't have *some* amount of damage like this. Based on what you said, it seems like this isn't a dead man walking?

 

I haven’t used black tinted fluid film but it looks too thin to be that in a lot of places. Fluid film is typically goopy unless it was applied with a fine mechanical sprayer but I haven’t seen that personally to know. Most of what I see, especially in the joints, appears to be bubbling rust coated over.

 

I'm particular. It took me 6mos of semi-active looking to find my truck finally.

The one you pictured is one of the less-worse I've seen, and if I was in the rust belt, I'd buy it in a heartbeat because you won't find better locally. If I lived in any state south of the this line, and it was more than $13k - $14k, I'd probably pass.

​

 

It looks like it came out of a spray can to me, and was mostly just applied to spots that had surface rust.

 

My biggest concern is internal to the frame rail given the rust exposure seen. That can literally eat the frame rail from inside out, but if you’re willing to do the safe-t-caps, you should be okay. Just a lot of work ahead of you. It’s too bad you couldn’t find a cleaner frame.

 

That’s reasonable.

 

This is the overspray I'm talking about (1st pic here),. I suspect this happened when they were spot-treating the crossmember, that looks like tinted tarry/oily overspray. The overspray on the rack (not pictured), and on the diff (2nd pic here) is also telling.

​

 

I can probably get this for $10k (or under considering the frame) and stow away the difference for getting the frame reinforced later (unless any of these spots are in un-mendable locations?). It is rebuilt, hence the lower price, but the seller has been up front about all my questions. I'm calling the shop that did the rebuild work in the morning and having the truck inspected in the afternoon, so if everything (else) checks out, I'm fairly inclined to pull the trigger. I have a fair amount of experience with rebuilt cars and this one isn't throwing any red flags for me based on what I've heard, but we'll see what the shop(s) say tomorrow.

 

How’s the bed? There may be holes in the bed or rust coming through if there’s any sort of liner over it, including the spray-in liner. Also, check the overlapped (reinforced) section of the frame in the rear and verify with www.autorust.com they have caps for that area as well just in case.

 

It has a liner in it, so I can't tell from the images, but I can ask the inspector to look tomorrow.

Do you mean the picture shifty says it's the worst where the crossmember meets the main rail?

 

Drop the spare and you’ll (1) get a better look at underside of bed and that spare tire crossmember and (2) know if your spare tire winch is crusty/crumbling.

 

No, it’s a different area of the frame in front of rear wheel well. From the outside it doesn’t look too bad but looking from the inside of the frame rail you can tell if there’s anything to be concerned about. If you check out pics from other people’s frames that posted asking about rust, you’ll see it.

 

Not only that, but the operation of the spare tire mechs should say a lot about how deep the rust has gotten into stuff.

Have them make sure the parking brake cables are intact and functional, taught.

 

What Shifty said. ^^

Ensuring the functionality of the parking brake and spare tire lowering mechanism can really tell a lot. I would ensure that they both operate smoothly and completely.

My truck had the frame recalled and replaced- but there are still plenty of rusty parts on my truck. I would say that considering that you're willing to do a little bit of work, and that you can likely get the truck for $10k, I think you'd be fine. If the rust pictured in your photos is the worst of it, and you're willing to spend a couple hours with a wire brush and some rustproofing paint, I think you're good.

An hour and roughly $50 of fluid film or surface shield has kept my new frame completely rust free for the past few years. It seems like you'd be open to spending just a little bit of time or paying a little bit of attention to the frame. There have been other members on here who have repaired frames that were much much worse.

There's still more information that you should probably know before buying, as mentioned above, but I personally think that so far you're in pretty good shape.

 

i’d look look for a rust free truck here in the west coast for $9k, buy a one way ticket for $200, then spend $700 in fuel to get back home. That extra $100 that i saved you can be donated to my own personal tundra fund. It’s up to you on what to do with all that spare time you’ll save by not having to section in frame repair patches.


Also that muffler is starting to bust at the seams.

 

@RedMax This is the part Jack is talking about. You want to see the inside of the frame at this spot on both sides. The frame has two layers at this part, and water/salt/etc gets between the layers and rusts from the inside out.

 

Ah, thank you.

 

Here’s a pic of what we’re talking about for the area of concern.
https://www.tundras.com/threads/first-steps-for-my-new-to-me-05-tundra.130516/#post-3347662

 

If you look at the frame from the outside, you can always spot this what i call "pooch" where the frame stiffener brace, gets rust between it and the frame, and it pushes the lower frame rail downward. His frame has it as seen in picture here... (below)
Its not as bad as the one you linked but you can tell its rusting between the frame stiffener and pushing down on the frame rail. You cant get any sort of rust inhibitor or rust converter or sealer between the braces, all i can figure is jack the truck up, block the frame up good, cut the rivets off, to pull the frame stiffener brace out, coat the frame, coat the new frame stiffener brace, and reinstall. From the amount of "pooch" pictured i dont think its all that bad but its clear its doing it.

 

If he were to cut the stiffener out and coat everything, how would he reinstall the stiffener? Is it possible to re-rivet it in?

 

That's not the only telltale sign. Sometimes it can look perfectly good on the outer frame rail and it's already rusting badly on the inside. That lower lip of the framerail can separate and start moving up instead of down. Really depends on the circumstances. Worse case, it rots a hole through the frame itself which is pretty obvious externally.

 

i would guess with Grade8 bolts? I doubt anyone has the ability to re-rivet 9/16" studs and roll the heads like the manufacturer. Have you ever seen the guns they use to pinch and roll the heads on those rivets? I bet its $100,000.

Yeah i agree, its not the only way to tell if its rusting but its one that you can spot pretty quickly from a glance from the outside, without having to get under the vehicle. I have spotted a TON of these buckling and "pooching" in pictures and passed. I spent well over a year looking for my truck and passed up countless because i spotted this in the pictures from the outside of the frame. Once there is rust between that frame brace, and the frame, you cant get it out and you cant really stop it short of drilling holes and injecting rust converter with a turkey baster or some other wild idea. I have seen one that had a rusty frame brace and the owner hooked to a trailer a bit too heavy and it bent the frame downward. He rides around town still with the gap at the top of the bed to the cab probably 3" wide, and the bottom of the bed touching the cab. It makes me cringe when i see it running around town. This frame stiffener brace is there for a reason, when you put weight in the bed or on the hitch, the leverage is transferred to this point of the frame. You might have also seen pictures in the recent past of the Dodge diesel trucks frames buckling in this same spot when they were overloaded.

I guess this is similar to how a repair would be done in this area

 

I have seen way worse being driven everyday. I would update the line that shifty drew to dip down and include the Northwest corner of the NC mountains in the "rust belt". We average 40 inches of snow a winter and we most definitely use road salt that wreaks havoc on vehicles here.

that said, you could sell that truck all day here and it would be classified as a "clean frame" and "in good shape".