You all probably gonna laugh at me........2005 Tundra

Well, if it did go down a boat ramp, from where the truck was purchased, We would have to assume it would be SALT water. When a vehicle goes into salt water and you pull it out. NO MATTER what you do to it......you will never get the smell out of it. MAYBE, and I say maybe, it you immediately took the whole truck apart, and pressure washed EVERYTHING, you might save it, but I doubt it. Once salt water gets into a vehicle, It's pretty much a done deal. Wiring, seats, carpet all soaked with salt water, then left to dry on it's own, does not turn out well. When I was a lot younger, I had a brand new 1985 F250. I was riding on the beach in NJ,in 4X4, and seen a Toyota truck stuck out in the low tide flats. Being the brazen idiot I was at the time, I said I'm gonna pull this guy out. I did, and when I pulled him out , I backed right into a big hole I didn't see, got stuck, Toyota left me, tide came in and covered my truck. It was under water for 3 hours before being pulled out. Total loss. Insurance paid. About a week later I went to the towing company that recovered the truck To get some stuff out of the truck. I opened the drivers door and almost got knocked over from the smell, it was horrible. This truck has no smell like that. I'm doing a frame check this weekend and going on from there.

 

@tompands is this you?
All in good fun mate

 

OP - I agree with you that your truck has a low likelihood of being a flood vehicle. Pull the cover off of one of your lick panels. If it’s clean in there that should be reassuring.

 

It might be

 

I'm not clear on what this situation is.....it has me baffled. I checked the frame yesterday, didn't find any major rust. X member in back is fine, cab mounts all good. All cross members are rust free. I pulled all seats out yesterday, 2 front seats and driver side rear came out effortlessly. Pass side rear was a whole other story. The cable pull was broke off, so I basically ripped the seat apart to get to the latch. Latch was rusted and cable would not pull. I pried , bent , pry bared, and beat hell out of it and cable finally pulled and released the latch. I had pulled the foam up out of this last seat and the whole frame and springs was totally rusted. After flipping the seat up, I removed the bolts and they were spotless shiny. Now all seats are out. Vacuumed the whole truck, lifted the carpet, NO RUST! I don't get it. The new seats got delivered to me yesterday and gonna clean them up and throw them in the truck. My new starter came yesterday also. I opened the box and it was a CORE that someone had sent back. I called Lakeland Toyota and they said "SORRY" and sent me out another new one. I'm not understanding why some things on this truck are rusted so bad but other things look untouched. And again, there is no smell in this truck at all. The leather on the old seats is hard as hell and easily ripped, which is also weird. What could this truck have gone thru??? I also drained the oil, NO WATER in the oil, it was clean. No water in brake fluid. Any more thoughts or ideas on what I'm looking at here??? It's definitely not a salt water submerge , I'm sure of that, but this truck has experienced some kind of something, that I'm not sure of. But I will get it back, I'm determined now, engine?? I'll replace it if I have to. The only concern I have are the CATS. Anybody out the have a used exhaust system, I be interested.

 

Did someone spill pool chlorine in the truck? Eventually it will completely evaporated leaving no smell.

Chlorine definitely makes metal rust from its fumes alone.

 

Maybe something nasty was spilled on that rear seat? Enough liquid to soak the foam and sit there for a while, but not enough to soak the carpet underneath?
Though why one would transport something noxious in the cab rather than the bed, I cannot answer that.

 

here's the seat that I tore apart. Right rear seat.

 

another

 

here's the new $200 seats

 

She’s looking brand new already!

 

$200 for all the seats? A smokin deal indeed.
After seeing more of it I'm not convinced it took a swim, I think you're correct in saying it sat through a few storms.
Total faith that it is going to turn out to be an excellent lil truck.

 

Post some picks of the truck after you removed the seats.

 

That’s totally expected to have that much rust on the seat pans. The sheetmetal is uncoated and will very easily rust. Heck, my dad’s 2014 prius rear seat pans were just as rusty. The reason being is that he always had wet dogs in the back of his car. So last summer i COMPLETELY stripped down the interior of the car…including the door panels and removing the hog rings from the seat fabric (so that i could remove the fabric and foam from the pans).

 

Deal with the mildew on the doors and belts and plastics before you leave the new seats closed up inside the truck. The mildew and mold WILL spore from the doors and plastics into the seats, and you’ll never get rid of it.

if I were you, I’d buy a Ozone generator and run it nonstop in the car for a day or two in an effort to kill any of those living things down to the root.

Also, you should probably fix the notorious cowl water leak that lets water into the interior to pool in the passenger floorboard. It’s a super easy fix. There are a few notorious water leaks we documented in the sticky “water leak” thread.

 

My tacoed tundra spent a full year outdoors here in the wet oregon weather (full of snow and rain) with a busted out passenger side door glass and the door partway open. It looked NOWHERE as bad as the OP’s truck.

 

The eastern seaboard is a special place. I’ve seen what OP has posted on cars thatve been in the junkyard less than 2-3 months.

 

I have been in water that deep in my old jeep CJ7. The water was over belly button deep on me…while i was sitting in the driver’s seat. That also meant that the whole rear end of the jeep was underwater (the cooler was floating out of the back). The lower portion of the steering wheel was also underwater….as was the winch on the front that saved my bacon from my certain doom. I’m actually really fortunate i didn’t completely loose my jeep in the river that day. After all of that, my jeep never looked horrible like the OP’s tundra.

 

Ozone might help, just be careful with it. It degrades plastics rapidly. I’ve used short duration treatments and found them helpful for killing smells and bugs.

 

It’s more about getting deep enough to kill the roots on the mildew that roots pretty deep into plastic. All you need is a hair of a root and the mildew will come back. It is extremely pervasive shit. It’ll go dormant for years if the humidity stays below 60%. Once it hits 55-60 and above for any period, it comes back and starts sporing again. Such nasty shit down here in the SE USA where we three are.

 

Pulled one today, little bit of dirt in there......no rust. onwards and upwards.

 

Oregon doesnt have the humidity the east coast and south has. Your average humidity is 56% which is something i wish i could have, i literally wish a dry wave would roll over us and camp out a while. You can take a grinder to a piece of steel, literally grind the metal to shine and sit it outside on a picnic table and in 4 hours its already starting to flash rust. Let it sit overnight, and in 24 hours its solid rust. This vehicle was on an island off the coast of North Carolina, where the average humidity is likely 85% or higher year'round.
You wouldnt know what its like till you've lived in it.

 

What exactly does a OZONE GENERATOR do?

 

It's actually really cool. It splits oxygen atoms, which allows the split atoms to bond with, oxidize, and neutralize contaminates.

 

If I end up with another truck that's leather, this is the first thing I would do. Those look great , and what a steal of a deal

 

Exactly! And in the process, it kills everything. Bacteria and organics that cause odor. It will bond with contaminants, oxidizing them, and thus neutralizing. Very helpful for killing odors. Watch some YouTube videos on the subject which explain how to use ozon generators in vehicles to remove odor. You'll get the info you need to proceed safely.

 

It helps to have a buddy in the salvage business

 

Does your buddy need some buddies? I know a guy who's kinda cool.

 

Well I spent the whole day cleaning and checking the truck over. Seeing what I need to order. The taillight along with their 2 ft harnesses were in the bed of the truck when I got it, so I assumed there was an issue with the tail lights. I turn the lights on and test lighted all functions and all worked. Put everything back together with new bulbs and all is good. Why were they apart??? Same with the blower motor, Tested it on my bench, worked fine. Checked for power at the plug.....had power and ground. Put the motor back in the dash and checked. Works like it should. Why was that apart ??? I bought some mold and mildew cleaner, It works pretty well. I'm gonna get one of those small ozone generators just for the hell of it. But the truck seems to be salvageable. All the power windows work and locks also work. Back window goes down, witch is cool. Never had one of those. I removed the TV screen/radio that was hanging out of the dash and ordered a stock radio for it. Everything I could check works, all lights, controls, just need to get with this engine and see where that is at. Starter should be here in a couple days. I'm going to drop the tank and clean it. Make sure the fuel pump is correctly installed and new like the jackass said. Put some fresh non-ethanol gas in it. When I pulled the intake off, I screwed up one of the injectors. I guess I'm gonna get a new set. Any recommendations ?? This truck shows 299k on the clock. They are probably originals. From what I seen, I don't think the intake has ever been off, which brings me to the timing belt. Is it possible it's original?? I haven't pulled a cover yet to look at the belt but I wouldn't be surprised. If I can get this motor to fire, It will be getting a new timing belt. And The front bumper and CATS, which my buddy is gonna get for me at the junk yard. He's got 2 tundra's coming in this week from auction. He buys a lot of them. He's the reason I started looking for a tundra. Have a great Christmas everyone and thanks for your help, This really is a good forum, I've been on many, and this one is the best.

 

This is where I would (and did) get injectors from. Keith, the owner, is a reputable vendor here.

https://dirtydeedsindustries.com/store/ols/products/12-hole-fuel-injectors/v/12-HL-FL-TUN-270cc

OP, have you considered contacting the PO and asking him what happened to the truck?