Dealing with Truck Bed Rust

Hey Folks!

Curious what you all think is the best (most economical) way to deal with truck bed rust. I am building a camping setup and pulled the bed liner today to make the platform bed fit better and found this.

Should I cut out the rust and just throw a sheet of plywood over it? Should I patch it? Other options? Thanks in advance for your input.

 

If the bed looks that bad, what does the frame look like?

 

You also want to look from underneath. There may be more rust about to come through. As another poster mentioned, you need to check the frame also. If the bed has more rust, but the frame ends up being good, it's going to be easy enough to find a decent bed at a junkyard.

If cost is an issue, but that's the only rust, then you could weld it. It doesn't have to be pretty for your purposes, so you could even have a go yourself with a cheap mig welder. I'd obviously remove the bed to do the work first (not that hard with a helper)

 

The frame was replaced in 2013 so it is solid.

 

That was 12 years ago. You live in an area that salts. Are you sure about that? Has the frame been properly coated?

 

So, the frame was bad enough to be replaced in 2013, from your other posts, you have a 2001 so it was 12 years old when it was replaced. It's now 12 years old again......
Maybe check it to be certain?

 

Honestly the only option is to replace the bed. You’re not going to make lemonade out of these lemons, and it only takes 2-4 years of salted road driving without very focused and frequent cleanings to fully rot these frames. There’s a reason they were forced into the safety recall; nothing changed with the frames, they often go rotten 5x faster than the body, so if the body looks like that, the frame is certainly fully fucked. My suspicion is, the original 12yrs of ownership it saw woolwax and cleaning on the regular.

 

Thanks for your input. The truck has been undercoated annually since I've owned it in 2020. I had to replace the gas tank in the fall and my mechanic said the frame was in good shape.

 

Unfortunately your options are to either replace the entire bed with one from a salvage yard or cut out the bad metal and patch it with good.

I’ve got the same issue. My thought was to use a donor truck with a good bed floor and cut out the sections that need replacement. That way you can avoid having to match paint or repainting the entire bed if the salvage truck is a different color.

If you don’t care about color, the easiest method obviously is to swap the entire bed. We’ve had at least one member here who cut out the rusted parts and patched it with sheet metal he welded into the bed.

 

Yes, already in February we've seen one person whose paid shop did a pre purchase inspection and said the frame was clean (it had one or two pretty significant holes in it), and another with a family member who is was an automotive specialist tell a member his truck's frame looked good.

If the mechanics don't know specifically what to look for on these vehicles, their opinion is worthless. You'd be obliged to heed members here and check the problem spots we typically see, and tap with a hammer.

Or you can ignore the community of people who watch person after person after person, year after year, come here with sob stories. I know "ignorance is bliss" and all, but your life matters, my friend. And nobody wants to dump money into building a rig, only to find the frame is fucked.

 

Thanks for your feedback. You make good points. For peace of mind, I can inspect the frame. What are the problem areas that I should focus on?

 

I am clear across the country from you but the wrecking yard in Sacramento has beds for days. They even have a 21 long bed. My 2000 has zero rust after 25 years in this climate, I don't know how you guys deal with it.

 

Fairly sure it's all in THIS THREAD, 1st reply. If you don't find the info there (I'm fairly sure by now we as a community have dumped it in that thread), LMK and I can re-rattle them off. I might've put them in a reply above too. But we get dozens of people per year who come here for help with rust that I honestly lose track. It's not me trying to be a dick, it frankly just gets overwhelming. Maybe I'm confusing "reply above" with this reply from yesterday that covers a lot of places (but misses a few, like front shock towers, shackle/leaf insertion brackets, and rear shock upper mounts)

 

@Chad01Tundy follow this advice and snap some pictures of what it tells you to look at. We can help you make an honest assessment.

Trust but verify. Always.

 

Thanks for the tip. It's not easy dealing with the rust. I've lost great cars to it that would have kept on going.

 

Other than a short 2 year stint on Long Island, I've lived my entire life in the south, between Jacksonville FL at the farthest east, and San Diego CA at the farthest west. Over nearly 40 years of wrenching, I've had to walk away from more cars due to rust than I could shake every wrench in my toolbox at. Rust is a bitch.

 

Hey Folks,

Thanks again for your help so far. I feel like a should mark this as NSFW for those of you who don't live in the rust belt. Any insights you can share on the condition of the frame is appreciated. I can snap some more photos if that is helpful. Can't help but feel like I am in the waiting room of the ER right now.

 

Props for showing it.

I'm sure those bed bolts are probably siezed up worse than a blood clot in your brain while having a stroke, and it's clear the horizontal braces are chonked. In that 5th photo you can see full delamination happening of the steel.

Anything you do to that bed is going to be a temporary band-aid solution.

Above the spare tire is an "X" shaped crossmember. Can we get a couple of shots, one from each side, where that is riveted to the two long, horizontal back-to-front frame rails?

Your mud flap is hanging down in front of the driver side shock tower. Can we get a shot of the other side of the shock tower, a picture of the frame there? That's where the frames usually seem to crack in half, often on the inside of the framerail (engine bay side).

I probably don't need to tell you, you're overdue to a muffler, ain't no saving that one.

Clearly it was coated with something at one point, and that's since given way to cancer.

 

For the bed, I'd probably cut the rusty sections out and mig weld new metal in.

But looking at the frame, you've got a fair amount of other rust going on. If it were me, I'd check out all the other areas on the frame / truck for rust and figure out how bad it was, and think about the work / cost involved in making everything right vs buying something else and decide from there.

 

Thanks to those who replied. A few more photos.

 

Man, that's tough. While I think your frame is still salvageable, there are so many things that I can see that require attention, like yesterday. I think you're going to be chasing problems and throwing money at this thing for eternity. I personally would cut my losses and find something different. Not that I couldn't do the work, but even trying to get bolts off to replace parts is going to be trying. I would begin to hate that truck. I don't want to hate my truck. I want to love it. Just my $.02. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

Thank you for your input. Care to expand on the things you see that need to be addressed? I love the truck. Drives great shifts great. Only 130K in the clock. But you are right, I don't want it to suck the life out of me.

 

Others can speak to the specific rust problem areas better than me.
If you have been getting your frame sprayed every year since 2020, you should definitely go to a new undercoating shop or start spraying Fluid Film or Woolwax yourself. Spend a good amount of time with a screwdriver and wire brush scraping off the loose rust and old undercoat. And then spray the frame and the entire underbody in the early summer, don't wait for fall. The heat of summer will then aid in the fluid film creeping into all areas. Spray it multiple times over the summer because you will find areas that you have missed. Plan on using 2 gallons of fluid film. Go nuts.

Edit: I should add, pop all those body plugs and spray in there. There will definitely be rust forming in those areas. Spray in the engine bay. Coat the inside of all of the body panels from beneath while laying on your back. The best video on how to do this was shot by Eric at South Main Auto.
https://youtu.be/TRsD-fgt6h0?si=0iTZor2HOhVl_SMv

 

Let's see...Things I would want to fix: Front suspension probably including upper and lower control arms, bed (obviously), exhaust (maybe just muffler, but I'm willing to bet there are other holes about to open up), rear shocks, bushings (everywhere), brake lines (can almost guarantee you touch it, it's gonna break), LSPV and all of it's components (may not need replacing, but service), cleaning and coating the entire frame (big job). For sure you can count on breaking fasteners for any part you attempt to replace, and we haven't even seen under the hood yet. No mention of timing belt, LBJs, radiator, valve cover leaks, etc. The fact that you want to make a camping rig out of this really implies that it needs to be 100% dependable. Do you want to be broken down in the middle of nowhere? Keep in mind that rust NEVER sleeps. Again, my $.02. I'm spoiled, I have a rust free example that's been in AZ all of its life. But, it's still a 22 year old truck and it requires regular maintenance. I'm coming up on 100K and I know the LBJs and the radiator need to be replaced. Anyway, not sure of your maintenance history, and I'm a nit-picky pilot that goes over maintenance stuff with a fine toothed comb. Only you can decide if it's worth it. One thing I know to be true with older vehicles is this: if you can't do the majority of the work yourself, you better have a FAT wallet.

 

You got a crapload of work ahead of you to protect that frame from further rust cancer. You should check the condition inside the boxed channel of the frame below the front doors. Chances are rust is also eating its way from the inside out.

 

In the Northeast - My wheel wells are mostly missing. Found another bed to use until I fix the original. Had the same floor issues as you. Bought a few pieces of metal on Amazon and welded them in, little paint and it's plenty good enough. I used thicker metal on the mounts but they were all still there, the floor was just rusted.

You will probably not find a reasonably priced good bed in the region. If you are thinking of going rust-free, I saw a dealer in LA/MO area has an NOS bed in stock. So cool, but it's more than I paid for the whole truck.

 

Sorry about your situation @Chad01Tundy, that is rough. Have you or anyone else seen posts on any weep holes in the bed? My bed is coated in spray on liner. Looks good so far but it holds significant amounts of rain. Are there any post on adding weep holes?

 

Rust holes = Nature's weep holes

 

Replacing bed floor panels? (rusted completely through) | Toyota Tundra Forum
I had the same issues a few years back, I did a rough patch job on mine, it's still going strong.