Opinion needed on rust

Hey everyone, I am looking to buy a first gen tundra since my old 88 gmc died. I found a nice one but it has some rust on the frame. I would pay to get it powder coated if I bought this since I am unable to work on it myself. Wondering if this amount of rust is too much to stop without a lot of labor.

 

Just surface rust. A little clean up and run it.

 

Depending on where you’re located that doesn’t look bad to me, about what mine looked like when I got it.
Would be worth tackling at this point before it gets bad, just factor in the cost of it as part of the purchase price.

 

Drive it.. I would not be worried by what I see in the pictures... However any large rust blisters or rust through at member joints that would be an area of concern.

 

We have no clue where you are, but if you're in the rust belt or anywhere north of the Carolinas and east of Arkansas, that's a pretty clean frame. If you're anywhere outside of those areas, that's probably more rust than I'd tolerate, personally.

That looks about on-par with what other members here have on their frames from places like WVA and KY. Although popping off the spare tire and inspecting that crossmember is probably going to tell you what you need to know, be sure to do that!

Powdercoat is overrated. There's no integrated bond to the steel, you're just melting a hardshell plastic coating around it. I can't tell you how many times in my life I've seen powdercoated steel frames collapse on gates, bicycles, and all kinds of other stuff because an inner or outer edge wasn't treated correctly, it got a chip somewhere, somehow water was allowed to get inside, and rusted things out under the coating.

Not saying it's not a good product, it's great if you need a cheap durable coating on solid steel that doesn't have a lot of edges. But on hollow, butted tubing or open steel tubing, you're better just to treat the rust that's there, hit it with something having more of an etched/integrated bond, or a conversion product like POR-15, Silver Bullet, etc.

 

... is 'Shifty' still in the 'Sub-80K Mile Club ???

 

Around here that’s basically considered MINT. haha

I’d buy it.

 

That's very clean. I'd buy it without hesitation. If you want to prevent it from worsening, find someone in your area who applies Fluidfilm, and have it sprayed every year or so.

 

You tell me.

 

Some people need to learn what real rust looks like. This is surface rust only.

 

Sweet . . . I'll be a member in about 3000 more miles . . .

Oops . . . EDIT - 3000 more till I'm a member of the 70K Club . . . still sittin at 67K.

 

Quite a mix of shiny bits and rusty bits. Has me suspicious. How’s the diff cover look? How bout the frame braces near the forward leaf spring mounts? Run the vin and check to see if it’s had frame replacement done already. If so, great, but you gotta worry about all the little rusted bits that don’t get replaced with the frame. Good luck with this one, hope it’s as clean as it seems.

 

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I am in Virginia so there are some around here with no rust and some with a lot. I’ll pull the trigger on this one if I can get him down enough on the price

if anyone out there has a 04-06 double cab they are looking to unload, let me know

 

I would be happy if mine looked like that

 

That looks like mine after 3y here in Canada...ok, not that bad, but I do have some already.

I plan on tackling mine before winter and reapplying Corrosion Free in the fall. (similar to Fluid Film). I will likely use some extra Por15 I have to treat it before that.