thank you for having me - noob questions

Good evening,

I have been reading through your forum and I want to say thank you for having me. The past week as I had purchased my first Tundra has been so exhilarating. You all have helped me tremendously with the purchase. Thank you.

It has been inspected, frame is good, safety is good. I have a few projects on the go and I have a few questions for some of you I hope you'll be able to assist with the others I want to tackle.

1st photo - found this under the front wheel wells. On both sides this is unhooked, just dangling. What is it ?

2nd/3rd photo - these tires and rims are what came with the vehicle. They rub when turning, the previous owner said when he purchased it pre owned it had spacers on it, and he had them taken off. I hate that they rub- what are my options ? From my research I've concluded I can either get another set of spacers, or get an entirely new set of rims/tires. Can someone help me with a breakdown of each ? I am at a loss for what to shop with tires. I am leaning towards spending hopefully a small amount of money to eliminate the rub ie spacer route. Thoughts ? Suggestions / best practices ?

4th - antenna rust looks like shit. Suggestions ?

5th - wheel wells. Rust spots starting to form. I see a lot of builds have the black rubber weatherstripping or a fender flare. I want to do something to tackle the rust starting to form. My thoughts were this in this order:

i. spray with krown rust proofing this week
ii. when weather warms up in 2 weeks (Canada), sand down under wheel wells, cover with some epoxy or rust proofing spray
iii. install on top of this around the wells either fender flares or weatherstripping or ?

6th - broken front license plate bracket, driver side. I found the part number, local dealership said its on back order. Any suggestions for purchasing in Canada ? Part # 52121-0C010

Want to upgrade the sound system with a subwoofer ideally in the the "storage" compartment, looking at this, seems expensive but easy https://www.crutchfield.com/p_044CTTX281/Q-Customs-Factory-fit-Subwoofer-Enclosures.html?XVINQ=GLX\u0026awkw=75640178425\u0026awat=pla\u0026awnw=g\u0026awcr=47621967505\u0026awdv=c\u0026awug=9011804

Also want to add some step rails for the Mrs to get into the vehicle easier, cannot seem to find many that fit with the 2002 AC. The truck is pretty much stock FYI. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

Foglight

 

Are you sure? Post some pics. Let us see. If you've got body rust, I'm highly suspicious...

Those tires need to be replaced. All of that cracking=bad. Go a size down. Will probably get rid of the rub.

This is probably your best option.
Lastly, have you read this>>>https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/
If not, do so. A LOT of your questions will be answered.

 

Thanks x2

 

Cursory glance, looks like there's places where there might be some delam. Have you tapped around with a hammer? Poked around with a screwdriver? I'm sure you'll have more responses incoming...

 

Have not, no. I was unable to attend when it was being safetied/inspected and on the hoist. Thanks for the input.

 

The plugs look like for fog lights, like @Tundra2 said.

The tires look shot like @ATBAV8 said. Wheels are personal choice, I’d think about ditching those… you can find good deals on takeoffs from 4Runners or same Gen Tundras with good tires pretty cheap, Tacomas work too but might also rub.

That frame looks suspect. Since it passed inspection I would guess it’s solid, but it appears to need a lot of work to keep it that way. Looks to have been undercoated, possibly by Toyota for the recall, mine was and I spent a lot of time removing what I could, treating the rust, repainting and coating with a film (like fluid film).

Can’t think of much to help with the antennae area rust, looks like it’s from underneath. Your plan for the fenders could work, stop the rust and cover with flares.

I get cheap parts of no consequence (ie doesn’t matter if they’re crap) from Amazon or eBay, I’d look for a license plate bracket there, otherwise maybe Rockauto, maybe Summit?

What part of Canada are you in? I just saw some cheap side steps somewhere near me, west coast. Edit: never mind, found them and they’re for a double cab.

 

Yeah that looks rough

 

Get on Facebook Marketplace and put 6x5.5 or 6x139.7 in the search box. There are usually a ton of wheel and tire sets up for sale in my area. I don't usually like buying used wheels and tires, but if that's all my budget allows for, I've found some nice stuff. I've met sellers at at tire shop and paid to have them spun for straightness before....since I've bought wobbly wheels before too.

Date code looks like May or November of 2016 or 2018....hard to read.

 

I'm in the GTA. Thank you for the advice gentlemen. On it!

 

Worth noting, this is also why Toyota tells you (at least if you're smart enough to use OEM parts) the rubber timing belt needs to be changed based on time or miles, 9yr or 90k miles.

It hasn't even been 9yrs on those tires, and the rubber is already showing significant cracks and signs of deterioration.

​

 

PS -

If you haven't read this, then go read the first two replies: https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

The antenna is missing pieces, you'll want to replace the assembly, then scuff, acid-etch (Naval Jelly), etch-prime, and paint the hole. It's invasive, but it's the only option. If it's that far along, hope and pray you can salvage it, else you're replacing the fender.

Tires, go with a smaller size that's still oversized. 265/70r17 should fit w/o rubbing *IF* you heed the advice in that thread regarding wheel offset/ backspacing. I've never seen that brand/style of wheel so have no clue what the backspacing is, but visually it looks like it's over 5" backspace, which may be why you're rubbing, I dunno. But those wheels, ugh. I had to look up the brand, it's RTX Offroad. I can't find that 8-hole style in their catalog. Read that thread on backspacing and fitment from other Toyotas, knowing there isn't another model of Tundra whose wheels will fit. Just find some stock pull-offs for now from a pre-2023 4Runner or Tacoma or something, with tires, and know you may get a TPMS warning.

A couple of us have that sub enclosure you're looking at. Here and here at least, but there are others.

 

Did the person who did the safety/inspection mention the tires? Because in my mind, that is a safety issue. And, I have to ask this, did you buy this sight unseen? A VERY good rule of thumb is "trust but verify".

 

The thickness of the coating on the frame, suggests its been sprayed with fluid film or wool wax MANY times, as in many many times. However, looking at some of the areas you pictured, it also suggests that it has NOT been done in a little while. Maybe original owner took great care, then the truck got left to his grandson who had it a few years and didnt redo it and added the leveling kit and tires and wheels. The appearance of the rust starting on the frame around brackets and such isnt terrible, a needle scaler or screw driver and wire brush will do wonders in there, clean, spray with rust inhibitor or rust converter, and then start coating it with wool wax or fluid film or your choice of whatever.

The tires and wheels are going to rub worse with spacers.

It appears the inner wheel well has already been hacked up to try to stop rubbing on the inner wheel wells. Not much you can do other than find a junkyard truck to get wheel wells out of. While you are there at the junk yard you could get the front tag bracket maybe. Worst case you can get a universal like this and bolt it to the bumper cross bar there.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/186024066301

Prolly not gonna wanna do it, but if you dont want that antenna area getting worse you need to pull the fender and fix the bracket that is likely broken allowing the antenna to wobble forward and back which chewed the paint up around the hole in the fender. Sand, wire brush, rust converter, seal with epoxy paint ect. I used WD40 once on a cotton buffer pad to polish paint that had a rust stain in it like your fender shows. You can clean the bad rust up, use rust converter, etching primer, and touch up paint then buff or rub the rust stain out of the paint that is there. If you've ever used one of those headlight restoration kits and still have the buffer pad you can use it with WD40 and it will work pretty good.

 

Shifty and BAT thanks you. I was going to get it re-sprayed. Heeding this advice I may delay and try to get under it first with a wire brush as suggested to clean up first.

ATBA safety typically based on depth- I agree needs to be changed and actively looking. Thank you.