Another rust check post

Hi all,

This is a Nevada 2005 that I'm hoping to purchase today. Does this level of rust look normal/ok? Just checking because of all the forum warnings about frame rust.

Thanks in advance for any advice!
Paul

 

You may want to decompress and make them into a viewable format to the forum (i.e. jpg, gif, bmp, etc.). I personally wouldn’t want to download to view them.

 

My mistake! Just re-uploaded. Thanks!

 

Surface rust. You’re fine. Your rear pumpkin is probably the worst and that’s easy to clean up.

 

Thanks Jack!

 

Looks good from here!

 

That is likely in the top 10%
Not bad at all
Easy to touch up with some rust converter and a good coating of paint or undercoating.

 

No problem. Other than the Rough Country suspension. Easy switch though. Also looks like you might have a leaking seal in the steering rack. What is the asking price? More pictures are always good.

 

Looks fine but deal with that rear axle housing.

Note someone has been wiring random shit on the truck. And there is a large gauge power wire, unprotected, unloomed, just zip tied on.

Also, you have LSD rear and need to be careful about what fluid goes in the rear diff.

 

Thank you all for the responses. Just parked the truck in my garage and I'm pretty excited. Now it's on to figuring out what to do to it first. Regarding the diff fluid, thanks for the heads up. I'll figure out what it needs ASAP and stay on top of that. I'm assuming I'll also find recommendations for specific rust treatment / protectants on the forum. Haven't dug too deeply into it yet but I'm looking forward to doing so. The wiring you see is for a pop up camper the previous owner sold some time ago. Not sure if I'll have any use for the wiring, but I'll keep it for now just in case. Regarding the rack, she (previous owner) disclosed the leak and the $2k estimate to replace it. Any advice on how to determine urgency of that job would be greatly appreciated. Timing belt has 6 years and about 50k on it, so I'll probably need to do that pretty soon. She also lost the key fobs, and there's a KARR alarm system that she says can be a hassle without the fob, so that'll probably be the first thing I sort out. I'm also going to be looking into headlight options as these are pretty weak/faded and I've gotten spoiled by the modern beams on our 2020 Passport. Thanks again for all the quick help. You've all just made me feel a lot better about getting my first Tundra.

 

Great to hear! You’ll be happy with the Tundra purchase. @shifty` created a master thread with a lot of important goto information here:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

Your rust treatment will really depend upon where you live and the conditions which you drive. If it’s hot and arid like Nevada, not much (i.e. wire brush, rust converter, matte black paint).

If it’s salted roads in the winter, you’ll either need to do a seasonal treatment with fluid film or something similar or a rust encapsulator paint like POR-15. I can answer any questions about the latter since I’ve done my whole frame in it.

 

Excellent find! The frame looks new compared to mine.

I'm curious what's going on in these pictures below. It looks like someone welded some tubing right onto the passenger side front spring mount (driver's side as well, perhaps, but there are no similar pics). I thought perhaps a slider, but the OEM step mounts are clearly visible.



Also, your rear leafs appear to have been upgraded at some point. You may also want to evaluate the tire/wheel combination, since it appears to be rubbing.



Ditto on the red wire...do you have a camper top perhaps? Let's see some pics of the outside!

 

If you look close you can see that what you are pointing out is a 2" receiver hitch welded in. If you look closely you can see there is one on the trailer hitch as well.
My guess is, with the big rear springs, big rear bump stops, front lifted struts/shocks/springs, and big 2 gauge wire running to the bed, that this didnt have a snug-top, it had an actual camper, the big wide ones that slip into the bed. The big 2 gauge wire probably ran a 3000w inverter and then my thoughts are that the 2" receivers at all 4 corners of the bed were either for a slide in extension that you then ratcheted the camper top down to, or it was for someone to slide in the 2" receiver steps so whoever could slide in a step and climb up over the bedside more easily. I am going to lean more heavily towards big slide in camper tie downs though.

 

Good deal let’s see the whole truck

 

What rack leak? That's nothing horribly noteworthy.

$15 AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT-205 will refresh the seals and shore up things, but it's barely wet, I doubt you really have a serious, highly-active leak. My bellows are similar.

The KARR alarms fucking suck. Dealer add-on. I'd make it a priority to get rid of it. Can get instructions if needed.

Fobs are easy enough to program for the system that'll be in your truck. Figure out which method to use for entering programming mode (there are a couple for the DC) and go from there.

The Rough Country struts up front are garbage. Also, clearly the wheel/tire combo and alignment are shit because you can see rusty rubout on the frame.

Swaybar bushings are over-compressed and probably need replacement.

No pics of the lower ball joints. I see one in the background and it looks like everything around it in condition, so I'm going to assume they've never been replaced, other than under the recall. I'd make it a point to replace with new OEM LBJ ASAP, and remember 8 fresh bolts (4 per side). This is not a place you can trust aftermarket, and if they're using Rough Country struts up front, rest assured, the previous owner was a tightwad with money, or didn't know any better.

Now I'm on a computer again, this is an example of scary as shit wiring. They drilled straight thru the bottom of the cab to run this wire, didn't bother to grommet the hole (!!!!!), have unprotected voltage-carrying wire (the red wire) just zip-tied to random ass shit, and I don't even know what the hell that wire is dangling down by the framerail. I'm going to assume they drilled the cab in that spot to run a backup camera but ... dude, there's literally a plastic plug on the other side of the framerail from here, making this pretty egregious fuckery.

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