I need a frame !

Hello everyone ! I just bought a 2006 crew cab 4x4, she’s beautiful with 80,000 miles and a mint interior. The frame is shot, I’m ready to pay for a new one/have it installed but I can’t find ANY. There are no new frames and southern used ones cannot be shipped, this is my dream truck and I feel very stuck right now. If anyone has any ideas I’d really appreciate it!! I’m from Ohio and going to the local junkyard would just yield be another rust frame…

 

There is a small fab shop in Iowa that has some. They say "southern" origin... FBMP add, don't have it handy. I'll see if I can find it.
It's a tiny little intersecton/village

 

Here ya go. Good luck. 80k and a bad frame is a cryin shame.
You are required to document the process here with pictures.

 

Get in line!

You’re gonna need a trailer to get one home.

 

Welcome from NY.

Says it's a Grade A

https://www.cooksautoparts.com/used-parts/TOYOTA/TUNDRA|3/C6749/2006/

 

Go to https://www.car-part.com/, enter your year, truck, trim and drivetrain, pick a southern or southwestern zip code and cast a big net. I.e., don't limit yourself to a certain distance. I pulled up a few, but I am not sure what you mean by "crew cab" in your description. We use Regular Cab RC - seats 3 and has 2 doors; Access Cab AC - seats 5 or 6 with a tiny azz back seat and has 2 real and 2 suicide doors; Double Cab or DC - seats 5 or 6 with a real back seat and 4 real doors.

NOTE: Car-part uses other nomenclature for the search, BUT individual junkyards will usually use the correct RC/AC/DC terms.

 

OP " I’m ready to pay for a new one/have it installed"
That place I posted says they offer "installation".

Disclaimer: I have no idea if the place is good/legit/or still around.
It's just a FBMP add I've run into.

 

Thanks so much I’m definitely more optimistic now, it’s a 2006 double cab 4x4. I don’t think I would be able to make that drive, I would need to find a way to get it shipped. My buddy is a Toyota master tech and his dealership is able to do the frame swap, but even they can’t find any frames.

 

If it were me, I'd be chasing after whoever sold that shit to you. If someone sold you a vehicle that's unsafe / structurally unsound, many states have legal recourse for you to take action against the buyer, entitling you to a refund.

Before you jump into frame swap, or before you attempt to buy another truck, please read this thread: https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

And if you want further advice on the frame, post some pics for us.

 

Did you check my link? It's not to far from you.
Here is their main link, not the frame.

https://www.cooksautoparts.com/

 

It was a private sale, I gave him $100s, $12,500… I bought it in Ohio. The frame looked decent untill I put it under a lift, I can take more pictures when I’m home. He was a Mexican fellow but the truck just looked so good, i literally sold my Tacoma months ago because of rust. I just got off the phone with cooks no frame in stock!

 

Yeah, get your money back. I don't know what the labor cost on a frame might be- but it can't be cheap.

Also- there's going to be dozens of things that are too rusted to the frame to be saved. Sway bar mounts, gas tank straps, spring hangers, brake lines, they're all going to break when you try to remove them. When my frame got replaced under the recall, there was thousands of dollars of parts that also needed replacing.

Especially with how much you're already invested into this truck, there's no way it can be worth it financially to replace the frame. Sorry man.

 

How can you be so bedazzled that you didn’t check the frame from top to bottom after you got rid of the Tacoma due to rust? I’d be under there with a creeper checking every inch of it especially when it came from OHiO (aka salting capital of the rust belt)! Live and learn I guess.

 

I do appreciate the hindsight advice but I’m 20 years old and this is my 2nd truck, I looked and didint see any rust, the way I see it I rather be 20,000 into a tundra with fresh frame/suspension than any other modern truck. I really just need help finding one of these damn frames, of course I’ll post updates! I already ordered performance mods, suspension components, light assembly’s, money is no problem I love this truck. I just need a frame.

 

I wonder if you could buy a southern truck for cheap with a good frame but body damage, worn out suspension/brakes, etc. Then swap the frame and rear axle, and scrap or sell the rest. Not sure if that's a cost effective method but might be a good method.

 

Best advice is look for someone selling a non-working or parts truck that had the frame replaced on Facebook. I’ve seen a few within a 200 mile drive but I haven’t got a trailer to haul it or a place to put it and do the swap over.

 

If money is no object, then find a frame using car-part.com (as advised above). It's going to be down in the south or southwest. Then buy a plane ticket to go see it. Confirm it checks out, and promptly go rent a uhaul truck and trailer and trailer it home to Ohio.

Then open up the checkbook again and have a good shop do the swap, unless you're quite handy and well-equipped with tools. Consider having the frame you find galvanized before executing the swap too

 

It's a hell of a lot of effort to swap, but beyond that, you're going to be battling rusty fasteners for the rest of your life.

We need pics. And it would be helpful to know where you are in the world. I know where there are a couple of NOS frames up north, but you'd need to transport it from an hour or three west of your location, depending whether you live north/south/east/west OH.

After reading this, it would seem as if, due to private sale and how consumer-unfriendly the state of Ohio is, you're up shit creek unless you file a fraud claim. Knowing you've got at least $1k+ you need to put into it just for a new frame (not labor and peripheral parts, there'll been plenty of shit that will be rusted out and need replaced, dogear about $2,000 extra for that), you may want to contact the seller, threaten a fraud claim, and ask him to take the truck back and keep $1k of the money.

 

First and foremost, let’s see what you’re working with. Body, interior and frame shots. Frame shots should include rear axle / pumpkin, overlap frame stiffeners behind the cab, x brace for spare tire, and the frame sections between the front suspension and the firewall area. Maybe it’s not as bad as you say.

 

Welcome home, sir. You belong with us.

Hey but seriously I like that idea of finding a running/driving, maybe high-mile but Southern beater and driving it back to Ohio (?), then robbing it for all the parts you need on your dime-piece gal in the purty dress but that has venereal disease.

 

What @KNABORES said. If the body is so nice, maybe all the frame needs is some good patches and some rust removal?

 

Unfortunate situation.
Since it is low miles and a 2006, have you tried rolling the dice and seeing if your friend's dealership would go to bat for you with Toyota corp in getting a replacement frame? I don't know a lot about this process, maybe the stars will align for you

 

Too bad you don't have an AC. I have a parts truck with rust free frame and lsd rear that I can't get rid of.

 

Not to make it worse, but you are also going to need to put aside some money for timing belt, lower ball joints and radiator. Dollars to donuts those have not been done at that mileage, but the number of years since 2006 means they will need it. Good news is the parts are cheap. OEM is mandatory for the ball joints, Aisin for the timing belt kit, Denso for the radiator.
Also need to make sure the engine is clean and 'sludge free'. That low a mileage is actually not necessarily as healthy as one with twice the mileage. Low mileage indicates short trips and engines don't like those apparently.

All that said, welcome to the club!

 

Well this sounds like a a heck of a show.
This isnt the same kid from earlier in the week with the massive basketball sized hole in the passengers front frame rail above the sway bar is it?

 

Low mileage is a nightmare in these trucks. (example) (example) (example)

That 1st example is my truck, which currently has 80k original miles.

But here's the thing: OP really needs to look back thru the history. If the dude was shady enough to sell with a rotten frame, what's stopping him from thinking, "Shit, this looks like an 80k mile truck ... let's swap an 80k mile cluster in here!!"? It may actually have 120k miles on it. Or 180k miles.

 

You picked that thought right out of my dusty cranium.... Take a look at the brake pedal ware, steering wheel... I'm sure there are some other points of ware I'm not thinking of.
EDIT: Are there any VIN linked markings on the clusters?

 

I'm not aware of any way to validate whether a cluster is original to the truck.