So I'm all set to buy this 94 toyota pickup. It's in pretty good shape. Body is straight, little oxidation on the hood and roof but that happens in northern nevada. It runs strong, I had a mechanic check it out and no major problems at all. One owner, older guy, seems to have been well cared for. But I just happened to notice this today:





Apparently the rear piece of the tail pipe rusted off so he put an extension on. The problem is that the way he put it on it's been rubbing up against the body of the bed causing that area to rust and a 2" or 3" area of clear coat has been melted away. He said it's been like this for 2 or 3 years so it hasn't really gotten that bad. My concern is that in a couple of months I'm moving back to the northeast and I'm taking whatever truck I buy back there with me.

So, this is definitely going to get worse if not taken care of right? Any rough ideas of what it would cost a body shop to fix that up and get it so it won't spread?

He's not willing to go down on the price so I need to decide whether I should suck it up and buy this truck or keep looking.

His price is pretty good. I've talked him down to what blue book says the truck is worth if it's in excellent condition. I would say it's one step down from excellent but the price still seems decent because around here these trucks normally sell for a grand or more over blue book.


Modified by dfinn at 6:08 PM 2-8-2006

 

Just call up your nearest body shop or machine shop. It's not that big of a piece of metal so it cant be that big of a deal.

 

That shizzy'll buff out. A little cleaning up and some touch up paint, and you'll be fine

Still don't buy "excellent condition book value" as a deal though...but then, I don't live innorther NV either LOL

 

i don't look all that bad. you could sand it down to bare metal and primer it yourself, then buy a can of paint (autozone, whatever) and shoot it. not that biga deal, if he's got a fair price, i'd say buy it.

 

Doesn't look too bad, I'm sure you could live with it by buffing it yourself (unless you are really picky about appearances) but damn, I literally drive through saltwater pretty often and my tailpipe isn't nearly that deteriorated....

 

Thanks guys. I could care less about appearance. My main concern is that a couple years of winters in the north east and I'll be pulling the bed off and replacing it with a wooden one or no bed at all. That's a pretty common site on older yotas back in new england.

 

Looks to me like most of that paint problem came from heat, not necessarily contact from the pipe. Before I'd fix the paint, I'd get that tail pipe re-routed just a bit,, if not lengthened a little to get the hot exhaust gasses away from the rocker panel.

Mike in AR

 

If I do decide to go ahead with the purchase that will be my first priority. That's about where the exhaust pipe should be exiting right? Just not that close to the bed.

 

Well, I have a 4Runner with coil springs. So I don't have leaf springs to work round. Mebbe a truck owner can chime in with some input. I've just seen similar effects on other vehicles.

 

Looks like the tail pipe may have been pushed up by something. My truck is built the same, and it's not that close. I'd get an exhaust shop to put a little longer tip on it and bend it away from the panel a little. You could prob. bend it yourself too. I don't think that is a big problem- if the truck seems mechanically solid, I would put that exhaust pipe problem as a low priority to fix.

 

That's a very common sight in New England. The tip of the tail pipe breaks off and if you don't catch it real soon the condensation and hot exhaust gases go to work on the paint and eventually rot out a nice little hole in the sheet metal.

 

It really doesn't seem bad, if you are not concerned about look, sand it down, prime it, hit it with some similar color rattle can paint. Then when you get back into New England, look me up, check out TTORA-NE too, www.ttora-ne.net (site is still under construction, but you get the idea, and the link to the forum is there), we are pretty busy up here with runs, etc. Highway74, if you are not already on under a different name, check us out too. Also check out NE4ROC.