I see all these pics of all your trucks and they look great. Most of you guys seem to live bellow the rust belt. Up here in VT its an absolute given that any toyota pickup will either have a rusted out bed or a wooden one and will either have rusted fenders or replacements.

I lost a 98 tacoma to rust prior to the recall and now that I'm back in a yota I want it to last!!!!

The "rocker pannel" area of my bed (rear tires and back) is rusted badly. I bought the truck like this and would really like to fix it. I already replaced both front fenders and plan on taking the bed off and POR 15 ing the frame from the cab back. But the bed is really beyond my current abillity to fix.

Any one have any suggestions???? Shes my DD and while I may turn it into a trail rig in a couple years I'd really like to stop the rust in its tracks and make it look nice. The truck only has 65k on it and I want to avoid barren patches of bondo or giant cuts cause it looks nice as is. I also may have a proffesional spray bedliner along the wheel wells and rocker pannels and up 4" or so.

 

-New bed from yota yard in colorado? Might be expensive to ship.
-flatbed lots of great pics on pirate
-fiberglass bed sides

 

NorCrawler has a 3rd gen pickup with the rockers behind the wheels cut right off. Gives a bunch of ground clearance, and it looks really good to boot!

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f86/...rawler-146975/
There is his "check out my truck"

 

Yeah man i know, i'm from PA and all winter long there is a thick coat of salt on the roads, nothing says rust like salt+water on bare metal.

suggestions: Por-15 is good stuff, i've used it before. Silver works best, cause it has metal filler in it, (at least thats what the can told me). All in all you know you have to cut/grind that stuff out, cause if you dont it will eat away at the truck until its gone.

And if you are up to it, herculiner works well as a rocker panel/bedliner protector. So far no problems on my truck, just put time into the prep: sand,sand,sand,clean,HERCULINER. remember tape everything you dont want that stuff on CAUSE IT DOESNT COME OFF, EVER!!!! PLus it cheap about 70bucks for the kit, which does alot of sq/ft.

Good luck

 

Hey what do you guys think about spraying penetrating oil inside the panels and the frame? I know there's companies in Canada that do this like crazy and supposedly it really helps. The "rust cop" company is the American version. You can't paint or cut out and replace every single seam and interior surface. Any place where water and dirt can collect will soon remove the factory finish and start getting eaten.

 

You can get a fiberglass bed. Wont rust at all.
http://toyotafiberglass.com/products.htm

 

A vermonter! The salt and rust issue is a sad story. My 89 just came across from WA 2 years ago. In the two years I've lost my rear bumper to rust and the rust is starting to hit the body. Being someone who spreads salt on the roads I hate it even more.
Those fiberglass beds look nice though.

 

Sell the one you have, go to Texas and get one with no rust. Oil spray the heck out of it every year. That is what I did and have never regretted it.

 

move to southern arizona or southern nevada, aint no rust out there. and if you have it already, it wont spread due to lack of humidity. easiest way to prevent rust.

 

oiling your frame works!

and what part of PA are you from, rock hound?

 

I did some rust research a while back and learned that there are a lot of products to stop it. Old bridges, churches with iron work, farm equipment....all that sort of stuff has to be preserved. Otherwise, you're talking a lot of money!
So, I found several "industrial" grade convertors on the market. Here's one, but there are many more. Google!

http://www.interstateproducts.com/rustkiller.htm

 

YES!!!! ... i am going over pretty much everything right now, replacing a lot of sheet metal, already made a STEEL bed, no wood here, so yes, i know your pain. I would definitely recommend fiberglass, as it does not rust (obviously) and replacing just the bed sides is not that big of a job. Also, bedliner, its a great rust preventative.

 

the fiberglass bed sounds good. I wonder what one costs...

 

About $2000.00
http://toyotafiberglass.com/price%20list.htm

 

thanks for the input....norcrawlers bed looks pretty good. I may have to do that. The truck is so nice mechanically (65k on it) i hate to hack it too much. I'd love for it to look totally stock. What do you all do to treat mechanical parts? Obviously you can't just paint por15 on joints, cables, shafts and other moving parts.

Crew462- where in VT are you from??

 

Speaking of rust.......

Several months ago when I was looking for a truck I went to look at an 87 Toy that was 99% rust free. I crawled under her with a hammer and smacked the frame and the lower rad support fell out along with 4 feet of inner frame rail........ but the body looked good.


Good luck.

 

I moved to Upstate NY from Arizona (actually via Washington - I can't read a map!) with my rust free 91. I know the salt will eat it, but...oh well.

I fogged the chassis of the truck with two big cans of WD40 last fall, a couple of times, and I hit the car wash weekly in the winter to blast the crap off underneath. I don't know if it helped at all, seems like it did.

200k miles...I guess it will die before it rusts out.

 

That almost never happens

 

You say that now but give it a year and you will start seeing REAL rust, not that surface rust you guys have in AZ. Here is a pic for proof:



James

 

Chuck no matter what you do to the truck to prevent rust, it will still rot out if you drive it in the winter.

James