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Last week I went ahead and bought a new rear crossmember. The local dealership was happy to sell me one for roughly $400 plus tax. The P/N is 51209-35222.
I cut out the old one with my plasma cutter. Unsurprisingly it came right out. Then I plasma cut the welds and peeled off the remains.
I ran out of time for tonight, but if the weather cooperates tomorrow, I will have to cut out about a foot of the inside frame rail. Back to where I stripped and painted it earlier. I am going to weld in 1/8 X 4in flat stock in its place. I'm not sure what I am going to do about the end cap. I might try and bend some 1/8 in stock and make a new one.
It looks like someone had used a rust encapsulator paint after it had rusted quite a bit. That made a shell of paint and scale that held in all the salt and moisture. In most places I have knocked the crust off and I've had a solid paintable surface. But back behind the rear axle it got out of hand. I've also got some body rot underneath the rockers and the cargo area has a sizable hole rotted through the floor. I'll probably have to wait until these start showing up at the pull-a-part to get a cargo floor pan. Toyota wants 6 or 7 hundred for that piece of sheet metal.
I got the project finished today. The driver side was way worse than the passenger side I had to cut out about 18 inches in inner frame rail and 6 inches of outer frame rail. I didnt know what to do about the end cap so I extended the rails to the length that the cap would have gone to. I'm not proud of my welds at all, I got a CO2 tank today and it was my first try using solid wire. It ended up behaving way different than flux core.
The passenger side needed about 12 inches of inner frame rail and nothing on the outside. All I had to do to the outside frame rail was extend it a little further.
After I got it welded in, I shot it with some paint. I replaced the bumper mounting brackets because the original ones didnt exist anymore.
The VIN searches I could do showed it came from Maryland originally then was sold in West Virginia. I can only imagine vehicles rot quicker in both of those places.
I sent some pictures to the service guy at my local dealership but never heard back. Someone at work recommended reaching out to Toyota Corporate. I'll probably try and get in touch with them.
For the floor rot, I'm going to have to find one for parts or at a yard that will either cut it out for me or let me pull my own floor pan. Hopefully I can come across something before it gets too far gone.
Patching the frame is probably only going to hold me over for 5 years, tops. At that point I'll have to see what kind of shape the rest of the vehicle is in. Total frame replacement is the only thing that will fix it. By then, I may just drop the drive train in another project vehicle. It only has 120k on the clock right now.
FJ Cruiser Rusted Frame Owners Unite We all love our FJ Cruiser. Fun to drive, fun to mod. The purpose of FJ Cruiser Rusted Frame Owners Unite on Facebook is to connect those of us whose frames are rusting, some even to failure and to be able to tell your story of what Toyota is or is not doing to help. Safety is our priority and we want you to be aware of frame and fuel tank strap rust. Join us for the most up to date information and help preserve our iconic vehicles. Posts must include a picture of the rust but everyone is welcome to join the discussions.
Even if don't join us on Facebook you can still participate by following the the links below. US residence, if you haven't done so file a safety complaint with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for frame structural rust and or fuel tank strap rust. The NHTSA can force a Toyota recall with enough recorded problems.
IMPORTANT: A link to a petition form below will provide information on your particular FJ to help with a resolution. All US, Canada, and other countries are all welcome to participate.
I put in a request to join the FB group. I'm not sure about the yotatech rules about that post. I wont report the post personally. I don't feel like Toyota will do anything about my FJ cruiser due to the circumstances. Unless they go into a full recall.
Thank you for joining us. I hope Yotatech understands we are doing this for the safety aspects. Many folks have reached out individually to Toyota for help and denied so we took it upon ourselves to reach out to the community. Many developments have taken place since the forum has started and it is continuing in the right direction.
Unfortunately it wasn't free. When I was looking at it to buy it, it appeared that the frame was scaled. But it passed the pocket knife test. A few months after I got it, I went to paint the frame. When I did I knocked the scale off with a hammer. When I hit it with a hammer I found out that all there was in the frame was scale. Up to an 8th inch came crumbling off in places. I never imagined that it could rot from the outside in. It's like the entire outside of the frame had puffed up like a wet book. I knocked off everything I could get to and ground it then painted it. But I'd say this truck has 5 years left, or less.
Unfortunately it wasn't free. When I was looking at it to buy it, it appeared that the frame was scaled. But it passed the pocket knife test. A few months after I got it, I went to paint the frame. When I did I knocked the scale off with a hammer. When I hit it with a hammer I found out that all there was in the frame was scale. Up to an 8th inch came crumbling off in places. I never imagined that it could rot from the outside in. It's like the entire outside of the frame had puffed up like a wet book. I knocked off everything I could get to and ground it then painted it. But I'd say this truck has 5 years left, or less.
Well it's good that you're making the best of a bad situation - maybe keep an eye out for a truck with a good frame and a blown motor to swap your good running gear into?
07-01-2019, 05:35 PM
We all love our FJ Cruiser. Fun to drive, fun to mod. The purpose of FJ Cruiser Rusted Frame Owners Unite on Facebook is to connect those of us whose frames are rusting, some even to failure and to be able to tell your story of what Toyota is or is not doing to help. Safety is our priority and we want you to be aware of frame and fuel tank strap rust. Join us for the most up to date information and help preserve our iconic vehicles. Posts must include a picture of the rust but everyone is welcome to join the discussions.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/632711680558455/about/
