Hello all,

My name is Doug and I recently stumbled across this forum when I was looking for information about my '91 Toyota 4Runner. I'm sure I'll be posting questions alot because my toy isn't in the greatest condition and I would like to get it back into the shape it was in when I first bought it.

My first question is rust. I live in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan and the winter's are harsh, so the roads are salted. What's the best way any of you have found to stop rusting and what could be done to fix the already rusted spots?

Thanks,

Doug

p.s automobiles are NOT my speciality, so please be patient, I may ask stupid questions.

 

Hi Doug. First off, no question is a stupid question. I'm sorry I can't help you with your rust question as I live in Colorado and we don't experience rust like the midwesterners do. If it were me I would take it to a reliable body shop, show them your problem and ask them what remedy they recommend. Welcome to this cool Forum and stick around. Lots of questions and answers constantly in here. The guys and girls in here are great!

Whitey

 

Welcome Doug
Depends on where the rust is, how much you like to slop on the undercoating, if it will be seen, ect.

Let us know and enjoy the forum.


:beaver:

 

I figured this is as good as an opportunity as any. I'd like to introduce myself too. I'm George and I'm addicted to the go fast crack pipe. I just bought a 98 4Runner SR5 with the intention of keeping it stock and using it to tow my recently retired street car to the track. It's an Acura Integra Type R, and it's not comfortable on the street anymore. It has 300000kms, so I'll be racking up a lot of miles on the 4Runner now.

Of course my intention is to keep the 4Runner stock, but... (pardon my newbieness), but this whole off roading thing looks pretty cool! So I'll probably be asking a bunch of questions too. So is this going to be my next money pit?

 

um... YES.
Modding your Runner will be as easy and fun as modding your Type-R. I mean... whats cool being like every one else?? Welcome both of you to the forum! If you don't want to spend mod your truck, don't read this forum too much, it will wear off on you... its only a matter of time.

 

Most of my rust, that I can see, is all along my doors bottoms and along the wheel wells. Plus I have a bit along my doors windows. I would love to return it to original condition but I don't know if it's possible with the amount of rust. The rust got bad enough on the wheel wells that the trim fell off.

Thanks,
Doug

 

Hello and welcome. I lived on the east coast and i know about the rust. The first thing is to find all the rust spots. then start sanding all the spots. If there are spots that rusted trought you will need to patch them by welding in new peice. Doug liveing in MI there should be good body shops . This is a question all car and truck people have to ask then self is it worth saving ? I left 71 dodge dart and 73 changer in jersey because of the rust all the work it needed.

 

I've also got a little bit of rust on my 4Runner that I'm having fixed next month. Mine is on both sides under the back of ht erear doors in front of the wheel wells where the body seam is. I didn't notice it until I was washing the vehicle one day. Another area I have some is along the top of the tailgate which seems to be common to 2nd gen 4Runners.

My big problem is with my Smittybilt nerf bars and Smittybilt rear guards and brushguard. My rust on these is RAMPANT! The nerf bars are probably my fault since I've been running without mupflaps for 4+ years, but the rear guards and brush guards are rusting in areas that could not have been hit by rocks. Anyone have a similar experience with painted Smittybilt products? My local shop directd me to sand the rust, apply a rust treatment product called "Permatex Rust Treatment" (#81849)and then repaint the units with "Plasti-Kote Non-Skid Truck Bed Liner". My guards are the "Dual Stage Textured Powdercoat" You can paint over this Bed Liner product and it is supposedly pretty tough. The owner of this shop has it on the lower have of the body on his rig painted to match his truck.

 

I just was outside and walked past my rig. My wiper arms are pretty rusty too. Sorry about the typos/spelling in my last reply - I didn't proofread it.

 

Welcome to the newbies. I have got my rust at the rear wheel wells there the fenders meet the outside bed wall. Its a common place for it to form. I tapped it with a hammer to pop the blisters, sannded and filed on it till I was convinced the rust was gone, then I put a very small ammount of Bondo in the spots and spraypainted it. I'm lucky because my truck is UPS brown and the spraypaint matches it pretty closely. I'm really not concerned with the prettyness of my truck like most guys are so Bondo and spraypaint are right up my alley.

There is a product out there called POR 15 that is supposed to work magic on rust. I have read many good reviews about it but have never used it so I can't comment on its performance. If the rust is really bad, the only way to fix it is to cut it out and weld in new metal and repaint some or all of the truck.

If there is no rust under there then undercoating of some kind would probably help prevent it from forming. If you already have rust it will continue to spread under the coating.

 

The reasons I'm looking into repairing my toy are:
1)I'm a poor college boy and can't afford a whole new car.
2)I love my toy.
3)It was my first car.

So, I think it'll be more cost effective to repair the rust. There's a good autobody place here in town and come Monday I'll take it by and see what kind of price we're talking about.

But I'll prolly dump money into the mechanical aspect of it, cause my toy hasn't started in a couple of days until tonight that is. Happy about that. So many things to fix, so little $$.

Thanks all,
Doug

 

I'm not going to repeat the previous posts except to say that I fixed the rust on my Runner by completely cutting out the sections that were blistered and welding in new metal, it was the only way I've found to make sure the rust doesn't re-surface. I also added a rear deflector to (hopefully) stop salt spray from settling on the top edge of the tailgate.

Welcome to the forum guys,,,there is a lot of really good information (and ways to spend your cash) to be found here, all ya gotta do is ask.

Cheers

 

I plan on turning my toy into a project and will prolly snap a few picutes of the whole vehicle and set up a web site to document my progress, That way all of you can see my rust bucket.



Doug

 

Welcome aboard guys. I hate rust. I'm in the middle of the ocean, so rust is a problem here. I had the additional rustproofing put on my Runner when it was new. Good luck...fixing your Runners and keeping your money.
butnut

 

Hey Doug, what is happening? I am just saying hi! Welcome to Yotatech, the place where dreams come true and money disappears!

Cebby, I asked whether Smittybilt or Manik were better before I went out and bought my grilleguard. I was told that Smittybilt rusted really easily and really bad, so I am sure it is not you. I don't say this to make you feel bad and all, but that is why I asked and they said the smitts rust alot. Just to let you know that it is not you! :fireman:

 

BTown - Thanks for the info. I got T-Boned a good while ago and instead of replace the factory running board, I got the Smittybilt bars in the textured finish. Since I wanted avery thing to match, I ditched the Toyota Grilleguard I had in favor of the Smittybilt and then added the tail guards. My body shop said that the problem with alot of these aftermarket manufacturers was that they don't properly prep the units. Now that my stuff is rusting, I seem to see Smittybilt pieces all over town - RUSTING! :mad:

I'm going to clean up the rust and deal with it for now. Long term I plan on getting an ARB front bumper, true rock sliders, and a heavy duty rear bumper with tire carrier. ARB has Kaymar rear bumpers on their website, but I just got a catalog with their USA product offering and it wasn't in there. What gives?

Are you near those mines with the offices in them in Boyers?

 

BTOWN- Nice runner, it looks strangly like mine, minus the rust however.

One of the really nice things I did today was to go out and get some "Tuff Stuff" that I've read about here on the forum and used it to clean the interior of my toy, looks so much nicer now. Still need to get the dirt out of the bed's carpet, but that's a project for later.

I noticed a bit more rust on my runner and that bits of the runneing boards are falling off, screws came out and I can't get them to line up right again. Oh well, fix one thing notice something else...

Doug

 

Nah, not really. Did you ever hear of Reading, well, I am halfway (more towards Reading) between that and Philly. That is where I am. I am not really in coal (or mine) country, that is about an hour and a half to two hours north of me. Where are you at, IN Pittsburgh? :fireman:

 

Boyers is about an hour north of me, thought it was synonymous with Boyerstown. My bad. I've got an idea where you are. I head to NYC and points East once in a while and travel past your neck of the woods. I'm about 15 miles NE of Pittsburgh. Watching the Steelers on ESPN, so my responses have been kinda slow...

 

Yeah, I hear ya on that one! The Eagles are on tonight (Are you ready for some football...). Can't wait! I was watching some of the Steelers, but went to sleep so I couldn't see the end. Did they win? :fireman: