Oh boy, had a scary revelation tonight. I went to the stealer to pick up touch up paint and while I was there, I thought I'd check to see if they have the running board end cap - for the rear passenger side...they had it. I bought it. Got the mounting screws since they didn't come with the cap. As I was attaching it, I noticed a huge amount of rust underneath, so I took off the trim piece that is just below the passenger rear door...holy crap. It's so disintegrated, I'm not even sure if I can get the pieces back on now!

I'll have to check it out in the sunlight tomorrow.

But I wanted to see what you guys would do or have done to fix this. I know it will have to be torn out and built back up with filler, which I hate...but are there any other options? I hate, hate, hate Bondo...but I am not sure I see any other choices.

Any ideas? Have you noticed a ton of rust under where I'm talking about?

Argh...I was just about to get the Bushwacker flares, too.

Sad day for my rig...

 

if you ar etalking about the dog legs, its a common occurrence... and you can get the replacement legs fairly cheap.... you will need to become familiar with cutting out the old section and grafting on the new with a welder though...

 

Hmmm...dog legs. I'm not sure.

Luckily, I suppose, I've never had to repair any amount of rust on any of my cars, so I'm only imagining here. But what are the dog legs? The part that is crumbling is the area fore of the rear wheels, behind the running board endcap. There is a L shaped trim piece to which the endcap attaches...once I pulled that off, the rust just came falling out. It was dark when I was farking with it, but are you saying there is a piece that can be cut in? Would I have to cut them off a salvage Runner? Or are they a stealer item?

Seriously, any help is truly appreciated...!

 

actually you can buy replacement panels.. of just the dog legs..... many places carry them as rust repair panels and what not

 

OK, cool...any online places that you might suggest? What do you think the panels would run?

 

jc whitmeny might have them..... although shipping might be a killer.... do a local search near you... go to local body shops and ask wehre you can get the made in taiwaan reproduction parts... they will/should be able to tell you were t oget them locally and cheap

 

Sweet! I'll do that Friday, thanks for the advice, Jim...I was really distraught about this, but it looks like it won't be TOO bad. I'll post when I dig up the panels and show pics of before/after, too.

Thanks!

 

wanna complain about rust???



IT SUCKS!!

 

Holy Cow man!!

About a year before I sold my 85 I was temporarily living up in British Columbia. I went to the dealer to get a rear window switch (Tip #254: When cleaning a coffee-fouled electrical switch, do NOT use Carb Cleaner instead of Contact Cleaner!) and when I came out of the parts dept all the guys from the shop were under my 4Runner. They were absolutely astounded to see an old Runner with Zero Rust. I, on the other hand, was always amazed to see the rusted out hulks people were driving...

 

Holy Freeholies!!!
That's a lot of rust yo! Looks like the door's good though.


Greg: How'd your truck get so rusted in Austin???

 

here is my stang before i fixed it





replaced rotten frame section



grafted a new panel on



the light at the end of the tunnel!


never again will i buy a rusty vehicle. that stopped me from buyin a 4runner last year. thank god the one i got is 100% rust free. i hate rust work

 

Yea, one thing I neglected to mention. I just moved back to Austin after 7 years in Chicago, where I bought the truck. I've had it for about 4.5 years...and I don't know, but I think the truck's life was spent in or around Chicago. So that explains the rust.

I just looked at it again in the daylight...it's not QUITE as bad as I thought. But it must be fixed. What I may end up doing is having the body work done and then paint the whole truck black and get rid of all the chrome. Gonna take it to the body shop on Friday. I'm charging my camera now, I'll try to post some pics later today...

It's bad, but it could be much worse, I think...but like I said, I've never had to deal with rust before (I'm from Texas, our cars don't rust here)

 

OK, here are some pics:









It looks as those the rear part of the wheel well is fine. The lip/trim piece cover thing in FRONT of the rear wheels was hiding all the crud.

Any other suggestions based on these images? What do you think it will cost to repair?

I'm also, since I am de-chroming, thinking about after the body work of painting the whole truck a nice black lacquer. That would be totally stealth...well, at least as stealth as a huge brick moving through the air can be.




Any input, guys? Gals? I'm all ears...thanks!

 

Try this... http://www.alfaparts.net/toyota4r.htm

 

Rust, Thats not rust.

We buy cars like that for repair panels for our real rusty spots

 

Very funny...!

Yea, it's not as bad SloPoke rig of FiveoFeen's Stang, but still! One this crap starts, it only gets worse. So I had better get off it and fix it.

Thanks for the link...I have been looking for places online for cheap replacement panels, but have had no luck. I'll see what this place has...

Gonna take it to a place on Friday to get an estimate. Shouldn't be too bad, I'll post back.

 

Mine is really bad but I bought it that way so I'm ok with it. Another spot that I found was under the cowel,(panel between the windshield and the hood) Leaves found their way around the hood hinge and rusted out the metal around the hinge and also rusted the hinge its self, so when ever I opened the hood the metal around the hinge is what was rotating.

 

www.POR15Store.com

great stuff here its a rust inhibiting paint. tedious and messy process to do but looks nice, my whole undercarriage on the stang is coated with it. i wanted to get the yota done before winter but my lazy ass is holding me back

 

How much do you think you spent to do your stang, I've been thinking about doing my Nova the same way.

 

Grams, when you say you lowered the rear quarter and bumper, what do you mean? And do you have any pics?