The front cross member on my 4Runner was totally shot, so I rebuilt it. I posted photos on Photobucket of it before, during and after. As you'll see, it was, as I said, totally shot. I put the dimensions into a couple of jpg's for anyone that might be in the same boat. The new sections were cut from 1/8" steel. I put the bottom plate on first because the front piece had a roll on the edge that I thought I'd keep as sorta a skid. I had to notch out the two areas for clearance where the front skid plate bolts up (you can see it in one of the pics). Then I put on the bottom plate, the top plate and lastly the rear plate, followed by primer and 2 coats of satin black. Now it's on to the rest of the body... Just fyi, it requires grinding, cutting, welding and A LOT of drilling! I'm no pro by any means, so take it FWIW. Anyone has any comments or questions, let me know.

Mike

The pics are here:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b139/9...ross%20Member/

 

boy, I'm glad that they dont salt the roads on this side of the country (at least in Oregon) that was pretty crusty, what does the rest of the frame look like?

 

Surprisingly ,the rest of the frame is solid. It had some flaking which I chiseled off and used Rust Bullet on. I haven't found anything else that's rotted through. Most of the body is good, especially underneath, except for the wheelwells, rockers and door bottoms. But I have rust-free PA doors and tailgate to put on and new fenders as well.

 

My 4runner is the same way. I have no rust anywhere except the front crossmember. It's not too bad though. I'll definately keep this post in mind if I decide to replace mine. Thanks!

 

Ya rust bunnies aren't fun I have been cutting mine out when they show thier ugly heads.

 

hate biring up old threads but then again i aint the only one who comes up with an idea and has to look through the archives to find what im looking for. any body within the yota tech cut off their factory crossmember ( even in need for repair as above) or to make a new one? im currently looking into cutting mine replacing it with c-channel welding it back in and then running grade 10 bolts through the frame. adding tabs to tie in a new bumper.

 

I have a Trail Gear winch plate on my SAS'd '88 truck. After a relatively easy winch pull, but at a very severe angle, my frame started to cave in. The cross member pretty much broke off of the driver's side frame rail completely. I didn't know how bad it was until I started cutting it out. I replaced it with a piece of 2.5"x2.5" tubing that's 1/8" thick. More info here: http://wwww.midatlantictoyotacrawler...?t=598&page=17