A horrid discovery

[Irish Reiver]

Once upon a time I bought a '96 triple locked from a dude in Portland, Maine. I didn't walk into the purchase with my completely eyes shut so I knew new rockers were needed and the seller pointed the camera everywhere I asked him so I can never say I was scammed. I drove it back from Portland to Orlando with no issues except for the smell of gas when I stopped for a refill.
Back home I found that the fuel tank filler tube was destroyed with rust. Knowing I had to lift the body from the frame to replace the fuel filler tube, I soon discovered the tank was basically a sieve. From there the rabbit hole was deep. Pandora's box was flung wide open with viscous consequences.
My rear quarters were as bad as yours. The box section that runs across the back where the 2 rear most body mounts attach was non existent. The carpet was destroyed but when I removed it driver and passenger floors were MIA.
A wise man would have scrapped the vehicle however I am not wise but did have a welder and lots of time. I spent over 1 year on and off cutting and welding new metal. I bought new outer rocker panels but had to fabricate the inner panels. I made new floors. I rebuilt the complete back end where the body mounts go. I rebuilt the lower portions of the quarter panels from the top indent with new metal.
Nothing about the rebuild was easy. When you cut away the rust you are left with galvanized metal which is a bitch to weld. Wait, did I say bitch? I meant to say Cünt. To date no tool has been invented that allows you grind the parts other tools can not reach.
5 years later the truck runs like a champ. My daughter has used it as her daily driver for 2 years. My son and I did a road trip from Orlando to Montana and back last year and are planning to hit Prudhoe Bay, AK later this summer.
Is my truck great, well no. Rust never dies. It does something to the metal that I cant explain. New bolts will start to rust for no observable reason. Paint will bubble where rust didn't previously exist. It never ends.
My truck is mine and I have had many days of enjoyment from her but if i had to do it again I wouldn't. It is just not worth the fight and rust always finds a way to win. @Godwin suggestion of finding a doner frame is the only practical advice here. Rust will destroy you. Move on quickly and find happiness.
Good luck

 

[MissahPapaJ]

Is that really cost effective for a project that aims to be a street legal wheeler? I don't know what the cost of the repair would be (I'm working on contacting a few places) but I've been looking around for donors and I'm having a hard time finding anything under $5k. I have a hard time believing the labor for a repair, even of this nature, would be more than $5k and that's before factoring in the cost of the labor to do the parts of the swap I'm not equipped to handle myself.

I'm not trying to argue with your claim, btw. I genuinely don't know the costs of this kind of work. I just find it hard to believe that I'd be looking at more than 16hrs of labor (using the $300/hr labor quotes I've seen from some specialty shops for other work in the area). Maybe I'm wildly off-base for what it takes to make a repair like this, idk.

Considering a brake job, bearings and races and knuckle rebuild should take around 5-7 hours depending on skill and how the vehicle is cooperating. And who’s been working on it before and what unknown or unforeseen you may run into, if you don’t wrench everyday yeah you may be perplexed on the costs of things but shops stay open because of people who don’t have time or know how, tools etc. you usually pay more for what the mechanic knows than what he actually does. If you add rust into the equation and the fact most the body bolts are removed with interior stripped you tell me how much you think it should cost. It’s a ton of time consuming work.

 

[60 toy ota]

Not local to you but for 1500 and shipping you may still come out ahead:

1991 Toyota Land Cruiser missing engine trans

I bought this to fix another one I have. No engine, transmission, transfer case, computer, Speedo, steering wheel and a few other interior parts. I wouldn’t rebuild this. Would be great for someone...

www.facebook.com

It doesn't say anything about rust so definitely do your due diligence, but from the photos it looks promising

 

[Old Nick]

Once upon a time I bought a '96 triple locked from a dude in Portland, Maine. I didn't walk into the purchase with my completely eyes shut so I knew new rockers were needed and the seller pointed the camera everywhere I asked him so I can never say I was scammed. I drove it back from Portland to Orlando with no issues except for the smell of gas when I stopped for a refill.
Back home I found that the fuel tank filler tube was destroyed with rust. Knowing I had to lift the body from the frame to replace the fuel filler tube, I soon discovered the tank was basically a sieve. From there the rabbit hole was deep. Pandora's box was flung wide open with viscous consequences.
My rear quarters were as bad as yours. The box section that runs across the back where the 2 rear most body mounts attach was non existent. The carpet was destroyed but when I removed it driver and passenger floors were MIA.
A wise man would have scrapped the vehicle however I am not wise but did have a welder and lots of time. I spent over 1 year on and off cutting and welding new metal. I bought new outer rocker panels but had to fabricate the inner panels. I made new floors. I rebuilt the complete back end where the body mounts go. I rebuilt the lower portions of the quarter panels from the top indent with new metal.
Nothing about the rebuild was easy. When you cut away the rust you are left with galvanized metal which is a bitch to weld. Wait, did I say bitch? I meant to say Cünt. To date no tool has been invented that allows you grind the parts other tools can not reach.
5 years later the truck runs like a champ. My daughter has used it as her daily driver for 2 years. My son and I did a road trip from Orlando to Montana and back last year and are planning to hit Prudhoe Bay, AK later this summer.
Is my truck great, well no. Rust never dies. It does something to the metal that I cant explain. New bolts will start to rust for no observable reason. Paint will bubble where rust didn't previously exist. It never ends.
My truck is mine and I have had many days of enjoyment from her but if i had to do it again I wouldn't. It is just not worth the fight and rust always finds a way to win. @Godwin suggestion of finding a doner frame is the only practical advice here. Rust will destroy you. Move on quickly and find happiness.
Good luck

Your experience sounds almost exactly like mine, but the rust wasn't "quite" as bad. You are spot on about the mystery of rust and how it manages to infect everything even after it's been repaired. You've got sea salt to deal with and we have road salt in the winters... ugh. That said, there is great personal satisfaction in rescuing one of these trucks from the junk yard.

 

[Godwin]

Fairly solid 1996 body in NE Alabama

1996 Toyota Landcruiser

1996 Toyota Landcruiser · Suv · Driven 100,000 miles Fzj80 body. Not rusted out but some surface rust in the pass floorboard and at the bottom of the windshield frame. Has two dings above pass rear...

www.facebook.com

 

[tedwardd]

Once upon a time I bought a '96 triple locked from a dude in Portland, Maine. I didn't walk into the purchase with my completely eyes shut so I knew new rockers were needed and the seller pointed the camera everywhere I asked him so I can never say I was scammed. I drove it back from Portland to Orlando with no issues except for the smell of gas when I stopped for a refill.
Back home I found that the fuel tank filler tube was destroyed with rust. Knowing I had to lift the body from the frame to replace the fuel filler tube, I soon discovered the tank was basically a sieve. From there the rabbit hole was deep. Pandora's box was flung wide open with viscous consequences.
My rear quarters were as bad as yours. The box section that runs across the back where the 2 rear most body mounts attach was non existent. The carpet was destroyed but when I removed it driver and passenger floors were MIA.
A wise man would have scrapped the vehicle however I am not wise but did have a welder and lots of time. I spent over 1 year on and off cutting and welding new metal. I bought new outer rocker panels but had to fabricate the inner panels. I made new floors. I rebuilt the complete back end where the body mounts go. I rebuilt the lower portions of the quarter panels from the top indent with new metal.
Nothing about the rebuild was easy. When you cut away the rust you are left with galvanized metal which is a bitch to weld. Wait, did I say bitch? I meant to say Cünt. To date no tool has been invented that allows you grind the parts other tools can not reach.
5 years later the truck runs like a champ. My daughter has used it as her daily driver for 2 years. My son and I did a road trip from Orlando to Montana and back last year and are planning to hit Prudhoe Bay, AK later this summer.
Is my truck great, well no. Rust never dies. It does something to the metal that I cant explain. New bolts will start to rust for no observable reason. Paint will bubble where rust didn't previously exist. It never ends.
My truck is mine and I have had many days of enjoyment from her but if i had to do it again I wouldn't. It is just not worth the fight and rust always finds a way to win. @Godwin suggestion of finding a doner frame is the only practical advice here. Rust will destroy you. Move on quickly and find happiness.
Good luck

Something must be wrong with me that this post makes me want to keep the truck more

I understand where everyone's coming from with the advice to ditch the truck, get another one and start over. The reality, though, is that I got this truck for a very very good price. I paid only slightly more than the PO paid to have the engine rebuilt shortly before I bought it from them (confirmed with paperwork and a call to the shop that did the work). The price was this good because of the title status and the rust along with a few other mechanical issues that I already fixed.

Maybe one day I'll need find a donor and do the big work. For now, I'm not done chasing down this devil known as rust

 

[TRDdrew]

Something must be wrong with me that this post makes me want to keep the truck more

I understand where everyone's coming from with the advice to ditch the truck, get another one and start over. The reality, though, is that I got this truck for a very very good price. I paid only slightly more than the PO paid to have the engine rebuilt shortly before I bought it from them (confirmed with paperwork and a call to the shop that did the work). The price was this good because of the title status and the rust along with a few other mechanical issues that I already fixed.

Maybe one day I'll need find a donor and do the big work. For now, I'm not done chasing down this devil known as rust

A body swap can seem like a huge undertaking, but in actuality it really not as bad as it seems. Especially if you can find a lift to use, but it can be done without one ...... ask me how I know lol.

As a professional auto body tech by trade I personally have replaced and/or lower quarter chopped several 80s but with yours as bad as it is, as @Godwin said I would strongly suggest starting the search for a doner body, I personally wouldn't even try to fix that with how many 80 series are actually out there. But with that said everything is fixable.

 

[fjbj40]

Rust, I hate it.

However I grew up in the Atlantic Canada rust country.
When I look at that I see a 3.5 on the 1-10 scale.

If the frame and powertrain are good to go the next step is strip the interior to really do a good assessment.

But from the pics I would
1. If I could afford it get another body.
2. Fix it, use the money to buy tools instead of a body. If you have a garage.
3. No garage? See #1!

 

[tedwardd]

Rust, I hate it.

However I grew up in the Atlantic Canada rust country.
When I look at that I see a 3.5 on the 1-10 scale.

If the frame and powertrain are good to go the next step is strip the interior to really do a good assessment.

But from the pics I would
1. If I could afford it get another body.
2. Fix it, use the money to buy tools instead of a body. If you have a garage.
3. No garage? See #1!

I’ve got idle hands, disposable income and a wife who thinks it’s healthy that I have a hobby.

 

[clx16]

have you met @slow95z ? i am an idiot but i would cut that section out and weld in a replacement even though its gonna be a really rough spot to do that. But i am an idiot as previously mentioned.

 

[mudgudgeon]

. I paid only slightly more than the PO paid to have the engine rebuilt shortly before I bought it from them

Sounds like you could consider that truck an engine donor.

I've been down the rust repair road, and @Irish Reiver description is spot on. It's a tedious, time consuming task.

Swapping an engine & trans into a fresh body/frame is a weekend of work or two.

Far less work in swapping axles and other stuff vs rust repair, plus with a donor, you can remove and refresh stuff like knuckles, bushings, bearings etc then swap them in

 

[OGBeno]

GTFO. That truck is going to kill your soul.

Everything about that truck looks evil. Sell it, part it out, scrap it.

Get into something with no rust and your relationship with Land Cruisers will be imminently better.

 

[mudgudgeon]

have you met @slow95z ? i am an idiot but i would cut that section out and weld in a replacement even though its gonna be a really rough spot to do that. But i am an idiot as previously mentioned.

The problem with rusty bodies is the rust you don't see. You cut a piece out, think your good to weld in a new bit, then the welds blow through because the metal is too thin, then you cut out more.

 

[OGBeno]

I’ve got idle hands, disposable income and a wife who thinks it’s healthy that I have a hobby.

Recipe for a divorce and years of misery.

 

[mudgudgeon]

it’s healthy that I have a hobby.

There's hobbies, then there's rust repairs aka manifested self hatred and loathing.

There's more fun ways to do the self hatred and loathing bit

 

[clx16]

The problem with rusty bodies is the rust you don't see. You cut a piece out, think your good to weld in a new bit, then the welds blow through because the metal is too thin, then you cut out more.

oh for sure. But i tell myself it makes me a better welder to get all that extra practice as the job i started, i didn't start it because it was easy but because i hoped really hard it would be easy.

 

[mudgudgeon]

oh for sure. But i tell myself it makes me a better welder to get all that extra practice as the job i started, i didn't start it because it was easy but because i hoped really hard it would be easy.

Hey I get it. I've been the hopeless romantic persevering with a bunch of lost cause cars way to long in the past.
I've done rust repairs where you end up with more patch than panel, and won't do it again.

Beyond that, there's the fight you have with every nut, bolt or other fasteners. The broken bolts, the compromised threads, the rounded off bolt heads, the snapped off weld nuts . . .

 

[clx16]

The broken bolts, the compromised threads,

This is the worst part in my opinion. the bolts that usually break are in a place where you can't easily extract etc. Not to mention rust in the eyes etc. I have seen where a vehicle was rusted through in one area but no where else, it was because someone had left a bag of salt in a vehicle for long term but the rest of the vehicle was fine so the rust repair was very localized. if that is the case on this rig, i would tackle it, if it is just indicative of the rest of the vehicle, I probably would pass the good parts to a better rig. my years living up north with salt, keeps me from dealing with salt cars as that rust is everywhere even where you don't see it and it isn't just one rust type problem as you mentioned above, but all of them.

 

[Batameez]

I suffer from a disorder where I like to buy old Toyotas for cheap, often with rust. I know fabricators here and there who can fix body rot for me, and I've done it enough that I can gauge how complicated of a repair it would be. So I have an appetite for this kind of work in the same sort of way that Stockton Rush had an appetite for exploring the Titanic - also a rusty POS. This is a very common spot to rust on the 80, even in vehicle friendly parts of the country. I would not take this on. There's two rubber body plugs on each side of the rearmost body crossmember that is often missing on these things. It will then collect moisture and dirt as you go down the road. This one obviously fell off long ago and whoever owned it since then really didn't care much for the vehicle. The rear windows obviously had a large leak which, again, were not much cared about. The guy I go to for these repairs is quite reasonable considering his skillset and quality, and I easily see this exceeding 3k in just sheet metal labor IF he wanted to touch it. Add some more money on top for two new body bushings and hardware. And even then I don't think it'd be right.

 

[jpoole]

Most contributors in this thread understand and likely live with the same types thoughts and feelings motivating you to keep and fix this 80. Most of us have ventured down this same path of fighting and living with rust longterm. There's a lot of comments along the lines of "step away from the rust" but I want to highlight what is not being verbalized as clearly which is that we all think you should have a project 80, develop your skills, enjoy the satisfaction of doing good work yourself and reaping the rewards of that work for years after. Most of us think, based on experience, that you should channel your energies down a different and primarily rust free path. I encourage you to spend time exploring your options before getting too committed to any of them as you are potentially deciding on how to spend many hours of work over years to come.

As mentioned you could be in a good situation to pull the body, clean up and treat the frame then install a new body. You could also be in a good position to pick up a rust free non-runner and then migrate your engine/etc. These paths are both going to take plenty of time and energy and can yield satisfying results while being less expensive in terms of both time/$$ and yielding more durable results. A body swap could open up the opportunity for a well done color change for instance which seems like more fun to me than more time/$$ than just trying to remedy rust. You need to figure out what motivates you and ultimately it may be rust repair. There are folks that repair far worse rust in cars (higher value, older, rarer vehicles typically) so it can surely be done it's just harder than other options available to you with questionable results unless done really well.

Driving and enjoying an 80 that you rescued never gets old in my experience but there are a lot of ways to realize that end goal. As much fun as the work is you'll eventually want to take a break and just enjoy your 80. Rust may never let you do that and can continue to make even small tasks hard and keeps the pressure on as the 80 may never stops dissolving in front of you. This dynamic can remove your desire to take on projects of any kind in the future so consider that risk.