Crust Cruiser - Rust Where It Hurts (6 Viewers)

[WRNG Lifestyle]

Hey everyone,

back with something a little different this time—today it’s not about the HJ60, but rather my brother’s 1999 Land Cruiser 100 Series, which serves as his daily driver and workhorse. It’s sitting at 279,000 km and still runs strong, but, well… let’s just say the body and frame are starting to show what two decades (and some questionable repairs) can do.

The second picture already tells part of the story:
* The right quarter panel is pretty much gone.
* The left quarter has patchwork welded all over it—spaced out welds every few inches and some seriously rough metalwork.
* Same story on the left wheel arch, where things were just tacked together.

These repairs were all done previously in Serbia by the former owner—let’s just say they were more about keeping it together than making it right.
But the real concern is underneath:

The left rear frame section, right where the last body mount sits, had a huge rust hole. We knew it needed attention, especially since these frames are known to crack in the rear when towing or under stress. Since it’s a frame-on restoration we had to get clever (used for daily business and we only have limited time to fix it)

We started by removing the body mount to get full access, and yeah… the damage was worse than expected. Once open, it was obvious: the surrounding frame was incredibly thin, less than 1 mm thick in some spots, where it should be closer to 3 mm. The rust was hiding behind every layer.

So what’s next?
We’re now working on fabricating a strengthening piece to rebuild the bottom and outer wall of the frame. Afterwards we will fit a new outer part.

Also, once the critical frame repair is done, we’ll move on to fixing the remaining smaller issues around the body—like the quarter panels, wheel arches, and any questionable welds we come across. One step at a time, but the plan is to make this daily a reliable rig again.
Thanks for reading, more updates coming soon!


BR,

Wrenching

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

Also attached a picture so you can see the thickness of the frame

 

[WarWagon]

Following this for sure. Kudos for not giving up on her.

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

Following this for sure. Kudos for not giving up on her.

Appreciate it! I'll keep you updated

 

[excessive]

wow, thats crazy how thin the metal became over time. Good luck on this repair, usually 100s do not rust this badly

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

wow, thats crazy how thin the metal became over time. Good luck on this repair, usually 100s do not rust this badly

Unfortunately that's pretty normal in Austria. (Heavily salted in the winter). They tend to even break when hauling heavy equipment.

 

[Mog]

Nice work @WRNG Lifestyle!
The 100 is not very resistant to rust. They need regular and thorough cleaning to keep the old tin worm away. I've seen several in Scandinavia that look like Swiss cheese!

Looking forward to future updates.

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

Hey guys, hope you’re all doing great!
We’re back with a fresh update on the 100 Series and — surprise, surprise — the deeper we dig, the more crust we find.

This time I decided to inspect the inner frame where the spare tire mount attaches, and yeah… there wasn’t much left. So, as expected, I cut it open and rebuilt to the needed thickness. That part actually went pretty well.

Now onto the real problem zone — the bottom layer of the frame where the trailer hitch mounts. That thing was paper thin, barely 1 mm of metal left in spots. So I fabricated a reinforcement plate, roughly 36 cm (about 14 inches) long, to give the area some real backbone.

To make sure this thing holds more than just hope, I drilled multiple holes for the plug welds to fully attach the plate to the backside of the frame — not just the sides. It’s now completely locked in, giving us a much stronger base.
When the outer layer goes on, both pieces together will give us a solid 8 mm of steel (~3.1 inches) in total thickness. That’s more than enough to support the hitch and any towing work ahead. And of course rust protection was added on every piece.

Side note:

If the rust had crept closer to the suspension mounts (like what we dealt with on the HJ60), I would've made the reinforcement even larger to spread the stress over a bigger area. But since we caught it just in time, this solution should do the trick.
Also attached a quick pic showing how the new piece is going to sit in place
Next step: burn in all those plug welds, fit the outer layer, and reinstall the body mount so we can get this corner buttoned up for good.


BR,

Wrenching

 

[Mike NXP]

Impressive work, pretty awesome what people can do given the right tools and space to work.. Viva la 100 series

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

Impressive work, pretty awesome what people can do given the right tools and space to work.. Viva la 100 series

Thank you very much!

 

[SMLE]

Nice work! Glad to see someone doing rust repairs on these - we're in the UK and our roads are also salted heavily so we will undoubtedly be doing similar work at some point down the line.

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

Nice work! Glad to see someone doing rust repairs on these - we're in the UK and our roads are also salted heavily so we will undoubtedly be doing similar work at some point down the line.

Unfortunately yes! But there's nothing that can't be saved

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

Hey guys, I hope you're all doing great!
Big milestone on the 100 Series frame repair: the strengthening piece is now fully fitted and all the plug welds are done! As always, we're not here to hide anything — and while I’m overall happy with the result, I’ve got to admit I’m not 100% satisfied with the plug welds. Let me explain why.

If you check the comparison photo, you'll see it clearly: prep work makes all the difference. On the 100 Series, the metal was just grinded, no sandblasting — which made it harder to get those deep, crisp welds. On the HJ60, however, the sandblasted surface allowed for perfect fusion and some really satisfying weld quality. That contrast really tells the whole story.

Anyway, moving forward: after that, it was time to fit the outer frame layer. Here I took extra time to make sure alignment was spot-on, checking and rechecking as I went to avoid any welding distortion. A little sidenote: I actually cut the gap slightly wider between the frame and the new piece — just to make sure we get real penetration and not just a weld that sits on top. After that, welded everything through and done!

Super happy with how this one turned out. On the last photo, you can also spot a bonus feature: Serbia’s finest quarter panel repair, where they just slapped a fresh sheet over a rusted-out mess. A+ craftsmanship.

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

Right after finishing up the left side of the frame, we went straight to the right side — and yep, no surprises there.

Pretty familiar picture: rust, thin metal, and questionable past repairs. The frame was in just as bad a shape, so we followed the same trusted approach as before.

We started by cutting the body mount, then removed both the outer and inner frame sections. Once everything was opened up, it became clear that this side was also long overdue for a proper fix. So we got to work, fabricated a new strengthening piece, and closed everything up solid.
No cutting corners — just clean, reinforced repairs.
Frame is back in business, ready to take on another couple decades of daily abuse.
See you in the next one!


BR,
WRENCHING

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

Hey folks! Hope you’re all doing great — time for the next round of crust-busting on the 100 Series.

This time we tackled the rear quarter panels — both left and right sides — and let’s just say… we were not disappointed in how bad it was.

We started with the right side, and as you can see in the photos, there was barely anything left to save. Around two-thirds of the panel had to be rebuilt, and of course, the lower section of the wheel arch was also completely gone. Once I cut it open, I realized it was even worse — the inner layer behind the quarter panel was also rusted to oblivion.

I started off by rebuilding the wheel arch, just to make sure I had the right shape for the outer panel afterward. That part took a lot of metal shaping to get right. From there, I moved on to the quarter panel itself, shaped it out, and got everything pretty much into place. Sprayed a layer of rust primer, and next up are bondo, filler, and paint to finish that side off.

Then came the left side — same story here. But this time, I also got to remove those “professional” Serbian patch repairs. Just layers of metal welded over each other, looking as wild as you’d expect.

With both quarter panels now rebuilt, the next step is the front section of the rear wheel arch, where it meets the rocker panel — that’s up next and it’s not looking much better

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

After finishing both rear quarter panels, it was time to move on to the front part of the rear wheel arch, where it connects to the rocker panel. And yep — same story here. Just layered patch repairs slapped over rotting metal, with everything underneath basically gone.

I decided to go with a two-piece repair here. First, I made a template by placing it right over the old metal and hammering it into shape. Thankfully, it was easy to see how far the rust had spread — the line between good and bad metal was very clear.

Once I had the shape, I cut the rocker open, and… surprise! More rust hiding behind it, as expected.

Then I went ahead and welded in the lower patch, followed by cutting out the upper section and replacing that too.
I’ve also attached a pic of the template so you can see how it was shaped and fitted.

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

here are some more pictures!

 

[SMLE]

I'm really enjoying seeing these pics, nice work!

For many of us in the rusty parts of the world, this is a familiar image in classic car restoration but is showing us the lengths we'll all need to go to if we want to keep our trucks on the road!

 

[WRNG Lifestyle]

I'm really enjoying seeing these pics, nice work!

For many of us in the rusty parts of the world, this is a familiar image in classic car restoration but is showing us the lengths we'll all need to go to if we want to keep our trucks on the road!

Appreciate it!

Unfortunately they also don't get any younger. A few years ago you only needed to patch a few holes and you were done. Nowadays it often takes 1 - 3 weeks (depending on how much you find haha).

Also here we just started with to holes and yesterday I had to cut the whole rocker on right. (I'll attach some photos later )