Rusted frame / body mounts on 100 series (1 Viewer)

[DSchreck]

Hey, I’m new to this forum as I just bought my first Land Cruiser and I have some questions regarding my rusted frame.

I bought this 2002 Land Cruiser from my girlfriend’s parents for $5000, it has 208k miles and is mechanically in good shape. The frame unfortunately seems to have been neglected, my rear cross member has a hole in it and my 2 rear body mounts are getting thin and one of them has slightly rusted through. I took it to the car wash and pressure washed a bunch of mud and some rust chunks out of my frame. I feel like I got such a good deal on this truck and I wanted to build it next summer but the frame is making me a bit worried.

Should I lift the body, cut the body mounts and weld on new ones?
Do I try to buy a wrecked 100 series and do a frame swap?
What’s a ballpark number on what a wrecked 100 series with a good frame and drivetrain cost?
Should I just paint the mounts with por15 and call it good?

My friend and his dad have a small shop and will help me out with lifting the body. They have both frame swapped 100 series before but that could get very expensive and time consuming. I am hoping someone has ran into this issue before or has the knowledge to tell me what they would do in this situation. Thanks

 

[excessive]

it all depends on your budget or amount of free time/ will power. If its something you want to make perfect, sure taking the body off you could fix everything much easier.

but the 100 is so solidly built that even when heavily rusted they are still roadworthy. you could just spray all that down with Fluidfilm and move on with life

 

[cruiserdan]

I'd walk away from that one.

 

[whitec13]

That spot on your frame is common even on clean examples. At $5k, you are going to be getting that condition. I wouldn’t waste the money on frame swapping and all that. If you have the money to buy this and go through that process, I would up your budget a bit a get something cleaner.
For context, I chopped my rockers off and welded in tubes due to excessive rust. My 2000 has spent 24 long winters in southern Michigan. I recently cut a spot of the frame out and welded in a fabbed section. I paid $4500 for mine in 2018 with 242k, from the original owner with a stack of maintenance.
If you plan to keep it, clean as much as you can off with a wire brush to get loose stuff off. Then fluid film it annually and you should be fine. I grew up wrenching with rust, so it’s not a super difficult task to me anymore. Still not fun, but I’m milking old Blue for another year or two and she’ll be put to pasture.

 

[DSchreck]

That spot on your frame is common even on clean examples. At $5k, you are going to be getting that condition. I wouldn’t waste the money on frame swapping and all that. If you have the money to buy this and go through that process, I would up your budget a bit a get something cleaner.
For context, I chopped my rockers off and welded in tubes due to excessive rust. My 2000 has spent 24 long winters in southern Michigan. I recently cut a spot of the frame out and welded in a fabbed section. I paid $4500 for mine in 2018 with 242k, from the original owner with a stack of maintenance.
If you plan to keep it, clean as much as you can off with a wire brush to get loose stuff off. Then fluid film it annually and you should be fine. I grew up wrenching with rust, so it’s not a super difficult task to me anymore. Still not fun, but I’m milking old Blue for another year or two and she’ll be put to pasture.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with rust. I plan on cleaning up and protecting the rough spots including the body mounts. I also plan on cleaning the frame at the car wash regularly throughout the winter to make sure salt and de icer doesn’t build up anywhere. Do you think it’s worthy of a lift kit and mild off-roading? I don’t plan on doing any crawling but a lot of the roads I travel on to mountain bike trails are rough.

 

[3_puppies]

I could help with the 100 frame
I am 110 miles away

how are the mounts on the rear axle?

 

[delz05]

If you have access to a compressor... buy and use a medium duty needle gun (Harbor Freight, Chief series) to knock off the corrosion that is visible, whch will then give you a better idea of how to proceed. If what you are showing is the worst areas, bring the truck to a local welder and have them fab up a few repair/patch pieces...

 

[Kabanstva]

Surface rust. Does it pass the screwdriver test when you poke random spots of the frame? Besides obviously that one hole which is in a very common spot. I see people even not from the rust belt sometimes report having rust there.

 

[whitec13]

Thanks for sharing your experiences with rust. I plan on cleaning up and protecting the rough spots including the body mounts. I also plan on cleaning the frame at the car wash regularly throughout the winter to make sure salt and de icer doesn’t build up anywhere. Do you think it’s worthy of a lift kit and mild off-roading? I don’t plan on doing any crawling but a lot of the roads I travel on to mountain bike trails are rough.

100% worthy. Again, mine is pretty rusty and I take it down moderate trails often. The nice thing about Blue being crusty is trail rash and/or damages, don’t concern me much. I’ve got my monies worth out of her and plan to use what is on it to start off the next one.
I didn’t go full blown lift, but she is somewhat “built”. I have 30mm Nolathane spacers in the rear with a front torsion bar crank a bit, Fox shocks front and rear, Victory 4x4 Strike front bumper, Victory 4x4 attic rack and rear window molle panel, and a custom rear spare tire swing out that comes through the stock rear bumper. I’ve also got a 10k Warn Evo winch for it, but haven’t mounted it. There is also some recovery equipment on the stock roof rack.
This is how I view it, a rusty Cruiser with great maintenance is still a Land Cruiser. It’s just one that you may not care much if you get a huge scratch down the side. It’s going to take you to the same places as a cream puff example.