Thoughts on this undercarriage?

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EarthAirWater

10 Year
Joined
Jan 6, 2015
Threads
4
Messages
14
Location
Kentucky
Hi, this is my first post on the 100 series forum, although I have been reading for a while.

I am talking with an out-of-state dealer about a 2000 LC. The color, miles, and price of this are all right to me, but it is from New England, and I have heard some real horror stories about road salt-induced rust.

I asked the dealer for pictures of the undercarriage, and he sent these along. To my very untrained eye, it looks as though some kind of dark treatment was recently applied, and it is very hard to tell whether there is rust, and how much. Thoughts?
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Not a big fan, looks like there may be a lot of surface rust that was covered with POR 15 or black spray paint or ????. Tough to tell how bad it is from here.
 
Yes, it looks like it had a recent treatment called "spray paint." I wouldn't buy it.
 
the texture of the lower front control arms in the third pic is telling. They covered it with some kind of crap. the condition of the spare tire retainer in second pic is probably more accurate. Run. No need to battle that every time you want to work on it. Of course, if you don't plan on any of the maintenance, then it's less of an issue.
 
Looks like Krown Rust treatment. At least the prior owner spent the money to protect the underside.
 
If that's "treatment", it wasn't well applied. It looks like it only hit the visible parts that tend to be heavy frame members, etc. It seems it missed the much more vulnerable body parts that look rusty. And what's up with the rear driveshaft? Was the slip joint sprayed? Without being to inspect in person, I'd pass on this one.
 
Thanks gentlemen, I just noticed on the first pic that you can see the overspray of whatever they used on the (muffler?) just to the right of the tire. Too bad, otherwise this thing is just what I am looking for - 105k miles, excellent condition inside, single owner, etc.,

I will not being doing much of the maintenance on whatever LC I buy (to start at least) - a long-time friend of mine owns a dedicated Toyota shop here in Lexington, so most of the work will be done there. How much of an issue could undercarriage rust be for someone like me who plans to drive this thing into perpetuity? Would an inspection at a Toyota dealership's service center likely be able to ferret out rust-related issues?
 
It's a shame that the seller gave it an obvious "rattlecan rebuild" in a hasty attempt at improving its appearance.

IF there is a complete service history and everything else checks out, I might be willing to chalk this one up to a seller who made a poor decision at the last minute.....

However you might just find that this truck has suffered through lots of "shortcuts" during its life and perhaps the undercarriage is just one example (of many) that it wasn't well-loved or cared for.

Don't be seduced by the low odometer mileage.... There are lots of nice LCs out there, albeit with higher mileage than this one.

-G
 
Over spray on the bottom of the radiator as well! A very poor attempt to mask the rust IMO.
 
NO NO NO NO if its from New england or Midwest. NO! Unless its only been there 1 or 2 years don't do it. The road salt is an unstoppable disease. Its horrible, ruins everything including bridges. Rust will be in places that are impossible to get to to repair and it will keep spreading. I restore classic VW's to show cars, so I know rust. I only buy cars from the Southwest. Its worth the shipping cost to get a clean, dry car.
 
Rust and corrosion on the muffler in the first picture, and you can see the rusted bellhousing bolts.
The spare tire hub center looks like it's ready to fall off, ball joints look rusted, and look closely around the spare tire, floor rusting thru?

I wouldn't even think about it.
 
Spray can treatment for sure
I am certain the ebrake is frozen
I find that dropping the spare is very telling and I bet it is ugly under there

Looks like they put it on the lift to spray it then take your requested pictures, probably still wet

They sprayed all the rust they could see

Run away
 
EarthAirWater said:
Thanks gentlemen, I just noticed on the first pic that you can see the overspray of whatever they used on the (muffler?) just to the right of the tire. Too bad, otherwise this thing is just what I am looking for - 105k miles, excellent condition inside, single owner, etc.,

I will not being doing much of the maintenance on whatever LC I buy (to start at least) - a long-time friend of mine owns a dedicated Toyota shop here in Lexington, so most of the work will be done there. How much of an issue could undercarriage rust be for someone like me who plans to drive this thing into perpetuity? Would an inspection at a Toyota dealership's service center likely be able to ferret out rust-related issues?
Click to expand...

If you live in an area that doesn't see road salt, then I would absolutely wait to find a rust free LC. Especially if you plan to drive it forever. If someone on here has had a Krown or Fluid Film treatment, can you post pics of your undercarriage? I'd like to see the difference. My father had a Krown treatment done on his truck and while I didn't crawl under it, it turned all the metal with surface rust on it to a black film similar to what's seen in the pics above.
 
As everyone else has said, no way. They should be called out on this obvious coverup. Not very smart.
 
Thanks for the advice! As you said, bean, it looks like there is overspray on the lift even.

It looks like I need to expand my time horizon for finding a good LC - plenty of them out there, but finding one with records that has been well maintained (and in a dark paint color) is tough.
 
Stay patient to get the right one. Many accounts of guys looking and waiting for months to find one as was the case for my wife's.
 
I'd not necessarily avoid a truck that had been sprayed with protectant / sealant, but this is s dirty dealer - the lift obviously has overspray on it and some sections are still wet. Run away.

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EarthAirWater said:
Hi, this is my first post on the 100 series forum, although I have been reading for a while.

I am talking with an out-of-state dealer about a 2000 LC. The color, miles, and price of this are all right to me, but it is from New England, and I have heard some real horror stories about road salt-induced rust.
Click to expand...

Where do you live? If you live anywhere but the west coast or down south this undercarriage rust is nothing and shouldn't scare you away from a good vehicle, if everything else checks out. My 100 spent its entire life in the north. I owned it for 16 years and drove it 331k miles and the bottom looked a lot worse than this. I never had a single issue with the truck due to rust.

Now, if we were talking about body rust I would recommend keep looking. But chassis or suspension rust? No big deal.

The real deal is to find a truck with an extensive service history, that was loved and maintained by its previous owner(s).
 
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