excessive rust 2015 Trail

When I gave my advice on frame cleaning, I was not suggesting that 4runner owners should have to be responsible for doing this. Frankly, it’s crazy that, in this day and age, body on frame vehicles (from all makes) are made with no actual corrosion protection. They protect the body panels, but completely ignore the underpinnings. It sucks.

I do the woolwax and crazy levels of cleaning on the frame because I love this platform, and this forum has shown me how bad it can get and how quickly. I do it also because it’s all become a bit of a hobby for me. Also I intend to keep mine for a long while.

If you are able, and you like the vehicle enough, I still think it might be worth it to inspect the frame yourself, and take some pics for some second opinions from forum members here. It can give you a better idea of where to go with things.

If the frame is not horrible, I bet there is a market with someone looking to build a “trail rig” that doesnt have sway bars. Then they can decide if they want to delete the kdss. I have a cousin than rolled a 1st gen tacoma a few years ago, and still sold it for 4k, as is. You can mitigate loses if it comes to it.

 

I worked with a coating manager from Volvo many years ago and he mentioned they hot dip galvanize their frames. This would explain their resistance to rust.

 

I wonder if they still do? I think hot galvanizing has been harder to do because of regulations. Pretty toxic process if I recall

 

Yea it's a pretty nasty process. If they are no longer galvanizing, perhaps they are using a zinc rich primer since they now have a reputation to uphold, eh?

 

Yeah, all this talk of Volvos has gotten me wanting one lol. I’ve had a thing for them a long time, but I always figured they’d be expensive to maintain.