The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop rust inside a square tube frame

Hi guys... I just picked up a sweet deal on a little beater. An '87 toyota king cab 4x4 for $300.00! It runs like a top, too. The problem was that the truck was from Ohio, and over the years the frame (toyota uses a thin square tube frame. For some reason they left the ends of the frame uncapped) got filled up with mud and salt and whatever, and had rusted out so badly that both frame rails cracked across, right behind the cab! I plated the bottom of the frame rails with 3/16" steel, and the sides with 10 guage. The new side pieces are seam welded to the new bottom, and all pieces are properly plug welded to what seems to still be solid metal...(I heavily tested the areas with a chipping hammer)
OK, so far, so good. The repairs have worked. but the frame is still quietly rusting away from the inside out...
Does anyone have a good idea about a way to clean the junk out from the inside of the tube so that I can get to it with zero rust? Just painting the outside doesn't sound as if it will cure the problem...

Put truck on bar-b-que spit and cook the rust out!
I would set my mind on looking for another frame!
You can get 300 or more just for the engine around here.(if you were into parting it out)

How 'bout going to the local car wash, stuffin' the pressure washer nozzle in the end of the chassis and blowing the garbage out that way?

Wannabe

Be careful , it might blow the truck in half if it loosens up too much rust!LOL

I think a pressure washer will be a good bet, after I try Ed's suggestion of pulling a brush head (like a chimney sweeping brush, just smaller) through a few times.... Its pretty rusty in that one area of the frame. Right at the bottom of the upswept "S", behind the cab, where the frame gets taller! Its probably six inches taller, under the bed, than the cab!
I'm planning on keeping it, though! It runs too good, and its a long way to anywhere, from here. This little toyota should get nearly double the gas milage of the **** diesel!
Oddly enough, the frame is the worst rust on the rig! the body and the rest of the chassis seem to be pretty sound... If it is just that one area, then I have it licked. Just a matter of cleaning it out, and flooding it with some zero rust, or some sort of converter that I can get in to cover the inside of the tube... I guess that I'll just punch a small hole, here and there, in the sides of the tube frame, in which to squirt the zero rust, rather than endo and roll the truck a few times to make sure everything gets coated!

I think you should be o.k. if you plate the outside of the frame rails.just weld along the corners length-wise and not across the flat area(side)of the frame.it can weaken it.