A salvage yard guy told me to stop fear-mongering about rust, now I look at frame rot differently

Some old timer in Shreveport pointed out that surface rust on a 2004 Tacoma is just patina until it flakes, so now I spend more time poking around the torsion bar mounts instead of yelling about the fenders, has anyone else had their whole rust checklist flipped on its head?

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nina_jenkins20d ago

Whoa wait, torsion bar mounts?? That's some next level inspection stuff. I've been staring at rocker panels and fender wells on my own truck for years like an idiot. That old timer just casually drops that nugget and walks away. Now I'm gonna be the weirdo crawling under every Toyota I see with a flashlight and a screwdriver. Honestly that changes everything, surface rust I used to lose sleep over is nothing compared to what's hiding in those suspension pockets. Thanks for sharing this before I wasted money on a "clean" truck that was actually rotten underneath.