I live in Dryden, NY and have a 1993 Toyota Corolla. I went to get it inspected in February but was told that the frame was rusted out and could not pass the inspection. Is there any way to fix a rusted frame to make it road worthy and pass inspection in NY?
Your Corolla is a unibody car, it doesn’t have a frame. Depending on the location, the severity of the rust, and the condition of the rest of the car, it may or may not be worth fixing. More information pertaining to the extent of the rust and location of the rust is needed. But if the rust is bad enough that it won’t pass inspection, then chances are it’s pretty bad.
The cost of properly fixing severe rust on the unibody of this 17 year old car would exceed the book value of the car by a factor of at least 3.
It is time to let the old girl go to the grave unless you have excess funds and are irrationally attached to this car.
Agree; a rusted unibody car marks the end of the line. Any proper fix will by far exceed the book value of a car this age. Years ago my sister had to junk a perfectly good (otherwise) Ford Grand Torino (like the one in the Clint Eastwood movie) because the frame had rusted through.
Sell the motor & transmission and take the rest to the scrap yard.
Time to part it out and have the body crushed.
Brakehill, All That Is Needed To Fix The Rust Is A Simple Screwdriver.
Use it to take the screws out that hold the license plate on, take off the plate and put it on a different car. Another idea is to move to a state like mine that has no inspections of any kind, but the car is probably getting close to dangerous.
It’s a shame when that evil rusts eats up a trusty old friend that still goes down the road, but I think it’s run the course. Any car I’ve ever had to get rid of was because it had rust problems, cosmetic and / or structural, not because of running gear problems.
Don’t ask what I think of road salt as a melting chemical.
CSA
Sell the car to a salvage yard and let THEM sell the engine and transmission…
I know times are tough, but heed everyone’s advice; the car is no longer safe and disregard any attempt to “fix” rusted areas of an “uninspectable” car. If it’s bad where you can see, it’s worse where you can’t.
"Don’t ask what I think of road salt as a melting chemical."
So CSA, what do you think of road salt ?