Yes they are nice looking welds, but they are not mine. A friend of mine who is a pro welder came to my house and did them for me. He is on PBB a lot with the screen name of Booger Welds, that is what his welds looked like before he took a pro welding course and is a certified welder now.

Generally true, but I don't think it matters much on Toy frames.
Except for near the front spring hanger, front axle.

That is true, as long as you make the ends of the plates with some kind of angles on the ends you will be fine. Like this / /, \ \, < >, > >, / \, ( ), ) ( will all work. I worked with an old man repairing big rig trailer frames for many years. The only thing he did not teach me was how to weld. This was before the days of wire feed, so everything was done with a big 350 amp AC/DC stick welder. Man that dude could make some pretty welds with that thing, flats, fillets, verts, and overhead.

Nice work. It's always good to see a 20+ year old Toyota 4x4 getting rehabilitated. I did frame repairs on my '84 that were way more extensive. I got another five years (winters) out of my decrepit frame after the repairs. Recently though the last two and a half feet of the frame rails really started to disintegrate. It's out of service now, but I hope to get a complete used frame and bed (it will be the third bed) to bring it back to life at some time in the not too distant future.

If I had to run these '84 - '88 trucks/4runners in the snow and salt again I'd try to do something about the "swiss cheese" effect that the many unused holes in the frame present. I'd seal um up and leave only the front and rear ends open. I'm sure these things would last two or three times as long if they could be kept dry and salt free on the inside.

Here's some pics of my work. Notice that I didn't make any angled cuts on my patches :-)

Not questioning your knowledge, but why use 1/4" plate to patch the holes in frame. I need to know as I have to patch the rear of frame on my '88 Dodge Raider the last ten or so iches in the rear in pitiful shape, it appears to be 1/8".
I could not open the pictures you posted, can you give me an idea how I may open them.
Thanks, Eddie

Probably what he had... 1/8 to 3/16 should be more than thick enough.