New to Camrys - is subframe safe?

[Camry 88]

Hello, I just bought a 1988 Toyota Camry on Thursday.
It has the 2.0 4 cyl. engine and 4spd. automatic overdrive transmission.
It has 107,000 one owner miles.

My question is: The body has the typical '80s Toyota rust (mainly on the fenders), but yesterday I put it on a hoist at work (car dealership) to check everything over plus change the oil. While I was doing this, I noticed that the floorboard on the front pass. side is starting to rust through. One of my co-workers noticed this and said I'd better be checking the condition of the mounting locations at the back of the subframe. To me they look ok, but I've only been a profesional mechanic for 3 months. Is there a problem with the 2nd Generation subframes droping out or am I considering this for nothing?

Thanks!

[zppeacock]

I had a 90 camry wagon, that was really rusty. I had no rockers and rust everywhere. I was a WI car all its life and had 250k on it. The subframe was fine, but I would check the mounting locations really good. I have seen some late 90's chevys drop subframes after the mounting points rusted off.

[Camry 88]

Thanks! It doesn't look too bad.... yet. I do want to keep a close eye on it, so I will do an inspection of it at every 3000 mile oil change (I know, Toyota says 5-10k, but I don't like that). If it did happen to fall through it would be a shame on such a low mileage car (for the year).

Is there any way to modify the mounts at the rear of the subframe? The frame itself is ok, it's the floor that it mounts to that's giving way.

[Doctor J]

If someone has good welding skills the frame rails can be reinforced by welding 5/32 inch thk steel plates to them

[Camry 88]

Would that help the mounting brackets or just the frame itself? To me, it seems the subframe mounts at the rear of the subframe are worse than the frame itself.

[mk2-1jz]

I agree to re-enforce it but in reality your structural rigidity is created by the rocker panels and the metal on the inner side of them (its a unibody) the thicker metal is towards the exterior shell of the monocock . What is under the car under the passenger foot-wells is just to support the weight of the occupants really.

[Camry 88]

That makes sense. I guess I need to inspect the metal behind the rocker panels.