I almost did the 82 last winter, but painted the 91 Honda Civic instead. Just about all the rust on the pickup was caused by the Toyota factory seam sealant. Anywhere the sealant came loose, it began to rust behind it. I for sure won't go cheap on any body filler or seam sealer. I'm getting an early start on this one, so hopefully I have it in primer by Christmas then paint when the weather starts warming up. I'm still learning, but things are going much quicker than when I did the 4runner a couple of years ago. I know its a long way off, but I plan on going with the oem beige and oem decals if I can find them. Also been trying to find some beige 4runner leather seats to put in it when the body is finished. There's many more dents in this, so I'm working on hammer, dolly, and heat shrinking.

 

I am wondering if anyone on here has a better way to patch these panels?
This is the worst one where the seam is rusted. I believe I only have one more spot that I need to cut into the seam.
It appears Toyota put a bunch of seam sealer between the upper and lower panels then pinch welded them together.
I'm thinking of using 3M panel adhesive instead of seam sealer and plug welding them together. I haven't decided.
I may just use the panel adhesive and skip the plug welds, and just weld the outside. I'm open to suggestions if
someone has done this before. I don't want to do all this work and just have it rust back through the paint in a few years.
I'm sand blasting all the rust that I can, then treating any questionable areas with POR15 metal prep, then epoxy primer,
followed by primer/filler. I have a friend that's a retired bodyman, but he keeps telling me things I believe won't last.
Most all of his work was collision repair, not rust repair.

 

I forgot to add that I'm leaning towards using the panel adhesive between the two pieces and pop riveting them together.
Also, I was told that the panel adhesive has rust inhibitor in it, so I'm thinking of going around the truck with a narrow cut
off wheel in the seam until I hit the welds, then pack in the panel adhesive in place of seam sealer. I don't know if I'm overkilling it,
but mechanically the truck is like new with less than 10k on the engine. If I do it right and keep it out of the salt, it will outlast me,
and I can pass it on to one of my kids someday.

 

I'm finally about done with the patching. It seems the tailgate skin has broken the pinch welds to the inner panel. I can't think of any other fix than to drill through the skin and plug welding it to the inner. I'm going to think it over before I start drilling. I can't think of any other solution.

 

Looks like you're doing some quality work there.

 

Finally time to put it back together. It's not perfect, but not bad for a HVAC guy going the work. I had some crap in the paint, but most of it will buff out of it. The bodywork turned out better than I expected, so I must be getting a little better at it.
This is the third time I've used the Restoration Shop paint from Amazon. Single stage acrylic urethane at $230 a gallon. It's held up well on my 4runner for 2 years so far. I make sure to wax it at least once a year. I'll post a few more once its together.

 

Looks really good.

 

I'd be proud of that bodywork and paint job.

 

Thanks Cory. A junkyard in the area has a 3rd gen 4runner with beige leather seats I may buy to put in it. I will have to measure carefully to make sure they will fit in the cab. I'm happy with how it turned out. Right now I'm struggling to put mud flaps on it. I got some with the truck in a box uninstalled, but I don't think they're for the truck. It's looking like I'll have to make a bracket to install them, or just buy some aftermarket ones. As always, this forum has been a great help with my Toyota projects.

 

Very nice work. It’s amazing how nice the inside of the bed looks.

 

Heck ya!!!!! Are you doing any retro graphics or leaving it alone?

Excellent work!!!!

 

Great job I need to do the same! I’m getting rust under the bed sides where the pinch welds are. And my tailgate is falling about but first an engine rebuild.

 

Thanks for the compliments. When I first started, I was going get some original graphics,but since the paint isn't really close to the 4A8 Toyota beige, I'm thinking of leaving it. I may paint the lettering on the tailgate black, and pay to have a bed liner sprayed in the bed and over the lip. My brother bought an S10 and the spray liner is so nice, it looks factory. It has the brand on it, but I can't remember the brand. I'm waiting on the quote I emailed for Friday. I'm open to suggestions though. I know that I couldn't do as nice of a job with any kit or DIY methods. I may paint the work boxes in the picture black, put them back on, and work out of it. I'm really undecided. I think I'm done with bodywork now. I did the truck last winter, the Civic in the picture the year before, and my 4Runner the year before that. I think the only thing that could change my mind is if I came across a FJ40 at the right price that needed bodywork. I sure can't afford the prices they get for them already restored and there wouldn't be a story behind it, like my 4runner. A friend saw it in a field back in 2000, I offered and bought it for $100, and have been driving it the past 25 years.

 

Two questions! What was the actually paint code of what you went with? And did you get to test the 4Runner seats to see how they work?

 

I haven't done the seats yet. The paint was a Shoreline Beige. Its says it's a quart in the picture, but it was a gallon plus the quart of hardener. I mixed it 4:1:1 with fast reducer.

 

To the best of my forgotten knowledge. These trucks were imported without beds. The beds were attached “states side” & IMO is where we ended up with the bed seam rust. I might be wrong, but too old to GAS. 😀✌️