Looking good!

 

thanks, there's a saying " you can get good at welding or good at grinding " I can grind like nobody's business 😂 lol. The biggest part of the frame is on its way to becoming more solid now. The most of the work is behind me now.




My son helping on the welding.

 

It's starting to look like a windshield frame again. This by far was the absolute worst of the rust issues this truck had. Thanks to a combination of poorly installed windshield, the chrome and then death foam plus caulking to get it through MA inspection later on. This is also this biggest rust project I've ever taken on with the exception of the rocker panel replacement on Herbie! On the up side the inner frame was almost 100 percent intact for reference.

 

Nothing like the smell of primer in the morning 😉

I also cleaned out the dried up seam sealer in the rain gutters. I cut out the remaining sealer with the dremil and a cut off wheel on slow also removing the rust then applied rust encapsulator and seam sealer completely filling the lower part of the rain gutters. Next more sanding but the A pillers are almost completely smooth already.

 

I hate being a "Charlie Brown " only I can start painting this during a drought and suddenly have to deal with high humidity. I'm switching back and forth between an air conditioner and dehumidifier to help with the drying process. I really wish I pulled the 4runner out into the sun just after priming it but helicopters were falling from the trees.

 

I hate it when the helicopter trees start dropping those big, heavy, seed pods during the fall months...


Pat☺

 

Don’t feel bad, i tried to go fishing at the pond up the street yesterday afternoon. The minute i got there the wind kicked up to about 25 mph and it immediately started raining!

 

yup, they grow real well in house gutters 😉

I've had that exact day! It's uselly the one day I get off from work and the only day to get out lol. That combined with the little 3HP motor and that wind it turned out to be the lake was moving out from under me. Yikes.

 

Naturally, every day leading up to your day off, the weather was absolutely perfect to fishing. Clear, not too hot, light breeze...perfect. Then, once you do get out there...well...

Murphy's Law rules, always.

As much as I despised Yuma, and I did, I could always count on the weather. Clear and hot. 100°F was a cool afternoon, if it ever happened. Whether I was at work, or off that day, clear and hot. Only exception was Monsoon Season. Then it was clear, hot, and humid. More miserable than usual. Very slight chance of a thunderstorm, once in a while. After all, we DID get our 3" of annual rainfall sometime. Usually all at once...
Pat☺

 

Just watching paint dry😉 love that 60 dollar electric sprayer from Eastwood and that tractor paint. This white is just like the bright white we put on Herbie and it's hard to look at in bright sun. It'll hide my imperfections in body work nicely!





My portable garage made a nice makshift painting booth complete with a fan I put up near the roof with a vent.

 

Finnely a new windshield is in.

I tried for three days to get the old windshield in with the rubber gasket but it wasn't happening. I even tried cussing like a sailer 😂 lots. Ether the windshield is slightly too big or the gasket doesn't have a deep enough channel for the glass. Oh and I broke the glass more. No loss it was cracked for a long time.

Today I had a glass installer try and the gasket would not stay in place long enough to get the rope in. I had enough of that gasket I told him to glue it like the old one . I'll figure something else out for trim replacement.

After about a month off the road it's back cruising just in time for peak Foilage.

 

A few details to add on. We always had this old beach pass never installed and the one from the previous windshield. A nod to the 4runner's past home. Now we just need to get ahold of that delorian time machine to go back in time to use it. Lol.



I also went with a cheap new rear view mirror for the dome light. Just meet to run som wiring up the a pillar. Speaking of the A pillers for the first time since we got the 4runner the covers are back on.

 

Gloucester has some really nice beaches.
i too have windshield a sticker from the previous owner on my truck who is in the ARMY.
it says “Department of Defense registered vehicle” and “Ft. Jackson 2016”

 

well these two trucks were active in 2016😂 an army decal is cool though. If you should ever need to swap it to another windshield I found the heat gun on low works.

Foliage Cruise 2020 VT




More to come but we found some real nice dirt roads getting lost up in Vermont with the camper a few years back and decided the road less traveled was the place to leaf peep.

 

Vermont Welcome Center
Gilford RT91








A few photos from one of our favorite tourist traps in Vermont.
Hogback Mountain






also there's a cool restaurant at the top of this mountain. It used to be Sky line restaurant years ago then it closed. Slowly it's been opening up as something new. They even kept the vintage sign and redesigned it.

 

Those beautiful dirt roads! We found a few more on the way home too. We must have seen 20 wild turkeys out there.

First bunch of turkeys

Second bunch of turkeys.

Third bunch of turkeys.

this turned out to be one cool spot to see the foliage.

 

This has been our typical route back and forth just north of Mohawk Trail.

One of the dirt roads we found on the way home.

 

I found somebody making these now. That will make painting the doors a little easier.
https://redirect.viglink.com/?format..._home_active_5

 

Well the 4runner got stolen again 😉 I guess now is as good of time as any to start using it daily. Till the next time I feel like working on something with it anyhow. I would like to paint the rock sliders next. I found some black tractor paint I want to spray on em. I covered them with rust encapsulator a while ago but they got hit with some over spray when doing the roof. It will be a nice thick coat when I'm done. lol

One car garage, ha!
The wrECHO is on vacation for a while. We'll see just how long.

 

now the rock sliders have several coats of paint including rust encapsulator, primer over spray from the roof, white over spray from the roof and now black tractor paint.

I taped it off just below the door so the rocker panels have a coat of the black also.