GSGALLANT

Well, I've undertaken my latest project... getting rid of as much rust as I can from my '93 4Runner. I welded in some new panels yesterday to replace the rusted metal I cut out when I removed my rusted out chrome rear bumper end caps. That turned out pretty good (no pics yet).

This morning, I ground off most of the rusted metal around the rear passenger fender, and I also cut out most of the passenger side rocker panel. Click here to see what the rocker panel area looks like now.

What I'm thinking of doing, after I've cleaned off the remaining surface rust, is to weld in a four inch pipe 1/8" thick, where the rocker panel once was (pretty much from the back of the front wheel to the front of the rear wheel). It will serve as my new rocker panel (so that I can get the MVI done on my truck), and it will also offer some body protection when I go offroading. Yes, ideally, I would get sliders, so that the side of the truck also gets some protection when I'm hugging rocks or trees in tight trails, but for now, I want to fix it without spending too much money, but I also want the fix to be durable.

Has anybody else replaced rusted out rocker panels on a 4Runner with some beefier steel? If so, any tips or pics would be appreciated. Thanks,

PS. You guys that live in warm, dry climates, away from the ocean don't know how good you have it. It makes owning a vehicle much easier.

tc

What are you doing with the fenders? Mine have cancer pretty bad and a TON of bondo in there...

GSGALLANT

I'm going to be cutting out all the rusted metal (I've already mostly finished the passenger side rear fender). I'm then going to weld in a new patch (made out of 22 gauge sheet metal) to cover what I've cut out, and do the final shaping with bondo.

scrid

I have to attack mine also at some point as my rear passenger wheel well is pretty bad.
I thought I saw a thread here some time ago where a guy posted pics of his repair. He even shot pics of the inside of the wheelwells after removing the inside panels in the cargo area. It was full of mud in there.

GSGALLANT

Well, after I did the final cutting of the old passenger rocker panel, and took some measurements, I ended up buying a 11 foot long piece of 3" SCH 10 carbon steel pipe for $50 (OD is 3.5" and wall thickness is 1/8"), which will be enough to do both rocker panels. It fit in perfectly. I got it welded in place, and I welded in a patch piece of 22 guage sheet metal to fill in my rear passenger fender. I've got a bit of grinding to do, then I start with the bondo. I'll try to get a few pics tonight before I start applying the bondo.

The new "pipe" rocker panels are a nice added feature, as it gives me a place to put the highlift if I ever have to lift the side of the truck on the trail. Also, I won't be as worried when my front wheel comes down off a rock or stump. They won't be as good as sliders, because they won't offer any protection to the side of the vehicle at all.

snap-on

GSGALLANT

Right... well there's pics of the rocker panel area in my first thread, and a quote from my last thread says: "I'll try to get a few pics tonight before I start applying the bondo", so stay tuned for more, I guess.

GSGALLANT

Alright. The grinding is all finished, and I've applied a bit of Bondo-Hair (the fiberglass stuff" in a few spots to fill in some small holes. I've added pics to my repair album here. What I'm missing is pictures of the rear fender before I started, and after I cut the rust off, but before I welded in the patch. You can imagine what it looked like... standard rust pattern for a 2nd gen 4R from the east coast.

I'll try to remember to keep snapping and posting new pics of my progress with the body filler. This is my first big body repair job (I've patched small holes before.)

Turd Ferguson

Looking good so far. Did you fab the fenders yourself? I yanked my running boards off the 'Chop last week and the cancer on the fenders was FAR worse than I thought.

GSGALLANT

Thanks. Yes I did fab all the patch pieces myself.

I'm not really good at remembering to take pictures... especially the "before" pictures. I'll be halfway through cutting out the rust, then I'll think about taking pics. Anyways, I've added a bunch of new pics to my repair album here.

What I've done recently is finish the bondo and "temporary" paint job on the passenger side rocker panel and rear fender, I cut out all the rust on the driver's door, the driver side rear door, the driver side rear wheel well, the driver side front fender and the rear passenger side door. I've welded in new metal to fill in most of what I have cut out. I still have to upload the pics from the last few days of work. I'll try to do that on the weekend.

I'm hoping to get the welding done saturday, then start with the bondo on sunday. Once I get all the body work done with the temporary paint jobs (rattle can), and I take a few weeks off of working on it so that I don't get totally sick of doing body work, I'll sand the whole truck down and paint it (that'll be a first for me too.) I think I'm going to buy a small sprayer, and a dryer and filter for my air compressor so that I can try to do it at home. I'll also be periodically spraying some rust preventor on the inside of all my doors once this is all done so that I can delay it from rusting again as best as I can.

tc

Are you using patch panels, or fabbing them from sheet?

If panels, where are you getting them from?

GSGALLANT

Fabbing everything up from 22 guage sheet metal myself.

GSGALLANT

I've added some new pics to my repair album here.

Today, I finished fabbing and welding in the patches on the passenger side rear door, including a new piece around the door handle, I also cut out all the rust from the bottom of the passenger side front door, and fabbed and welded in a patch. I've got a bit of grinding left to do tomorrow morning, then I'm hoping to put in a long day of bondo work.

GSGALLANT

Well, I spent the day yesterday finishing up the welding and grinding, and applying the first coat of Bondo. I've done a little bit of bondo work before, and it wasn't too bad, but when you have a whole lot of it on the truck, sanding it down is looking like a major project! Those sticky backed sand paper disk that stick onto the rubber pad that you put in a drill work pretty well, but I go through them quite quickly, and at $3.50 for a pack of 4 disks, I may end up spending quite a bit of money on those things. The sandpaper lasts longer when you do it by hand with a sanding block, but it gets pretty tiring after a while.

Anybody have any bodyfiller sanding tips to offer? (other than apply it well enough so that I don't have to sand it much...)

GSGALLANT

I've added some more pics to my album here. I'm at the point now where my repair areas have been primed, and are ready for paint. Here's what I did during the last couple of days:

For sanding the Bondo, I bought some 80 grit sanding disks that stick on the rubber pad that goes in my drill. They last a lot longer that the 240 grit ones I started with, and the rough sanding time is much more reasonable with the 80 grit. I did have to be careful not to take too much Bondo off with the 80 grit, though. After it was smooth with 80 grit, I then used the 240 grit disks.

After taping off the areas to be painted, I wet sanded with 400 grit prior to spraying primer (tremclad grey primer spraycan). I just finished spraying the second coat of primer on this evening.

I also sprayed primer as best as I could inside my four doors (without getting primer in the window tracks and linkages), to cover the inside surface of the new metal I welded in.

Tomorrow morning, I wet sand the primer with 400 grit, then spray the first coat of paint.

DudeBud

you might want to block that a few times with a long board and 180 or 220 frist. thats if you want it straight and not wavy. looks good though..

GSGALLANT

Yeah, there are still a few little waves (nothing major). My "blocks" weren't long enough, I guess... I have a four inch one and a six inch one.The slight waves are way more visible in the garage though. With only lights from the top, you see the shadows in the "little valleys" a lot more. Outside, it looks a bit better.

I needed to get it on the road this week, because my office moved to 45 minutes away from home, so getting my wife to drop me off in the morning and pick me up at night with our other 4Runner was out of the question. Plus, I've already spent hours and hours sanding Bondo, until I got to the point that I said it's good enough. The most important part for me is that it's rust free, it's solid and looks decent enough so that it's not embarassing to drive. I'm hoping to get at least 5 years out of the repair. I'm going to keep spraying rust check inside the doors every year before winter.

I haven't gotten any "final" pictures yet. I have to wash the truck first. The paint job that's on there now is just temporary. I only painted over the repaired areas. I plan to re-paint the whole truck later this summer (so that it's all the same color). I'm thinking either black or dark blue so that it goes well with my blue interior.