borz170

I am finnaly restoring my '94 $Runner SR5 3.0 4x4. I will try to post before and after pics and some info about what I am doing. To make a long story short, I am fixing rust holes in the rear wheel well arches and on the roof, where the rack bolts to , then chainging the color to black, from the factory dark green. Long fun project that I have been procrastinating over for about 4 years. I decided that I had too much money in unused parts that I had been gathering, so I had to do the project rather than sell to get out from under with a significant loss. She only has 147k miles on her, barely broken in. Runs great, so she will be beautifull soon and hopefully I will be able to drive her for another 5 years. hopefully someone is interested, for I love to write things out in "journal form" and what better a place than yotatech to acomplish this goal?

Innervision

I'll be watching. Since my 94 runner needs a good deal of rust repair above the rear wheel wells.

Good luck

borz170

Thanks. I am on a tight5 schedule to complete, so I probably won't have much more posted until it is finished. I have to force myself to take pics before I move on to the next step.

borz170

So far I have been working on this project every day for at least 8 hours, since last Friday. At this point, I am very close to the first coat of primer. The weather has been awesome, until this morning. It is 44 degrees and will warm up to about 70. I'm not complaining, it could be much worse, but I am working outside in a makeshift workshop made out of a portable carport and visqueen. I will add to this story for a bit, until the weather warms up.

The main objectives of this project were to:
1. Fix rust holes in rear wheel well arches.
2. Fix rust holes in roof (under rack).
3. Search for any other rusted areas and correct(without tearing the whole body apart).
4. Fix a few dings and dents
5. Fix some previous minor body work.
6. Change color from dark green to black, inside and out.

This sounded like about 40 hrs of work. So far I have dedicated at least 70 hrs of manual labor, not including planning time. I like to think things out well prior to starting. This can be a blessing or a curse!

This is what has been accomplished:
1. Welded new inner wheel wells on the rear(cut out bad sections then welded replacements).
2. Sprayed POR-15 inside rocker pannels and on all exposed metal.
3. Attached replacement rear wheel arches with body panel adhesive. Great stuff!
4. completed most of the associated body wdork with wheel arches.
5. Cut out roof rail rust spots and glued new replacement metal pieces from inside and completed the body work. I used dura glass for most of my body work, trying to use as little body filler as possible. I have also tried to seal all exposed parts with POR-15, adhesive, duraglass and will follow up with panel; caulk.
6. Completely sanded with DA sander, the whole exterrior. Most stone chips and scratches have been removed. I have always been under the impression of starting flat so you can end flat. i figureed if I spend more time sanding the old paint/primer, I will not have to sand as much of the new primer. We will see, but I am going to paint her black and it has to be perfect or it will look like S@#T!. I have masked much of the truck and will continue as soon as I can motivate myself.

Goal for today:
*Prime and paint exterrior.

Door jams and inside of doors need paint, but I am running out of time with the weather, due to relying on mother nature and my makeshift paint booth. It will add more work in the long run, but I want to get her on the road soon. I will have to go back and paint the inner doors and door jams, but who cares. That way the job won't be rushed and will be done right at a later date. I have to go back and seal up rear wheel well arches anyways.

borz170

That truck l;ooks pretty tough. I love these 4Runners. I have been driving mine for the past 5 years. I got her with just about 100k miles and have put on about 50k. I want to drive her for at least another 5 years or so. I do like the green, but I have always wanted a black vehicle. Since I am doing all of this body work, I figured why not go teh extra steps? It will just make my prep work better, because we all know black shows everything. I have all new chrome bumpers, running boards and wheel well trim. Black with all of the trim should look pretty bad ass, at least I hope it does.

So far I have spent about 80 hrs on this project. I would guess at least 20 hrs have been spent in vain, for I had to repeat previous steps due to poor planning. I also spent a full day DA sanding the whole truck, just to put high build primer over it.

Yes, it is finally one color, primer grey. HIGH build primer, and they dopn't call it high build for no reason. I will have my hands full with sanding to get rid of the orange peel. I plan to DA it down with 300, then follow up with a wet sanded 600 to make it flat. Hopefully I will be shoting topcoat tomorrow!

Pics comming soon!!

flashkl

The yota gods are thanking you... Maybe someday I too will have the time and patience to do a full resto....but until then, I just want to get my side vinyl off...

borz170

Thanks for your interest guys, it makes the hard work seem that much more worthwile when others share your feelings. I am procrastinating way too much this morning due to the rain, but i have a bunch of sanding to do.

borz170

As much fun as this project has been, I have definately underestimated the time requird to do a quality job. A professional would have had this jub finished much sooner than I would, but it is still a big deal. I have been taking two steps forward and one back. I put the whole truck in primer, only to realize that I didn't put enough on. I had to scuff the whole truck down and reprime thicker. This and the completion of body work consumed the entire day on Saturday. I ended the day by putting two thick wet coats of High Build Nason primer on.

Sunday was as much of a trial and error day as any other "step beginning" day. I was told by my cousin, the body man, to wet sand her down with 400 grit, then topcoat. This is much more difficult than I imagined. After spending about six hours on the hood and right side, I decided to DA down lightly with 320 on the rest of the truck. i was told to avoid this because of the deep DA swirls and scratches that may result.

I have DA sanded the drivers side and tailgait with 320 and I plan to wet sand it with 400 then 600 today. Hopefully this will speed up the process. After this is complete, I will have to scuff the inside of the doors and the jams, finish a bit of touch up body filling, remask a bit and finish up some touch up sanding. She should be ready for paint after that.

Yesterday was the first day I was not able to work on this project, since starting it on Friday 2/6. I had to go back to work in the firehouse. I am off fot the next 48 hrs and plan to have her topcoated by the end of the day tomorrow. Weather is looking good and I know what I have left to do in preperation. If all goes well, I will be bolting parts back on her on Friday and showing her off all weekend. I work on Sunday and I can't wait to show her off at the station. I have been driving her with mismatched doors and undone bodywork for 3.5 yrs!

Thanks for viewing. I promise pics soon, hopefully either today or tomorrow!

borz170

Here are a few pics to help support my story. Once again, I got well into the project before I stopped to take quality before images. These three pics kind of sum up the three major stages. I have other pics that show the specific areas of concern. I hope you enjoy.

borz170

The theme of this project has been "two steps forward, one step back". In spirit of this theme, I have a new story. I must warn you, the following story could either make you sick, make you laugh, make you think I am an idiot, make you feel bad for me, or just make you want to continue following up on my progress.

Just as a gambler only tells tales of big wins, most people keep their project screw-ups to themselves and only tell success stories. I am not like most, for I would rather have someone learn from one of my mistakes.

When I left off, I had been wet sanding and prepping for topcoat. I did finish sanding and did apply two coats of base and one coat of clear. I had worked all day on the prep work and had a timeline to follow, so against my better judgment, I decided to "pull the trigger". Using my Nason Base/Clear finishing products and my "starter" Smart HVLP gun, I completely wasted a bunch of time and money. I was in a hurry to beat the dark and I mixed the paint incorrectly. The ratio for Base is 8:1/2:4. I mixed up 8 parts of base, 1/2 parts of activator, and then instead of reducing it by 4 parts, I added 4 parts of the activator for the clear coat! Yes, this is the part where you can call me a dummy. Hell, why not, I did a bunch of times. My neighbor and I both read the instructions and both did not catch the mistake. Granted, neither of us has any paint mixing experience, but we can read, can't we?

Anyways, I sprayed two coats, and then put a coat of clear over top. It had a bunch of OP and I figured that I would have to wet sand and repaint, but I didn't realize that I had made such an error. The next day, I read the directions and realized my error. I placed an e-mail with Nason/DuPont tech support and finally received a phone call late that evening. That is when the bomb was dropped by the tech support guy. He told me that I had to sand all of the paint off and start over with a new coat of primer. Not only would I have to do this, but I would have to take lacquer thinner and get EVERY speck of product off of the truck or it would screw up my paint job. He explained that because there was so much activator in the product with nothing to activate, it would never fully cure and anything applied over top would eventually "melt off" once the sun heated it up. He said it would start with small bubbles, and then come off in sheets. To make matters worse, I had spent all day wet sanding the whole body in preparation for refinishing! Another day wasted!

I spent then entire evening with a rag and Lacquer thinner. My buddy who helped me screw up the paint mixing had a DA sander. Yesterday, I decided that the DA was working better so I used it to sand almost the entire body. I have to finish up the roof, and then follow up with every nook and cranny that the DA can't get. I will have to use lacquer thinner and a rag for this.

Like the pics show, I am doing this outside. I live in NE Florida, and despite what our northern readers believe, it gets cold here. It was 30 degrees this morning when I woke up at 5:30 am. It may get to 65 today, but the body will never heat up enough to help with the lacquer thinner. I may use a heat gun to heat the panels prior to wiping them. I may be able to get a heater, but I am essentially in a tent with visquene sides. It is a 12'x24' portable car port. Any wind would take whatever heat away quickly. If anyone has any suggestions about anything that may help my cause, please forward them on.

The tech support guy tells me exactly what DuPont wants him to say. He is recorded, so he can't give me the "real story". Do you think I would have to take every bit of black product off to ensure proper adhesion of the next coat?

borz170

Today's goals:

1. Finish removal of old product

2. Rebag windows

3. Reprime

4. Begin water sanding

borz170

Other notes:

1. When I applied all products, I was way too far away with my gun. Must be 6"-8" away from target when shooting.

2. More time must be spent wiping, blowing and tacking prior to application of sprayed products.

3. When watar sanding, use straight motions parallel with length of vehicle.

4. Must set up a system that allows me to get closer to the roof and hood without dragging hose across body.

5. Prior to aplication of topcoat, I must seal up my tent better. I may use a box fan as a negative pressure exhaust fan, positioned in one of the "gables" of the tent.

*If anyone disagrees with anything that I mention, please let me know. Constructive criticizm is welcome.

borz170

After a tiresome weekend, the truck is almost fully back inprimer. Yes, I said almost. We spent all day on Sat and Sun sanding the old topcoat off, in preperation for primer. when the truck was all sanded and wiped at about 7:30 pm, I realized that I only had 26 oz of primer left in the can. I guess I was confusing the amount of base coat that I had in it's gallon can. Anyways, after activating and reducing it by 20%, I had about 42 oz to spray. I decided to just shoot the body, minus the top. I made it all the way through the body and ran out while shooting the second coat on the hood.

When I shot the primer, I noticed it was spraying much better, due to being reduced. I think I finally have my gun calibrated correctly. The best results occurred when I was no farther than six inches away using overlapping 8" spray patterns at a slower pace. i was watching the product go onto the panel and would spray slow enough to the point where the product was flowing onto the panel and smoothing out. I had a few sags, but hey, its just primer right?

Today I have to finish priming it. Hopefully I want to put anther coat on the whole body, as well as bringing the roof and hood up to sped with the rest of the truck. I hope I don't have to scuff the applied primer before I reshoot, though I probably will. Also, I wonder if 55 degrees it soo cold to shoot primer? We'll find out. I will try to post pics tonight of her in full primer, wet sanded, ready to shoot top coat!

borz170

Yesterday ws productive, I was able to finish priming. My spray technique is improving and I am now able to put primer on with little op and no porosity. I still have a few dry spots resulting from not keeping the gun square with the target.

I was able to DA sand about 1/2 of the truck. I am trying to remove almost all of the OP with the DA, then I will wet sand with either 400 or 600. I want to go with 600 because it is going to be a black truck. Hopefully the DA will make it easier to sand with the 600.

I have to work for the next two days, but I am off Thursday and Friday. I hope to be ready for paint by late afternoon on Thursday. Then I could paint before 4-5 PM, and let her ste up all night. I could be bolting parts on by Friday morning!

Lets keep our fingers crossed.

toylocost

Sounds like alot of work. Everybody makes mistakes just dont give up.

Also you can never post to many pictures.

Okay, you probly can but it would take a while.

borz170

I will try to get more pics by the end of the week. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the work that I did to the rear wheel wells. I was in too much of a hurry making mistakes (lol).

borz170

Today I was back at work in the fire station. We had a bit of spare time this afternoon, so I was able to work on some parts. I aquired "new" chrome running boards a few years ago from a local bone yard. As soon as I got them I scraped down the rust spots from the under side, then applied ospho, then finished up with 3M rubberized, paintable undercoating. I never got around to hanging them, I guess I was waiting until I finished the body work that I am currently involved in. They sat in a pile under my tiki bar on the back deck, exposed to the weather for about 6 months. After that, I moved them to dry storage. lets just say that ospho and undercoating don't stop rust. Today, I repeated the process, except instead of undercoating and ospho, I used the POR-15 rust abatement 3 step process. I shot the POR-15 through my jam gun (using the station's bad ass compressor) after reducing it by about 10%. I forgot how far a little POR-15 will go. I was able to blow paint way into the small spaces between where the bracket mounts were tack welded, as well as the entire running board. Yes, the undercoating was paintable, paint stuck just fine. Hopefully this will seal up these parts better than the last time.

borz170

I have been thinking about the roof rack. I am not going to put the rack back on until I make it look better. I think it would look pretty bad in the shape it is in, on a truck with brand new paint. I have seen pics of new black '94 4Runners with roof racks, and they all seemed to be flat black. I was thinking about chrome plating them, but I have no idea on the process of chroming things. Is it just as simple as shooting it? I probably will just scuff them with a scotch pad then shoot them with some leftover wal-mart flat black spray paint cans. Hey, it's all in the prep work, right?

If anyone has info on Chroming things, please let me know. With all of the chrome going on this truck, a chrome roof rack might be just what the dr ordered. Thoughts?

Also, the front valance seems to be a dark shade of grey, or some type of a metallic black. I was just planning on painting it the same color as the rest of the truck. Thoughts?

ManYoda

chroming is a process and the rack would have to be dipped in several diff types of liquids. dont know off the top of my head, but just google it im sure you can find it. there is plenty of chrome shop just got to find them and being that your from florida i dont see a problem you finding one. or you could just go camo. CAMO ROCKS

toylocost

Most of the people here frown against shiny stuff lol. But its what you want that matters. For chrome you would usually send that out to be done it has to be plated with a few different metals before the chrome will stick. Usually places that do bead/sand blasting and/or powder coating can do chrome or they will know someone who can. It wouldnt be worth your time or money to attempt to chrome them yourself.