borz170

In reply to the last two posts, yes, camo rocks, and I did notice that this web site is geared more towards off roading. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten into much off roading...yet. I love the woods, hunting, camping, etc, but right now I don't have the time to go that route. I love my 4Runnner and I hope to have her for many years. I believe that the work now in progress is more than just a quick fix and should last as long as I am willing to keep up with the maintenance. For now, she will continue to be my daily driver. This project has been mostly about putting her back into the same condition that she was in the day she was driven off of the lot. I have never owned a new vehicle, this may be the closest I have ever gotten. I purchased her in 2004 as a hand me down from a good friend. He sold her for 4k! What aq nice guy, huh? At the time there was only two rust bubbles and everything else was perfect!

Anyways, I think I will just paint the roof rack flat black like it was from the factory. In the future, I would love to turn her into a hunting/camping vehicle and build a big ass rack like ones I have seen here!

borz170

Here are some more pics of the areas that needed the most attention. That pic of the door in the back is the best shot I have of the door. It doesn't matter, because I replaced it with one from a bone yard. The pic on the far Right is the lower dog leg from the rear quarter pannel, where it meets the rocker. I had to cut both out on each side, pluss some of the rocker and the support panels underneeth. I welded the heavy underneeth panels, and I glued the thinner outer panels with #M body panel adhesive. Great stuff.

The pic on the far Left is the driver's side rear quarter. This side was in much better shape than the other side. I only had to cut 1/2 of it, and the cut was made below the area that is covered by molding! Much les body work. I was not as fortunate on teh passenger's side. I had to do a bit more body work.

I am gonna try to top coat today, i will send more pics later!

borz170

I finally have her in top coat, and it turned out well. It is not perfect, but considering the conditions that I was dealing with, I am happy. It has one major sag on the arch of the L front fender that I want to sand and buff soon. The hood has a bunch of bugs and a bit of dust/dirt, but I think I burried much with the second coat of base and a lot of clear. I hope I can wet sand and buff it so that most of the bug/dirt marks aren't as visable. Eventually, I will wet sand and buff the entire vehicle, but I really need to get my truck back on the road.

I have to work at the fire station today, but tomorrow will be consumed by putting her back together. One problem developed, I forgot to paint the front valance and the roof brake light. I have a bit of clear left and enough primer, but I will need to purchase a quart of black base coat.

I have decided to paint the valance the same color as the body. I believe that in '94, yota used the same color metallic black/grey valance on all 4runners, no matter what color of the body. I am going to keep it simple.

The roof rack was painted flat black a few days ago and is all set to go.

I will have to go inside the wheel wells with POR-15 and a brush to seal up all of the possible rust spots. On the drivers side rear wheel well, I have a few bare metal spots and a few areas where undercoating has peeled off. I want to take the rear wheels off and get way up into the wheel wells with a screw driver/wire brush and knock all of the loose spots off, then seal them back up. I will also go all around the truck underneeth and address all of the rusting/potential rust spots with POR-15.

I have a bit of work left in putting the truck back together. I am going to try to straighten out a small dent in one of the rear wheel well moldings, but that is small stuff. The interrior should be easy, I separated all of the screws and associated hardware/plastic pieces into like groups so that reassembly will be easier. I just hope I don't forget which screws go where.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a very productive day, resulting in the truck being back on the road. I may have to use the old scratched up valance for a few days, until I paint the new one. I have Sunday and Monday off, so I can probably be al set by the end of the day Monday.

Goals:
1. Sunday: Reassemble entire interrior, roof rack, bumpers, door handles, etc.
2. Monday: Paint remaining parts, wet sand and buff sags and possibly the hood.

I will post pics soon.

99SR5

iTrader: (1)

awesome idea! i plan on having the rust fixed on my 1st gen soon

borz170

Well, as usual I am behind where I wanted to be. I am still working on the interrior, and will be hard pressed to get everything reassembled by the end of the day today. It will be way too cold to paint anything today, so I will just wait until the end of the week. I plan to have the entire truck back together today and to purchase the buffing compound and a good buffer. I will try to water sand in a day or two when the weather warms up a bit.