I'm pretty much done with it except for putting some glass in it. I'm really happy with the results considering I'm a HVAC guy, not a body man. Yesterday, I saw a newer Tundra almost the same color and that made me feel a little better about the color choice.

 

It looks very good!

 

It looks great! The color is nice. What will you do with the windshield? Most threads are on how to eliminate the stainless trim but I want to keep mine. I'll get a glass shop to do it but I'm wondering if I should get the Toyota clips for the windshield. Mine has a small crack but won't pass state inspection until I replace it.

 

A glass company is supposed to come tomorrow and urethane one in there. They stood me up last Monday, and if they do it again, I'm putting the old windshield back in myself. I chipped the edges with the wire getting it out a I really don't want to reuse it. It was a 20 year old aftermarket windshield. I told them a 3/4" universal weatherstrip would be ok as long as it looks good. I've used them in the past, so I'm hoping the same guy does it and does a good job.

 

I am planning to do some rust repair to the rear wheel arches/fenders on my 87 and I also decided to use the Wolf parts. I was just going to get the wheel arches not the whole side panel.

Did you use just the arches too? How did you get such a clean cut and nice seems at the attachment points?

My plan was to cut out roughly along the red line area and cut out a matching piece of the wolf wheel arch then weld the piece in. I want to try to avoid cutting into and having to deal with the more detailed area in yellow.

Also any recommendations for products to use such as bondo type material, primer and paint would be great. Ive never done body work.

 

I cut it with an angle grinder with a cut off wheel and left and right hand aviation tin snips for the fine stuff. I also used a Dremel tool for tighter spots. It you look towards the top of this thread, you can see where I cut the old panel which is pretty much on the body line above the wheel well. I used just the arch on the driver's side, and the full panel on the passenger side. Keep in mind that these are not exact fits. The plastic stone guards no longer fit, but the chrome strips do. If I were to do it over again, I'd probably go the fiberglass route through toyotafiberglass.com, and replace the complete panels, but yours isn't as rusty as mine was. I also had to repair the inner panels, but you won't know until you start cutting off the outer skin. I used a base of Raptor epoxy primer, with Upol bondo and Upol filler/primer. I'm really happy with the paint. It is cheap Restoration Shop acrylic urethane available through Amazon for $235/gallon. Pretty much $300 when including the reducer. I mixed that at a 4:1:1 ratio, paint/hardner/reducer. This is a single stage paint. It has a nice shine and I haven't buffed it yet. I hope this helps.

 

The glass guy said that I made his day when he saw I wasn't using the chrome trim. It ended up being $50 less than what he quoted me for a total of $250, which I thought wasn't bad at all.

 

I had nearly the same rust. Ten years ago Wolf sent me parts that in no way were made for a first gen 4Runner. I read a bunch of forums on fiberglass and watched a few videos. The best are by Jamestown Distributors. They are a boat restoration company. I got a West System kit, also and additive to thicken when needed and fiberglass cloth. Be sure to get the measured pumps. I cut out the bad areas from the wheel arch and applied the cloth from inside the bed of the 4Runner. I top coated it with Rage body filler. It spreads and sand much better than Bondo. Most of the work was done in 2014. I had it painted and it looks good to this day. I have some pictures on my build thread. In pictures where the filler is reddish, that's a filler added to West fiberglass to make it a peanut butter consistency. I was the world's slowest at fixing up my $2400 4Runner. I got it done in time for my son to drive it for high school. This picture is when I was done with body work and had just put the Softtoper on. It is only in white primer, so the paint looks splotchy. I got it painted at a Maaco for $750 in 2016. So far, so good.

 

P.S. I just remembered: To get the wheel arch shape correct, I completely covered the arch chrome with blue tape and used it to mold the shape of the arch. I did the same thing behind the wheelhouse black plastic. When I took off the plastic things, one side had a fist sized hole. Epoxy fiberglass does not get hot, so it doesn't ruin plastic parts. The stuff available in most stores is polyester fiberglass and it gets hot.

 

I'm off topic here, but I wish to thank everyone for the input I received when doing the bodywork on my 87 runner. With all the help and experience gained in that project, I'm doing something similar this winter. It's amazing how closely the Honda-tech website resembles this one.

 

That's what it all about! Keep working on them 😉