Hi everyone - New to this forum but I have owned my 1991 3VZ since 2000 (150K miles!) and feel like it is time for a little aesthetic love. I'm sure I'll have many questions and I am excited to slowly learn and give back as my project progresses. My local body shop said that if I remove panels and bring them to them they'll be happy to paint the professionally. First step will be both fenders, the hood, and whatever the grill thingy is called that the windshield wipers stick out of. Both fenders have significant rust at the base where they attach with two bolts by the lower door hinge. I could see this area was in bad shape but once I removed the right one I found it was worse than I thought. My initial idea was to get two new fenders to address the rust. Looking online I found they are discontinued and settled on a $100 right hand side one from PartsGeek.com. For $100 I was willing to risk the quality and see what showed up before I ordered the left .

Today I unbolted the old one and found that the mounting point is pretty much rusted through. I am OK at welding and since this is an area that is not really seen I was wondering if there are patch panels available? I suppose I could bang something together but I'd much rather weld in a new connection point in the area that the body panel completely covers. This is what it looks like this morning:




The next step was to test fit the new panel and I am not impressed. It looked right but when it was put in place it just showed how slightly different the quality was. I tweaked it as best I could but each solution in one area meant a problem somewhere else. Little discrepancies that means nothing really lines up as well as the original.


Huge gap to the bumper when all bolted solid:





So if I am going to take the time to do a project I might as well do it right. The rest of the original fender is in great shape, so here's where I jump in a little over my head, but think I might make this work. I plan to use the new fender but only as a small replacement part for the old one. I will cut out the area in the image below and do the same with the new fender and tack weld and then final weld it into the old fender. Worst case is I lose $100 and need to take it to someone who actually welds for a living.


So back to the original question: Do patch panels for the lower cab mounting point area exist or do I need to make something from scratch? I had a look and maybe I am just calling them the wrong thing in my search. Any resources to recommend?

Thanks - wish me luck.

 

I've bought patch panels for other classic vehicles like Camaros, Mustangs and antique trucks and it was easy to find them with a quick search. I've never looked for patch panels for my vintage Toyota trucks but, I've never seen any either.

I'm lucky to live in the dry desert so I can find rust free body parts so that's where I get mine. Maybe check the dryer areas of Cali??

The aftermarket body panels are hit or miss on fit and quality as you have found out. If you can get a good fit cutting out a patch from the ill fitting new fender, go for it. Clean the metal well at the weld area and do lots of tack welds until they all connect. Hammer and dolly and grind as necessary. Lot's of youtube vids out there.

You might have to hammer out your own patch panel or cut a piece out of a rust free donor for that other area. If you have the time and desire to try, it's cheaper than paying the labor for someone else to do it. Check out https://www.youtube.com/c/MakeItKustom/videos

Good luck with your project and please follow up with it.

 

Thanks for the reply. Well - it was a productive weekend and for $100, cutting out the base of the new repro fender and welding it in worked pretty well. Panel lines are not totally consistent at the bottom any longer but I'll take what I can get. One of the lower cab bolts still worked so I put it all back together and gave it a quick rattle can for the moment and will see if I can find or make a replacement for the cab mounting point in the next few weeks. Now on to the left side!

 

So on to the driver's side fender which isn't as bad but has terminal rust in the same lower point just behind the wheel. I order another fender from Partsgeek with the same idea. I'd see how it fits and if it is really bad quality just cut out the old and weld in the new and throw away the rest of the new fender. Only problem it arrived all bent and banged up. First problem is where the fender meets the windshield. Banged up:


Then on to the front part where it curves down to the headlight:


But at least the part I need is fine now that I can't use the fender as a replacement part. Surprised they sell stuff like this and don't get just boatloads of complaints.

 

Passenger side today. Worse frame rust than the driver's in some ways. Both bottom bolts were rusted and eventually sheared when removed so got to solve that.





I used the crappy replacement fender as a bottom donor and welded in just the replacement area. Coat of rattle can primer to keep it rust free until I'm ready to do a real paint job.








Feels great giving back to this truck that I bought before I had kids, and now they are in college!