Hello again. After patching the inner fender I decided it would be nice to paint the patch and that led to cleaning everything up under the hood in preparation for paint. I also decided it was time to get inside the cab and begin prepping it for paint. Here are some pics of where the paint prep is today. The windshield was toast so I tossed it.

The dash was real rough so for starters I bought a center section of the dash off eBay as well as the bezel section for the left hand side round swivel vent. It still needs a radio and the little cubby that goes above the radio. The wiring under the dash looks intact with no ugly splices which is good news. I did buy a new Toyota dash mat a couple of years ago that’s still in the box so overall I’m feeling better about the interior.

 

After three years of the front end being supported by blocks the project is a roller! I needed to move it forward about a foot so I’d have room to unbolt the bed and scuff the front of the bed and back of the cab so I put the wheels on the front axle and rolled it forward. Also removed the doors to make it easier to access the door post/inner fender area. And the tailgate needed a lot of small drilled holes patched as well as replacing rusted sections on each of the lower corners.

 

Progress has been slow on the sanding. I did get the hood sanded top and bottom. The valve cover gasket had a substantial leak for an extended period of time which resulted in a fine spray of oil saturating the entire right hand side of the engine bay as well as the underside of the hood. Here’s a few pics.

Removing the fuel filler steel hose section was a bear. All three screws needed to be drilled out. I think they’ll get replaced with stainless Allen screws or hex bolts.


Found a spot of rust just above the fuel filler door so I cut that out and installed a small patch panel.
[img alt="Discovered yet more rust under the ‘O’ in Toyota, cut it out and installed an additional patch panel.
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Discovered yet more rust under the ‘O’ in Toyota, cut it out and installed an additional patch panel.

 

 

Yesterday I removed the heater assembly from the cab, disassembled all then cleaned all of the components. The resistor had a broken wire so I ordered a replacement for it.

I opted to try KawasZX’s recipe for plastic rejuvenation and grabbed an old semi dry jar of peanut butter, thinned it with mineral oil and then used a mini spatula to coat the housing with the mixture. I’ll let it marinate for a week or so and then apply the 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and paint thinner.

Pre treatment

A nice coating of peanut butter

The old resistor

 

Never heard of the peanut butter method before, what is the PB doing here, moisturizing the plastic?

 

Yes it appears to have worked very well in KawaZX636’s restoration. If you check out Page 55 on his build thread you can see the results and the history behind it. I had never heard of it either until reading that thread.

 

Yes the oil helps getting the plastic rejuvenated, I have also heard of clean tranny fluid working also, I don’t know I got sucked in a YouTube wormhole on it last night

 

That makes sense re the tranny fluid. Just thinking about it there’s probably a wide range of oils that would work. Maybe the main attribute of peanut butter is it doesn’t allow the oil to run off. Definitely an easy wormhole to go down.

 

Sanding, sanding and scuffing sums up the week so far. A few more pieces got disassembled like both doors.



The resistor showed up for the blower motor and a couple portable work stands replaced the old sawhorses I’ve been tripping over.

 

How’s the Jiffy treated plastic looking?? Speaking of a resistor this reminds me to order one just to have around

 

Tomorrow will tell how the Jiffy plastic is looking. First thing in the morning it’s going to get rinsed off and then placed in the dishwasher for a quick cycle. After that it gets rubbed down with a 50/50 blend of paint thinner and boiled linseed oil. Hopefully it comes out looking close to brand new.

 

Just removed the heater housing from the dishwasher and it’s nice and clean but still has the oxidized appearance. Maybe just too much Nevada sun over the years or operator error on the Jiffy treatment. Still need to apply the linseed oil/ paint thinner later today so that may change things.

 

The verdict is in on the Jiffy treatment. It’s a success! The final step with the linseed oil/paint thinner concoction brought the original sheen back to the plastic housing. Happy enough with the final result to give the rest of the plastic in the cab the same treatment. Here are a few pics.

 

Lookin good trying to think of what I can go rub some PB on now…….nothing is coming to mind

 

Thank you! Happy it worked out after the bit of extra work.

 

WoW! Great write up! Just stumbled across your build and have spent the last couple hours reading through your thread. That is going to be a nice rig when your finished! Don't know where you find the energy but am envious. Really excited to get home to check the frame rails on my 89 to see if I can use the Jeep/SmittyBuilt bumper hack. I have been dreading coughing up the $ for what they are asking for Toyota bumpers.
Looking forward to checking in!

 

Thank you! Glad to hear you were able to glean some useful information. Picked up a lot of good info here myself.

Finally got around to applying some body filler today. The temp started dropping just as I was getting ready to do the hood so called it a day. The body filler I’m using is Rage Ultra. It definitely goes on much nicer than the little bit of Bondo I’ve applied.

 

Applied a little more body filler today primarily on the hood, fabbed up a couple custom sanding blocks and stopped the center portion of the hood from “oil canning” back and forth.


In the middle of the ridge running down the center of the hood there was a spot which kept “oil canning” back and forth. After the center of the flexing area was heated up and tapped with the pointed end of the hammer the area stabilized just like the body shop video claimed it would.

In order to get a couple sanding blocks cut to the perfect profile of the body sides I attached a couple pieces of 80 grit sandpaper to the cab with 3M 77 contact cement then ran foam blocks back and forth across the sandpaper until the blocks had the proper profile.


After the proper profile was transferred to the 1” foam blocks a second block was glued to the back for added strength and a better handle for sanding.

 

Just in case anybody else was interested, my 1989 frame rails are approximately 41 inches across as well so we should be able to use the same SmittyBuilt/Jeep bumper hack on the later models.
Thanks again Hound!