thank you it really is a labor out of love this rig drove my kids to school in all weather even when the busses had issues it gave me a reason to keep moving its been the most reliable truck ive had in my life an ive had a few!

 

ok so tonight i wanted to get something fixed finished ,

my delivery of a very nice paint gun from temu (reviewed by a youtuber that is a pro painter) arrived an gah ive never had such a nice tool ! german made quality an it didnt cost me a fortune
got a regulator an filter for it cleaning kit a small portable sandblaster for small areas the only disappointment was the paint mixing cups which were shown to be bigger a they arent more lie youd mix paint for airbrushing :-/ ahh well

so i went after the bumper filler and the brackets which were bent to heck the filler strip is like unobtanium and the brackets were as well so we fix um



dont mind the mess its a disaster bumper is new an very nice chrome job i used to work at a place that electropolished stainless to get the chromeium in it to the surface for bacterial sterilizing (3A food medical grade) the filler strip was more pretzel when we dismantled the truck

id say thats not half bad considering ,oh just to the right is my 14 inch led light bar that survived the wreck! sigh i will have to save up to get a replacement smitty built grill guard like what i had


sanding as it was a bit rusted in a few spots where it rubbed on the bolts and sharp spots from me hammering and doing my blacksmithing on it


flat black primer ill likely paint gloss black later an shoot it with clear


already did a huge amount of bending an straightening on the right one left is nearly un touched



bent back best i can leg was getting sore so time to call it quits for the night

 

so more progress passenger tub needs more love also doing rust repairs out back (not pictured) the passenger body mount the cup popped off its welds as i was trying to open the cup back up as it was folded on itself
so now i got more to weld on lol

 

Wowee! Is that a brand new radiator support? Where did you get that?

 

that is a new core support for a 90 or second gen BUT i checked i have to make a few modifications for the 88 grill open a square hole or two widen two but! its nearly identical! i lined it up with the bent as Freak original that there was NO way to fix
an over 97% matched up even the fenders theyre tabs for the side markers line right up with the bolt holes behind the headlight mount areas !
leave it to toyota to make minimal changes so that the dies are almost not even stopped being used day in an out

 

bit more progress im slow i know but being a below the knee amputee my leg gets annoyed when well i use it too much
so inner tubs getting them straight as can be fixing what i can i cant weld thin sheet metal cracks yet but i will eventually try using 88 fender metal to patch rips an such the passenger fender was original an the edge was rusted away so im using the ggood steel



passenger side had the most rips



drivers side the most bent




in the rear using ospho to go after the rust in the pitting prior to doing whatever i have to, to fix the rust out in my case fiberglass and galvenized wire mesh straps of steel

this would not have been this bad if someone hadent done the spray foam behind the rock guards an such

 

ok progress lots of progress
please be forgiving i just started welding this is a lot of work if its NOT up to your standards remember I JUST got my first welder and this is me doing my best trying to save my rig
thank you

pictures are a bit outa order when i found the back of the hood was not aligned which left me scratching my head
the hood with 2 NEW hinges L&R was binding up on the cowling i tried various adjustments but nothing was working hinges were fighting me i was ohh heck is my cab tweeked too???...
so i looked at them (the hinges) the drivers side was bent beyond repair and used as a puller to get the mount area pulled back out but the passenger one was fixable it was a left facing
paired that with the new left facing one an LO an BEHOLD the cowl stopped being bound up on the hood the hinges weren't fighting me and the lines lined up opening an closing just fine
i went back into my old photos of the trucks first rebuild it had 2 left facing hinges... i dont know why or what happened with her but it works so ive put the pictures in here the hood was outa alignment by least an inch due to the new hinge
put the old one in an it was perfect go figure...


clean straight line crack it was all bent as hell but i got it straight



3 weld passes to make sure its attached again



nice hard spot welds to get the cup back on the mount for good


body mount cup reattached


frame guy ripped the frame open and broke the nut loose inside the frame for the bumper mount i got it welded back on used a wall anchor that pops open inside the frame to push the nut forward so i could weld it id say it came out pretty good
yes the bumper mount has some blah around it


put the hood on since i added a welding tab to the side of the drivers tub as there wasnt any thing left to weld to checking do i have it right?


ok so checking fit does the hood and such line up??

yes YES she does trust me i was just as amazed as anyone



ehhhhh dang it theres a misalignment though


aligned nice!


misaligned to the passenger side


much better alignment

new hinge



repaired OLD hinge



how a single hinge can misalign so much! this is much better


misalignment



over too far


ahhh aligned!!



offset to passenger side



first of the spot welds yes thats a 6mm nutsert to replace the welded on nut that was lost in the accident



side of drivers tub there was nearly no metal left at the top to weld onto the core support so i used original 88 frnder metal cut off and made a spot welding tab



before welding start


after YES i will be cleaning up the flux an welds an such i know they look like POOP

 

i wanted to clarify something i used to work for saunders valve LLD in houston 20+ years ago i was an assembler, machinist, QA, shipping manager, warehouse man, and i set up the tig welders which were automatic ya put the stainless tube into the machine make sure the tungston was sharp and aligned right it had full argon gas inside the tube an evacuated all oxygen the welder would do the rest i repaired the machines on occasion i worked with other people while they welded and done a LOT of weld inspection learning processes and such

but this is my first welder my own (the helmet my kid painted the art on it) so i know a lot had a lot of practical experience but hands on me pulling the trigger this is my first time

 

i really admire your tenacity on this project.

i would suggest, need to grind off the paint, rust, etc. before welding.

 

oh ive made sure of the rust removal but left much of the primer as i can even blasting zinc galvanizing paint (98% zinc) into areas i wont be able to reach after welding
yes ive NOT been breathing it in and working well ventilated area the zinc being so highly conductive is a lot like weld through primer but better one of the things we found on iron valves for the company i worked at the zinc paint nearly stopped all rust
and that was in high static charge areas which with the corrosive liquids normally ate the valves up like a kid through candy