Great job, brother!

 

Thank you Mark.

 

Nice vid!

 

Cool video, looks like you guys had a great time!

 

Went on an offroad trip with Chefyota last sunday. We got some awesome pix. I will upload soon. I did get some small body damage to my rear quarter panel near driver side tail light. maybe about 2"x5".


For now i'm just gonna put this up for my own personal reference. Maybe a near future Air compressor mod by using my Air conditioner compressor as a pump.

 

So this happened today about 6 hours ago. Oh how I hate the rain!

















Despite the damage that my truck took on I am just happy that this bumper I fabricted did it's job I'm keeping me and my girlfriend safe. I haven't checked out the bumper thoroughly yet but it looks like the bumper only took on paint scruff damage but as the other vehicle sunk into or conformed to my bumper his body managed to touch my driver side fender. Which is where the damage happened.

I'm going to try to smack out the fender to shape again but if that doesn't work then I'll just end up replacing the fender with a used one or order a replacement online and just paint it. All I know is that I gotta get that broken running light fixed asap Because I need it by law. It's a ticket waiting to happen.

So pretty much this is what happened.
It was raining. And we were on our way to pick up a set of 4 used 33"/12.5/r5 tires with great tried to replace my BFG tires that ironically are rolling on the last 2 millimeters of tred. We were driving on a street with a slight downhill; barely noticeable. And I saw all the tail lights of the cars ahead of me on at the red light up ahead. So I started braking from a good distance away. I was only going about 25mph. And as I was braking I must had gone over a puddle or smooth spot of pavement on the street but whatever it was caused my truck to completely loose traction. I skidded a couple of yards. And I saw there wasnt anybody off to the right lane so I attempted to swerve out of the way into the right lane to avoid a complete head on collision. But since my tires had already lost traction I couldn't turn the truck well. I managed to get the truck mostly out of the way but I still plowed into the rear passenger taillight/quarter panel area of his Chevy suburban. ---- in normal conditions my truck would have definitely stopped with plenty of room to spare. And it would have been able to be moved to the next lane. But thanks to this stupid rain I wasn't able to control the vehicle as well. In the close up picture here you can see where the corner of my bumper literally tore into the sheet metal of his side panel.



I'm just happy the only damage the truck sustained was to the fender and driver side running light. I need to further inspect the front of the truck because it looks like the front metal portion that holds the grill on may have gotten bent because my driver side headlight is currently pointing slightly down. I need to take a better look when the rain stops. --- I'm happy Faby and I are okay though. I wish I could say that for the other party. They had 5 people. The woman in the rear passenger seat was sent to the hospital. Faby said one of the 2 children went in the ambulance too. But here's the kicker. Faby and a witness said they saw the kids jumping around inside the car after the accident. Also the man in the front passenger seat got out of the car for about 2 seconds then got back into the car and when I went to check on them the guy was acting as if he was in pain. We all think it's kind of suspicious So we took our witnesses number and told the police officer doing the report as well as my insurance. I honestly think these guys are trying to screw our insurance over for a payout. Whatever, paramedics and health care officials deal with these people all day long. I'm sure they'll know right away if they're faking injuries. Faby says she saw one of the paramedics roll his eyes in disbelief when interviewing the people in the suburban. And also said she saw the man in the front seat playing with one of the 2 kids bouncing her on his knee. And as the fire fighters arrived he put her in the back and acted as if he had neck pain. When I talked to them it sounded like they were reading off a script. Total BullCráp if you ask me. The woman on the other hand may have actually gotten hurt because she was in the rear passenger seat and was nearest to the location i hit.

 

wow glad you n faby are ok

as for the silver ghost fender is shot inner core is bent as well dude find borrow a slide hammer your going to need it corner marker is common find on ebay an they are good stuff drivers fenders are going about 85-95 new black oxide coated like the one i got for mine

 

Sorry it happened. From the damage I would not expect any injuries.

 

Dude that sucks! I'm glad you guys weren't hurt though, and at least the damage was minimal, thanks to your bumper's awesomeness!!!

 

Hi everyone.
First of all im sorry. I couldhave sworn I had replied to all you guys on here already. maybe it didn't end up getting posted.


Thanks Ed. Im happy we were okay too. And yes my bumper's "awesomeness" did save the day. it actually saved me from a ton of damage. ESPECIALLY ON THE CORNER GUSSETS THAT go from the corner to the center trailgear winch plate the only flaw is that it broke in the one dam spot that I didn't weld on the back side and that is what caused the bumper to break the outer weld. I will eventually take some pix for you guys to show what I mean but yea that corner literally got pushed in, pushed upward, and a weld broke on the corner as well. not to mention bend the entire bumper slightly.

No sir. No injuries to us

I didn't wanna bother with a slide hammer. And after all I do live in CA where some of the rarest 4runner parts are still available. So I actually gotmy hands on a nearly mint white fender off of one of Chef's friends. I paid ($80) but it was pretty worth it considering there are no dents init at all. and silver trim is in perfect condition. Also, Chef let was kind enough to let me have his driver side running light and headlight bucket and plastic/screws hardware to hold the light in place. I'm kinda in a pinch so he really helped out a lot with that contribution.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So just a little update. Everything with the car accident has been handled just great!......... ....for the other party that is. As for me, im screwed. The other party didn't have insurance. and I didn't have uninsured motorists. So unfortunately for me neither my insurance or theirs will cover damages to my truck. AND on top of all that I recently got a letter from my insurance company stating that I need to show proof that I fixed my truck by the end of this month. I have 30 days to get her nice n pretty again. So I started working on this thing just yesterday.



I went to Auto zone and they had multiple colors for multiple makes, including Toyota but they did not carry Toyota charcoal grey. And I am not about to buy original color off of the Stealership. I do know that my truck's paint has faded over the past 25 years. So even if I had the exact color code im sure it would match perfectly. Either way I honestly don't care about it being a complete identical color match. But so long as it is extremely close that's cool with me. After all this is a freekin' off road truck not a show car. I bought 3 primer cans. 2 which were used yesterday to prep the replacement fender and the other was used today for the final coat of primer. The remainder of the primer will be used on the bumpers and sliders. Also bought the matte black color that I always use for the black bumpers.

Yesterday worked on prepping the fender for primer, we Sanded down and cleaned up the surface area. Then at the end the day we laid a couple coats of primer on there.


Here's my brother doing some work. We started with 80 grit, then 220, and this 1500.





My little brother worked in refurbishing and repainting used gym equipment so in his year working at his last job he learned a few things/tricks and taught me a thing or two about sanding and painting. So im really hoping this fender comes out okay once the actual charcoal paint and clear coats are applied.

Here is how we left the fender yesterday. This was with about 3 coats of light grey primer.



Today we cleaned it up a some more and applied one last coat of primer.


Tomorrow I am going to apply the charcoal grey color. I may add a couple a couple of coats, just for thickness. Then add clear coat the day after that. I'm really hoping this comes out the best

 

Also I thought i'd give you guys an update and let you all know that my school is going great!
Recently ive been practicing getting more efficient in setting up for surgery and here is some of and my glory!
We are supposed to aim at getting our time in under 20 minutes to clear(pass on to) for clinicals(getting sent to the hospital). And in early December i was doing about 18min 30 seconds. With more practice I have cut down my surgical scrub time down one full minute and now I can do the scrub in 2min 50seconds.

http://instagram.com/p/yJVPJnFIpT/?modal=true

In full I was able to set up my back table, mayo stand, do my scrub, gown and glove myself, perform instrument count and be ready for surgery in 17min 18seconds. That is really good but i wanted to keep working at it. I really wanted to try getting my time under 17 minutes. So I practiced and practiced and I finally beat my record by a long shot!


This one was just this past week. You can clearly see that my practice has been helping so much. I cut my set up time down by 2 minutes since my last timed practice for setting up my Operating Room instruments for surgery From 17min 20sec to 15min 21sec.




And just for fun. this is me and my classmate. We had both volunteered to be the patient for the day to learn how to properly transfer a patients over from OR table to hospital bed for transfer to PACU(Post anesthesia care unit)

http://instagram.com/p/yg0a2-lIjF/?modal=true

I'm really enjoying this school. i have 10 more weeks before i start clinicals. I really cant wait to start. I am gonna have tons of fun out there.

 

Good job, both in the shop and in the hospital, Richard. Now just be careful to pick up the right tool for the occasion- no ratchets at the operating table - LOL!

 

just dont look for the elbow grease when in surgery

since this happened id pay for the extra uninsured motorist coverage on her

 

I'm glad to hear no one was hurt! I'm sorry if this is a stupid question... but if no one's insurance is covering your truck's damages, why do you have to prove you fixed it at all?

 

Lol it depends on what kind of surgery I decide to get into. ORTHOPEDIC cases deal with tons of instruments. And lots of power tools and drills. Some powered with compressed air, others with other types of gas like nitrous or nitrogen I believe. Ortho really looks like it would be a fun field to get into for me. My teachers all tell me I'd be very good in that field since I love to work on cars and due to being mechanically inclined troubleshooting instruments and OR Power tools would come easy to me.

Oh no elbow grease in surgery. We need to be as delicate as we can because we can damage tissues or cause unnecessary tissue inflammation and bleeding. Which in turn makes our job, or better yet the surgeons job a pain in the butt. As for uninsured motorists. I could have sworn I had it on my truck. But apparently only my old corolla had the coverage. So I guess I found out the hard way. But I am definitely going to ask to have that added to the policy.

It's definitely not a stupid question. I am wondering the same thing. Today my mom is going to call the insurance person to inform them that we are working as quickly as we can to fix the damages.

I think they just want a confirmation that we are doing something to fix it. But the letter isn't very clear. So I left it to my mom to find out for me.

 

Yeah... I'd challenge that. I don't know the insurance laws in your state, but if they're not giving you any money I don't see why you'd owe them anything.

I hope it works out! Looks like you're making great progress.

 

I went through 2 cans of charcoal Grey color.it looks like it's gonna be a perfect match. I sprayed some of the paint onto the crashed driver side fender when I got home and about 2 hours later i went back to check on it. To tell you the truth I really can't tell the difference I cant even see where the new paint went on lol So here is the Replacement fender with 2 cans worth of Duplicolor Perfect Match FORD charcoal grey. Apparently their grey matches my faded charcoal grey Toyota paint color perfectly lol






It's not the best shot. But here I'm holding the replacement fender against the truck's passenger side. Although the angle with shadows aren't the best you can clearly see that the fender is really freekin' close to the original color.




1 can of clear coat check! ✔ she is looking good. Just need it to dry and it is finished!



Sometime this weekend I want to see if my dad and I can bend the bumper back into place. I honestly don't know how we are going to do it. but im hoping its a success. That driver side needs to be pulled forward and outward to the left some. once it is realigned, and the broken weld is reweled then I can begin grinding, sanding then paint and install the finished fender along with Chef's head light hardware. I cant wait.

 

Hey Richard, your fender is looking good, looks like a a really good color match, can't wait to see it on your runner! Hope you guys are able to get the bumper straightened back out!

I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying school and its going good for you!

 

When I glanced and saw the picture of the surgical equipment I thought "he's really taking this repair to the extreme!" From your attention to detail in all things I think you're going to do great in your field. I'm glad you could fix the Runner.

 

paint looks good use a little bit on that scuff near the tail light and the issue up on the cowl!