Making the 60 more gooder (1 Viewer)

[SHIfTHEAD]

I skim the rocker and then decide that's it, I'm gonna epoxy coat it now. My shop is a very old building. Built about 50 years ago by a preacher-man who was a finish carpenter. He used it to build furniture and caskets. When he built the shop, as the story goes from the old-timer who told it to me, he felled some local pines. All the timbers throughout are rough-cut Yellow pine. Then he nails the whole thing together with giant 10 penny nails. When I bought the land/building it was rather derelict, and to be honest, it looks a little better today, but I had to clean out the interior and remove some of the things he'd added to the interior. He had a tilted shelf that ran the length of one side of the building (35'). It was tilted towards the wall and in the center-hung a very scary homemade saw. The saw was just the biggest motor he could find, a 3/4 hp beast with a huge 12" circular saw blade affixed to it. There was a blade guard, thankfully, and it was all suspended from the wall using a 4 foot long T made out of 2" pipe with bearings pivots nailed to the wall stud at the ends of the horizontal point of the T. I tell you this whole story really to tell you how impressed I was at how insanely strong the nails were that is holding this whole structure together.

When it was time to remove all the shelving and whatnot that the preacher man had added I was shocked at how hard it was to do. Those biga$$ nails that had been driven in 40-50 years ago were unbelievably hard to pull out. In many cases, the head of the nail would rip off instead of the nail pulling out. These weren't those nails with the little barbs cut into them or the ones with the glue, they were just good old-fashioned iron spikes. In the end, I was having to use a 3lb sledgehammer to bash the shelve joists away from the wall studs. So this made me feel a whole lot better about the strength of the rest of the building, as those nails were the size of 6 inch long and the diameter of a crayon. I don't even know how many pennies those are, but I am certain they are never coming out. So why am I telling you all of this? I forget. Sometimes my fingers just type what is in my head...but it probably had something to do with me needing to spray epoxy or something. It's early and I need more coffee.

OK, so it's time to prep for epoxy primer. I've learned from my previous projects this feels like a big milestone, but it's not as big as it feels. Initially it looks like the project is nearing paint, and perhaps if a pro were doing all of this it would be, but for me it means I can now find all the mistakes the matte finish has been hiding. Glossy finish will show *everything*. So I start by an initial wipedown of the whole truck. I use a very weak soap and water solution. I don't want to use a bunch of water as I need to ensure the body is totally dry when I am ready to spray. I use a couple dozen rags and the initial pass is really to get the vast majority of the dust off the truck. Next I start taping up all the window and openings I don't want sprayed. And finally I use a degreaser to wipe down everything again. At this point the body is ready to receive the epoxy.

Time to dig out the gun and start mixing up some epoxy.

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

It's been a while since I've sprayed anything, but it's like riding a bike. I decided to use the Harbor Freight gun my buddy gave to me for the primer stuff. Actually, it's not a terrible gun, but it's not what I would use for a finish coat unless I had no other options. It's not necessarily that it's bad, but the adjustments are not as succinct, I guess that is how I'd phrase it. Anyway, I pull out the gun and have to clean it again since he didn't do a great job of that the last time he used it. I will be asking for a refund! Clean it up good enough to use and mix up the first batch. The shop is especially tight right now because of my buddy's bike that's up on the rack. I'm replacing the transmission in it so it's in the way, else I could slide the whole bike lift out of the way and have WAY more room. Not a big deal now, but when it comes time to spray finish coats I will have rearranged the shop.

With the first batch in the gun, I head to the back and start by spraying the backend first. I've got my 3M filter on my face, don't want to be breathing in this stuff. And since I haven't ordered my box fan cross flow setup yet was a mistake. The whole shop is now full of this acrid epoxy fog. Eyes are burning, this batch seems to last forever, but I keep spraying till it's all gone. I drag over my little fan to the front door, lock the screen door shut and turn up the fan to full blast. I then open the rear door and create a flow through the shop to pull out this fog. It takes about 10 minutes to clear it out, but I have to get the gun cleaned. I remember being told that paint thinner would clean this off. It doesn't. It behaves like oil and water, doesn't mix at all. Try some mineral spirits, same result. Realizing I need some acetone and have none, I find a can of Reducer and use that to clean all the parts. It works and the gun is clean now. Also, the air is clear so I take off the mask.

The first batch is setting up nicely now, so I start to set up the second. I am getting back into the swing of things now. Mixing, spraying, cleaning, mixing, spraying cleaning... The second batch is going on faster, I've turned up the amount of material now, set the gun at about 30 psi. The cross-flow is helping to keep the air much clearer, and it's all gone in about 5 mins after spraying. Mixing up the 3rd and 4th batches now. Halfway through the 3rd batch, I noticed a drop of water that fell on the hood. Am I sweating that much? I noticed it again on the 3rd and realized that the inline drier is no longer able to keep up with the amount of water in the line. This becomes a big problem at the end of the 4th batch. I am glad this is just the epoxy sealer because this has been a steep (re)learning curve.

I've relearned that I need to use an air nozzle and blow down the whole vehicle because there is dust and trash hidden in all the crevices that will come out when the air hits it. If that air is from the spray gun then you end up with crap in your paint. Next, water. I've ordered a water separator and another inline separator too. Managing this may prove the most challenging. And third, bugs. I've had a few of these little gnats buzzing around the shop, but I've never noticed them on anything. When the truck is white I noticed a few met their end stuck to the truck. So, before I spray finish I'll get a couple of bug bombs and set them off in the shop the night before. I ordered 2 20" box fans and 20x20x1 house filters to set up a good cross-flow through the shop. I'll cover the majority of the screen doors with plastic leaving only the box fan areas open to pull in and extract the air. The house filters will filter the air coming into the shop as an added measure.

The results look ok, from 6 feet away. But it's now sealed so I don't have to worry about moisture any longer. And the gloss highlighted all the mistakes that will need addressing, and there are many. But we are making progress!

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

Well since that epoxy primer was sprayed on many hours of sanding followed. A shine has a way of showing all your faults and there (are still) many.

I start with a blocking of the whole truck to find the low spots. Don't really need a guide coat yet, just look for where it's still shiny after you block it with 180. Sooooo many dings there were. The hood and the roof have given me fits. The hood had a large shallow depression. Probably from years of it not being supported by the frame, and the big ass low spot was right in the open spot of that frame. Probably every time it was slammed closed it stretched the skin a little more. It wasn't much, but enough that you could see the low spot after blocking. Thank goodness for 24" Durablocks. And I've decided the PO was a tap dancer and practiced on the roof. There were probably 20 dings. Hail dings, depressions from the rack, stuff poking the roof while on the rack, etc. I'm sick to death of sanding now. I've had enough fun already.

I am really happy with how the rear arches turned out. It took a few adjustments to fix the various high spots. Skim sand, tap the high spots down, skim sand, tap, repeat. But in the end I got it nice and flat and smooth and the curve looks pretty good I think.

So tonight I sprayed another coat of epoxy primer. From here on out it will just be spot sprays till all the blemishes are fixed. The I'll scuff with 320 the whole truck and get ready for color. For that all the doors, tail gate, rear hatch and hood will come off so I can spray the jambs. Also it lets me make sure all the hidden bits are clean and I can mask better. I'll hang the door, tail gate and rear hatch from the rafters so I spray them in the correct orientation, since the paint has a little metallic in it. Hood will be on paint horses. Then comes assembly.

Holy shltfire. I hope this thing doesn't kill me.

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

Well it's been a minute since I had anything to add on this project. I had the LX450 I got from my buddy that I had to sort out for the big trip this summer. That all happened and the truck did great. Except for gas mileage. 7500 mile trip and $2350 in gas alone. But it took me places I could have never gone on a bike, my usual mode of long trip transportation.

Anyway, that is all in the past and I've gotten back to work on this guy. Since all the body work was done I just had to prep it for paint, I thought. It's never that easy. Going over the whole truck with 320 grit paper showed a couple dings I missed or were new. Fixed them, they were small. But since I am doing the jambs I needed to remove everything. What I thought was a couple days work ends up being a couple weeks.

I wanted to wait until I had some lower temps and humidity since I have to spray iny shop. The humidity is terrible here in the south east. I have 3 water separators and they remove a lot of water, but I still need one on the gun and the dessicant pods too. And I have to remember to empty the one on the gun or I eventually get a drop fly out.

So I wait...

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

Since I'm waiting I try my hand at restoring the dash. I've watched lots of videos on the topic but have never actually done it. I get to work cleaning up the old cracked dash. Note: use a heat gun to soften the vinyl and it will cut instead of cracking.

With the worst of it cut away I sanded with 80 grit since I will use fiberglass as a top layer. But first I have to fill the cracks with body filler and sand. Here's after the layer of fiberglass.

Now I need to get the surface totally smooth and ready for paint. More body filler and lots of sanding. Then I use the SEM texture paint as the initial base coat. Once dried I knock the high points down to give it a more even surface, but still retain the texture. 320 grit paper with very light pressure here.

Then I wipe that down with a rag that was lightly misted with water to remove the dust. Wait 15 minutes to ensure it's dry and start topcoat. I gave it 3 passes, 2 light and 1 wet coat. Once dried I got it with 320 grit again VERY lightly to get everything smooth without removing the texture. Then hit it again with topcoat.

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

I think it turned out alright!

Now, let's get back to the truck. Yesterday the weather was about as good as I was going to have for the next week or so, so I decided to move forward with painting the main shell. Since I'm doing it in my shop I want to hang plastic everywhere to minimize over spray throughout the shop, but also to minimize crap getting on the truck. Hanging the plastic was no fun, lemme tell ya.

With it all up I arranged all my fan to create a negative pressure to clear out the shop when spraying. I got everything in order, and got to spraying. 3 coats of base and 3 coats of clear.

Today as I look at it I've got 7 small (3/4") runs to fix, but otherwise I'm real happy with the results so far. I'll need to cut and buff, of course, as I've got some orange peel and dust to clean up. But otherwise it went on real well. The clear laid out nicely. It was probably 85 degrees in the shop and the medium reducer was just right.

It's a Toyota color, a little lighter than the original. The original paint code was 474 Copper Metallic, this is also shown as Copper Metallic but the code is 4T9.

Now I will start getting all other bits ready for paint. Then, finally, I can start putting this thing back together!

 

[drwright68]

View attachment 3093284
View attachment 3093285

I think it turned out alright!

Now, let's get back to the truck. Yesterday the weather was about as good as I was going to have for the next week or so, so I decided to move forward with painting the main shell. Since I'm doing it in my shop I want to hang plastic everywhere to minimize over spray throughout the shop, but also to minimize crap getting on the truck. Hanging the plastic was no fun, lemme tell ya.

With it all up I arranged all my fan to create a negative pressure to clear out the shop when spraying. I got everything in order, and got to spraying. 3 coats of base and 3 coats of clear.

Today as I look at it I've got 7 small (3/4") runs to fix, but otherwise I'm real happy with the results so far. I'll need to cut and buff, of course, as I've got some orange peel and dust to clean up. But otherwise it went on real well. The clear laid out nicely. It was probably 85 degrees in the shop and the medium reducer was just right.

It's a Toyota color, a little lighter than the original. The original paint code was 474 Copper Metallic, this is also shown as Copper Metallic but the code is 4T9.
View attachment 3093313
View attachment 3093315
View attachment 3093316
Now I will start getting all other bits ready for paint. Then, finally, I can start putting this thing back together!

She looks fantastic

 

[kelly saad]

Outstanding!!

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

Little bit more progress to report; I got all the windows back in now. I got a new windshield and gasket (without the lock strip) and it was a MAJOR PITA to get in the truck. I cannot stress enough how much of a fight that gasket put up, but it's in there and it's tight AND I didn't break the new glass. Wins all around. I know some folks have asked about how to do these gaskets; I learned on my dad's old British car and picked up a couple of tricks along the way. Some folks say to use a 3/8" rope in the channel, which will work, but I found somewhere someone said they used a smooth weedeater line. I tried that on the past couple of gaskets and like it much better. So basically you get some 3M bedding compund and I will line the inside and outside channels with a bead. Take a length of the weedeater line and starting at one bottom corner, run it along the bottom channel and then up and around the windshield to the corner you started, go past that corner and over to the other bottom corner so you have two lengths of line in the bottom channel now. This is why the weed eater line is better, the rope would be too thick for two lengths. Having two lengths is good because if the gasket lip pops back out you have a second length to pull it back later. Now set the windshield on the gasket flange as close to the center as you can get it, and adjust from there. It's going to move while you work on it, but the bedding compound will let you move it around pretty easily while it's still very soft. Here's the really tricky part, the bottom corners are not going to want to stay seated, so you have to use pressure to keep the window in place while you set the other corner. This time I used 2 5 quart oil jugs duct-taped together and hanging from a rafter pushing against the window. I like these because the oil jugs are soft and will easily deform, and 10 quarts of oil weighs about 18lbs or so. So I hang them from a rafter with a length of rope so they are pushing on the corner that I have gotten set on the flange. Once the window is centered, get your bottle of overly soapy water and spray all the gasket down where it's going to come in contact with the flange, so that as you start to pull out the line the rubber will more easily slip over the flange. If you don't have some kind of soapy water then find something else, don't proceed without some kind of lubricant here as you can cut the gasket lip if you have to pull too hard. These gaskets are really strong, so you would need to pull REALLY hard, and if you are pulling that hard the pain from the weed eater line should be killing your hands anyway. OK, run along the bottom and as you go push the gasket down onto the flange from the inside, this will seat the gasket better and help keep it from popping off the flange. From time to time get out of the vehicle and check the windshield center and pull down on the top of the windshield and try to seat that glass into the bottom channel. Now get the first corner set over the flange, it's probably going to be really hard. Use lots of soapy water and use short hard tugs on the line to get the gasket lip to come up and over the flange. Once you get the first corner set, go a few more inches up the side, and make sure you push down the gasket on the inside to set it down on the flange. Now, if you are working alone this is the time to use the weight from above. Hang it from a rafter that is back over the top of the front seat so all the weight will be pushing on the windshield and keep it as close to the edge as possible. You should not need to more this for the rest of the job. Now check the windshield center again, pull down to set the glass again, and proceed with the second line. In case I missed it, when you set the windshield on the car you put the ends of the line inside, you will be working mostly from the inside of the vehicle. Now pull the second line and get the second corner set. You will have to use the palm of your hand and with some quick raps hit the glass right near the gaskets to get the gasket to come up and over the flange. You will need to do this all around the rest of the windshield. Use LOTS of soapy water everywhere you can think to use it. I will not cause an issue with the bedding compound, but it's essential to get the gasket in place without damage. I'm sure there is a special bottle of something out there for this, but the cheapest dish soap you can find is actually the best I've found. Cheap dish soap has lots of glycerin and just a little actual soap, and that soap is the cheapest there is, not like Dawn with strong degreasing agents which you don't want anyway. I do a 10-second squeeze into my little water bottle so that when I spray it I can feel the sliminess of the glycerin. I use the same stuff to change tires too. Anyway, you keep pulling the line, bumping the glass to set the gasket all the way around. Also, from time to time, with a plastic time removal tool, pull out the outermost gasket face flange that overlays the windshield frame all the way around. If it's a new gasket this forward-facing lip will fold under and wedge down into the frame channel preventing the gasket from fully seating. Use soapy water and a plastic trim removal tool and run it along the gasket to pull it out. You will have to do this from time to time till the gasket gets seated down far enough to prevent this from continuing to happen. Note: the gasket corners will be a REAL bitch, period. Also, I'm pretty sure this is much easier if you have a gasket with a locking strip, and easier still with a used gasket that's still very pliable.

Now, why would someone be silly enough to do a gasket on their own? Well there are a few reasons: 1) I am a control freak with these kinds of things and wouldn't want someone around the truck who I don't know doing this work, and 2) I like to do things myself, and 3) It's too hard to find good tradesmen who can still do these gaskets. But I will say, this job was tough. I did it in about 5 hrs, but man, I needed several breaks during that time. You are moving all around the front, pulling, pushing, banging, tugging, etc. and it takes a fair bit of strength to get this windshield and gasket to comply WITHOUT breaking it. So there's the stress of that added to it. Oh, with regards to the glass, I used a place called Autoglassics to purchase the windshield. He has access to wholesalers and so I go the glass for $225 and the gasket for $90. Since the wholesaler was about an hour away from me, I just went up there with the order number and picked it up, easy peasy. I thought that was a really fair price, and the guy was super helpful and can find just about any glass you need for almost any car.

OK, side rear window locking strips. The old ones are a mess and new ones are hard to impossible to find. Since I don't have a locking strip on the windshield I decided to try something I read on the forum about using Chevy/GM rubber locking strip material. I bought some from Amazon to test and used the locking strip tool and with a bit of effort figured out how to get it in the channel and locked in place. I didn't use the little metal cap that joins both ends because the locking strip is already really tight and the cap wouldn't fit. So I cut the strip about 1/16-1/8" too long and crammed it into the channel, so both ends are pushing against each other. As the rubber settled into place the ends pushed against each other so the seam is very tight and looked good to me. You can also get this material with chrome covering if you wanted to keep a factory look. So I'll be buying two more of these for the rear and the other side window.

Carpet, I found that Rock Auto sells ACC carpets, which is good enough for me. I know we have a guy who sells some stuff, which might be better, but Rock Auto is an authorized distributor for ACC which I've used in the past. The color is very good, the quality is also very good and the price, I thought, was good as well from RA. Any carpet installation is just a royal pain unless it's OEM. Every other carpet I've ever used requires a butt load of cutting and fiddling to get to fit. This is not different, BUT it is still better than any other carpet set I've used before. ACC also sews on wear patches for the driver's side and presses the carpet so it fits the seat mounts pretty well. You will still have to cut the bolt holes once you get it lined up, but having those molded in depressions in the carpet makes for a GREAT starting point. Other companies I used didn't do that and the carpet fit like crap. So I got the front and middle carpet laid down and refurbished the seats a bit while they were out. I also, for the first time, removed the seat covers and was pleased to see the seats were still in as good of condition as I remembered. They look fantastic, just need a little carpet cleaner action. So you can see the restored dash and refurbished gauge cluster in the following pics. I also cleaned up the steering wheel and refurb'd it as well.

I will finish the carpet and seats install, locking strips, and then for the next big one, I need to use a different hood. I'm not happy with how the hood turned out for this project. There are still some minor imperfections, which wouldn't have been a big deal except the metallic paint on this rig really highlights them. So I have pulled off the hood from the 62 project which just had a couple of dings on top but was straight otherwise, and prepped it for paint. I'm waiting on a quart of color to show up now. I'll use this hood on the 62 projects since it's going to be finished in factory white. And without all the metallic in the color, you won't see the minor imperfections unless you really get down and look really hard. I'm also about ready to start the cut and buff on the rest of the truck now that the paint is really cured now. I can see, and smell, that the solvents have evaporated now and the clear should be nice and hard. I'll do the cut and buff on the hood later, but if I put the clear down right it might lay out good enough that it won't need it. That's what's nice about a hood, you can paint it flat and any runs are non-issues. So use a slower activator and reducer to give the clear time to lay down and it will smooth right on out. After all of that I'll move on to the suspension; I was going to leave well enough alone but have decided to use the new OME kit I have on the 62 on this truck, and just swap them around. This is also an OME kit, but I think it's 10+ years old. It probably doesn't have more than 40K miles on it, so it's still in fine shape, but I want to move the new kit to the 60 because the long-term plan is to sell this truck and so I want to get top dollar. Having a new kit with shiny new springs and shocks will just add a little more bling to the truck. Once all of that is done then it's wheels and tires. I have a set of perfect stock chrome rims and caps ready to go and I'll probably put something like 33" Wildpeaks on them. They will look the part without being super noisy on the road.

OK, now for some pics:

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

 

[dogcruiser]

@SHIfTHEAD I’m very curious to see how the chrome around the rear side windows and rear hatch window look after this. It sounds like you did find a replacement? I need to paint mine after addressing a minor rust spot under the hatch window gasket and at the bottom of one of the rear side windows. My biggest concern is tue chrome lock strip. I really like the chrome strip and want to preserve it if I can’t buy it new (already bought everything new from Toyota for the windshield replacement).

Your paint color Looks gorgeous, BTW

 

[Old Nick]

@SHIfTHEAD I’m very curious to see how the chrome around the rear side windows and rear hatch window look after this. It sounds like you did find a replacement? I need to paint mine after addressing a minor rust spot under the hatch window gasket and at the bottom of one of the rear side windows. My biggest concern is tue chrome lock strip. I really like the chrome strip and want to preserve it if I can’t buy it new (already bought everything new from Toyota for the windshield replacement).

Your paint color Looks gorgeous, BTW

If you leave the gasket on the window (assuming it’s not dry rotted), you can leave the chrome lock strips in place and reinstall it as is; after you do your rust repair/painting. I did that for the upper lift hatch window and the rear quarters. No problems at all.

 

[duncanrm]

Next level.. so good. Well done

 

[kirvesmies]

@SHIfTHEAD , nice work . just read through the whole thing. you wouldn't happen to have any pics of the OSHA compliant murder saw would you? old $h!t like that intrigues me

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

@SHIfTHEAD , nice work . just read through the whole thing. you wouldn't happen to have any pics of the OSHA compliant murder saw would you? old $h!t like that intrigues me

I still have it the armature hanging out back, and the motor inside, I'll attach some pics...or...hmmm...I might have an old one of it on the wall.....lemme see....