'74 Build: Dirtbike250x's Project: "Rotten Orange"

[dirtbike250x]

Once the frame was POR15 it was kept outside under a tarp to keep the sun off the UV sensitive paint, which made plenty of room in the garage to fully take on the body work and rust repairs.

First we got back to work on the main body mount beam. It was pretty far gone.

As it shows there was very little metal left, and body mounts were hanging on by a thread.

So we used some ange and some "T" metal to build up a new flange to make a new beam stronger than the stock one ever was.

(All the holes are places that need to be patched)

Once the flanges were welded in place and the bare metal was also coated in POR15 it was time to then build the beam with the integrated body mounts.

We had some sheet metal bent to a 90 and fit, measure and integrated the new body mounts into the beam. And added some reinforcement sheets to distribute the load pull from the body mounts.

 

[dirtbike250x]

 

[dirtbike250x]

Once the body mounts were finished welded, we mocked it up in place to tack in, and develop a template to ensure body mount location of the frame would match body mount location on the body.

The next step (although we did not take pictures, was capping off the bottom floor pan as it meets the rocker panel (You can see in the picture we have already cut the old stuff back and away in replacement of the new caps. The rocker panels were replaced at some point in the trucks past and the metal overlapped the old metal which I believe caused some significant rot behind the "new" rocker panels.

(The truck is back flat at this moment so I will get pictures of the rust repair in those locations when I get the tub back on its side)

I became tired of looking at the tub on its side so my dad and me laid it back down flat and made a home made FJ40 tub support out of some wood

 

[dirtbike250x]

Once the body was flat we began removing some of the interior paint, and jumped into the next major recontruction the rear floor. Although I did not want to replace it because it was original metal (and there isn't much of that left) it was warped and beat up, most likely because of loads that were placed in there without proper structure due to the rotting support structures.

So out came the floor....

Between metal cutting and fabricating, I wanted to get a better idea of the condition of the body so...

I began to peel the skin off my Rotten Orange....

 

[hairynuckles]

Your doing a great job, I wouldn't have the patients to do all that repair to the body! When I redo mine, its gonna be a full aluminum tub replacement! lol

 

[dirtbike250x]

Your doing a great job, I wouldn't have the patients to do all that repair to the body! When I redo mine, its gonna be a full aluminum tub replacement! lol

Thank You! To be honest it had crossed my mind to get a replacement 3/4 steel tub as the firewall/dash areas was still pretty much solid. Unfortunately the price to replace the tub was pretty scary. Now we are getting further along, I feel like we are practically building our own tub. Its all part of the project though.

 

[dirtbike250x]

The paint stripper continued to flow and layer by layer the paint came off until it was a bare steel. There still are some more detailed areas that need to be removed, but it really just wanted a idea of the condition. While there are a few spots on either rocker that need replacement, the rest is solid. Wavy, but solid...

Since the focus turned to the rear end of the truck to rebuild the floor and tailgate section, the first important aspect was to square the rear end up and build a new rear sill.

As with most of the underneath the sill was to far gone to be saved, and instead of buying a new sill we made our own.

We used a band-saw to cut the shapes out in separate pieces and I welded each together to create replica curved ends of the ones pictured above.

 

[dirtbike250x]

So today became a turn of events for the Project Rotten Orange. With the magic of the internet I searched my engine code and found a fellow MUDer here who also ran this 2F in the very same truck. It turns out the story given to me from the dealer I purchased the truck from turned to be false. The very generous previous owner was able to take his time and inform me of the correct and informative story this truck previously lived. As a Toyota enthusiast it was great to hear this Toyota once served a previous family and is now in mine to continue its life.

It is an inspirational and exciting to find out the true story of our current project. And I can not thank the previous owner enough for taking the time to fill me in!

Just for fun a previous picture...

 

[Stevesnj]

Looks good in blue! Looks like the factory winch mount in front.

 

[dirtbike250x]

With the main rear sill complete, measurements began to begin to realign the truck inorder for it to be as square as possible when we weld in all new metal in the locations where we removed.

As with a build like this one, you can not follow anyone certain plan. We were originally going to save the rear fender tubs as they seemed fairly solid. However, as the paint and about 1/4in of bondo came off in spots we realized instead of attempting to straighten them out...why not replace with something stronger.

So out came fender tub number one.

And with a little bit of clean up of the inner body panel we tacked in a start of the new fender tub.

Of course using angle steel and such may not be the typical way to build a fender, it offers something that resembles the original shape while being a level above in strength. And that is what we are after.

It seems that the original roll bar gusset metal pieces probably rotted away and were replaced with a butt joint welded angle using 1/4 inch steel. While that metal is plenty strong for the application of a solider mount for the roll, the measurements did not quite line up and the holes that the were custom drilled did not line up and went off the edge of the plates.

So the first step was to extend them.

Then we made that butt joint just waiting to crack, a little extra strength. By welding in a piece of angle into the angle.

 

[dirtbike250x]

With those welded in place...

It was time for a test fit....

And with that became the very rough skeleton of the new fenders.

However, before anything could really be welded in place for good. We needed to test the fitment of the hard top, rear hatch and gain some required dimensions to build a new tailgate (drop down style). This is the time when body panel gaps come into play for the proper function and fitment of the final product.

So more paint stripping of the hard top pieces...

With the main pieces stripped it was start to rebuild the hard top...

 

[MrMoMo]

Looks great! Makes me feel a little less crazy for all the work I am putting into mine - in the same "one thing leads to another" flow of starting out with a diesel swap, now a full frame off... Subscribed - thanks for the motivation!

 

[dirtbike250x]

Looks great! Makes me feel a little less crazy for all the work I am putting into mine - in the same "one thing leads to another" flow of starting out with a diesel swap, now a full frame off... Subscribed - thanks for the motivation!

Thank You for the kind words. I to sometimes need to check out some of these builds who have it worse than me to give me a little kick to keep on with the rust repair to really make this a solid truck in the end. One of these days I will have no more rusty metal to cut out...

 

[MrMoMo]

One of these days I will have no more rusty metal to cut out...

I keep saying that myself! I cut out two big squares from my wheel wells the other night, thinking - that's the last of it in the box.... Only to realize that it was only the top surface, and I need to cut the same thing out of the side.... And then the corners of the bed, oh, and that spot on the forward bed support, and the... And.... And.... Damn, caught in my own trap again!

 

[dirtbike250x]

With the main parts of the hard top installed it was time to start setting gaps and fit the parts back together so when everything gets back welded in the panels will still be lined up the right way.

With the rear hatch hung, it was time to measure out the squareness of the hard top sides and set even gaps around. The goal with this is to prevent any need to slam doors to shut, and nice gentle latch would be ideal.

Some tweaking of the hatch and a little banging and checking of gaps it was in the right spot and would shut on its own from just a few inches from the latches....Job well done for that one....

To prevent any movement of the hard top sides to maintain the idea gap until the fiberglass hard time is in place for fitment, we designed a quick "hard top side spreader"....

All-thread, some large washers from our burnt up bench grinder and some nuts took care of that....

 

[dirtbike250x]

With the hatch removed it was time to get back to the fender to get that all positioned so we can start sticking the metal together....

In stead of having a hard angle in the cab, we are going to use some angle steel that was made with a nice curve to it rather than the hard "L" shape. Again this may not be the standard in building fender tubs with this truck, but the goal here is strength and little bit of a nice appearance.

 

[dirtbike250x]

With the location complete on the driver side fender, for the roll cage placement and such, it was time to cut fender number two out and begin doing what we did all over again...

And we ended up with a bigger hole than what we started with...

While one of us finished fitting the driver fender mocking up placement for the passenger fender could begin.

 

[dirtbike250x]

And finally we were able to have a fender frame held together with something other than vice-grips and c-clamps.

Sorta of a short update, but this thread is now current to where the truck sits as of now. Making the passenger side look like the driver side is next, and then laying sheet metal for the fender skins and the rear floor will occur. Then onto outer body work to get some paint on this thing!!

 

[winnie]

nice progress and I like the beefier reconstruction ... given you now have the history of the truck, are you going to repaint it the factory original ...

 

[dirtbike250x]

nice progress and I like the beefier reconstruction ... given you now have the history of the truck, are you going to repaint it the factory original ...

Thank You. The previous owner in which I gained the history of the truck did not purchase the truck with its factory original color. The blue was painted on the truck by a high school shop class over what appeared to be Dune Beige.
As of right now I am not still not totally sure of a color choice, between Mustard, Dune Beige, or a form of blue. I keep changing my mind on which I like the best...