Builds 86 Xtra Cab Build (4Wheelunderground 3 link front, 4 link rear and 3.4 swap) (9 Viewers)

[aztoyman]

I've been out of the Cat dealership 20 years now so I don't know what may have changed with the paint. But back then we sprayed water based Cat branded paint with solvent sprayers and it would lay down nice. The stuff was super durable.

 

[aztoyman]

I'm getting ready to pack seam sealer into some visible areas and hopefully not making a visible when done mess. I don't want to waste a lot or have a big cleanup. Hopefully all this super fun taping was worth the effort.

 

[Homey15]

I once saw a very rare, very cool Hispano-Suiza J12 that the owner had spent almost $100K on just the paint and bodywork. Picture this all black and perfect. It was flawless and it later scored incredibly high at the Pebble Beach Concurs, but it was not a vehicle that I wanted to be within 10 feet of for fear of somehow blemishing it.

Lately I've been wondering about using the paint(s) that are used on OTR trucks. I do not know much about it or them, but they appear to be much more durable at the expense of the high gloss - which I have no interest in.

Look into PPG aue 360 for primed surfaces or aue 370 for direct to metal use. It lays down pretty good with an average amount of orange peel, pretty good gloss and it holds up excellent in hard use applications. I've sprayed quite a bit of it on concrete mixer trucks and dump truck beds and am impressed with the beating it will take.

 

[gnob]

wrong thread sorry

 

[aztoyman]

Ok, the super (not) fun taping before seam sealing was a good choice. I think any extra time spent on taping is easily made up for with the lack of needed cleanup and I definitely wasted very little sealer.

Here's some pics of the areas that need to be sealed and after sealer. The pics make the paint look like my urethane top coat. It's actually the epoxy primer. No, I didn't paint over the sealer. I will though.

 

[aztoyman]

I haven't had time to work on this lately. I've been picking away at what's left of my 88. I've been selling parts.
Today I decided to keep plugging away at getting the panels in epoxy. A couple posts up I was complaining that it was still over 100 degrees. Today I probably shouldn't have painted. It was 62. I have slow hardener so I just made sure my parts were laying flat to avoid any runs.

I at least got the flip side of the fenders sprayed and the inside of the door I dropped the last time I tried to paint it.

 

[aztoyman]

This is my first time using epoxy primer and I'm pretty impressed with the stuff. It goes down almost as nice as my topcoat. It's not glass smooth like a base/clear but damn.

If the weather cooperates tomorrow, I'm hoping to get to the hood.

 

[aztoyman]

I sold some more parts off my 88. Man that poor truck is basically a bare cab and frame. Kinda sad. A LOT of it lives on in this 86 at least.

In the 70's today so I got some more parts in epoxy. Kinda breezy so I had to deal with that since I sprayed in the driveway. I just need to protect all this bare steel and once in epoxy I can seam seal and apply filler. Plenty of small dings and a pretty big one on the tailgate. If I can figure out a way to get behind the dent I'll try to hammer it out some before any filler.

 

[aztoyman]

The hood has a couple big dents but I can't get behind them to hammer them out. The bracing is directly under it. I can't justify buying a stud gun. I'll figure something out.

So the plan today is get the underside coated so I can seam seal and bond the bracing back to the skin. The hole WILL end up being cut larger and I'll either cover it with a scoop or.... not.

Looks good in the pics. You can't see the spiders or the dirt and leaves that landed on it.

 

[aztoyman]

I had run my door mounting bolts and hood hinge bolts in my ammo tumbler with stainless pins. They were nice and clean but too polished. So I drilled a bunch of holes in a piece of scrap metal and put nuts on to retain them. I blasted the heads and washers in the blast cabinet. Stuck them in a cardboard box and sprayed them. I'll hit them with top coat tomorrow.

 

[ntsqd]

IF we can't see them then they don't exist.

 

[aztoyman]

Ha ha, it's the BOTTOM layer so I don't care at this point. I'd be pissed if it was my top coat. THAT will be done in a booth of some sort.

 

[aztoyman]

I only have a 24 hour window to get this single stage paint on this primer without any additional prep. So I painted the hood hinges and some body color bolts today because prep on this kind of stuff sucks.

 

[aztoyman]

And the parts I ordered last month during the Toyota sale got delivered today.

Not much, but hey it's progress.

 

[aztoyman]

I have too much going on to get to this truck. Very frustrating. A friend of mine needed a hand with a project. He lives an hour away and it's also where my extra Xtra Cab is. So I came home with a bunch of parts. I'll use the best of what parts I have for this truck.

I found a couple hours of time today so I attacked the bends and dents on the tailgate. I had to break out my caveman tools. I found a way to "gently tap" a couple different pry bars and a Cat grouser bar between an internal brace and the outer skin. It pushed most of that huge dent back out. It went from 1/2" deep to maybe an 1/8" at the deepest point.

The other area that definitely needed work was the bottom edge below and to the passenger side of that dent. It needed quite the beating to get it back in line but it lines right up now. There's a few really small dings too. Hopefully Saturday I can get some filler on. More VA stuff tomorrow.

 

[aztoyman]

Today I got a little time to actually do something on this build so I grabbed the tailgate again. Since I'm a bodywork newb it started out slow. I prepped the surface of the primer and got some filler in the dents. The big dent looks like it took a lot of filler but the majority of it is super thin. Just enough light showing under an 18" straight edge to notice. The center of the ding tapers in to maybe an eighth inch deep. It's too cold to paint so I'll probably keep working on filling dents in the fenders and doors.

I sold more parts from the 88 so I took advantage of the Toyota dealer sale. Two more parts orders on the way. I also caught a good deal and ordered my spare tire. Stickies are expensive.

I have a couple home projects that keep bumping me off this. Hopefully I can squeeze more time in for the fun stuff.

 

[aztoyman]

Got my fenders sanded for the next coat of primer and I got filler in all the dents. The driver side had a bunch of little dings. I mixed a small batch of filler and it was enough to fill all the dents individually in one shot before it hardened up.

Material is expensive and sanding SUCKS. So I wasn't going to go all Chip Foose, Over-Haulin style or Bitchin Rides and and just spread filler across the entire panel and long board sand my panels to a laser straight surface.

 

[aztoyman]

The passenger side was pretty dang straight. I had one ding, some deformation around the antenna hole and a couple spider arms sticking out of the paint giving me the fingers.

 

[Mudder]

What material did you end up using to seal your HVAC duct work? I’m getting very little air out of my vents and I’m thinking it’s because I didn’t put any foam back on the tubes.

 

[aztoyman]

@Mudder Here's a couple of the products I used on the A/C stuff. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NUVISA?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PFJW7XY?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title