Builds Bean! The Adventure Continues (1987 FJ60)

[Bullzi]

When I got the Bean back, I had hoped that new window runs would make it easier to roll up the windows...and they did, but not as much as I had wanted. So I decided to pull the old regulators and give them a new lease on life...maybe. I haven't reinstalled them to test, but the old grease was hard and the springs were super rusty.
I was very surprised at how easy it was to take the glass out. I thought it was going to be a major mission, but a couple of bolts and everything just popped right out.

Driver's Side regulator - they are all pretty similar.

I spent a good amount of time cleaning all the old grease out of the joints and teeth with a small pick and vacuum. I used a soft nylon brush drill attachment and some Simple Green to clean up the metal. This was nice because the nylon attachment was soft enough not to take off any of the metal's factory rust coating.

Removing the hard grease with a pick.

All clean!

I used a couple different lubricants on these. For the pivot points, I shot in some really good Aeroshell 64 grease leftover from my winch rebuild. This is a good waterproof grease used for shear applications. I used a small needle attachment that I made to get the grease in the small spaces.

Grease-gun needle attachment (you can buy these, but I made this one out of a large ball pump needle I found in my dad's shop...I smashed the end a bit to fit it in the joint a little further)

I used the Napa brand sil-glyde for the tracks that the plastic wheels ride on and some dry lock lube for the springs. I really like this dry lock lube because it doesn't attract dirt. A little fluid film on the springs probably wouldn't hurt either. This would help keep the rust off of them, but might attract debris since it stays wet.

The regulators seem to work a lot smoother (and quieter) now, but I haven't put the glass back in to test them. I'll be sure to give an update when the glass goes back in!

My passenger window regulator was a little worse for the wear and my next post will be how I fixed it (hopefully!).

 

[Bullzi]

So the front passenger side window regulator really had a hard time rolling up. I noticed that the part where the window crank attaches goes through to the other side of the regulator and has a pin that locates in a hole. This hole was worn down and oblonged out pretty bad.

Passenger side pin and oblonged hole:

Driver's side showing the pin and good hole:

I wanted to fix this, because it wasn't allowing the regulator to smoothly roll up the window. I drilled out the rivets holding this assembly to the window regulator and took it apart.

Next I took a nut and drilled it out to the correct diameter for the pin. I welded it to where the pin had oblonged the hole. I cleaned all the parts and welded the assembly back on (instead of the rivets) and painted over the welded areas to prevent rust. Finally, I gave it a good shot of grease.
My initial impression is that it operates much smoother now!

Nut welded on to capture the pin:

Assembly welded back into place:

A little paint to prevent rust:

I know you can buy the front regulators new from Toyota or aftermarket from Rock Auto, but I have heard that the aftermarket only last a few seasons and the Toyota are pretty expensive. I'm hoping this refresh allows mine to keep working for many years!

Driver's Regulator: 69820-90A02 - $107 (Toyota Parts Deal)
Passenger's Regulator: 69810-90A02 - $107 (Toyota Parts Deal)
DS Rear Regulator: 69840-90A01 - Discontinued
PS Rear Regulator: 69830-90A01 - Discontinued

 

[Bullzi]

A few weeks ago I pulled all the door locks and latches. They had been super dirty and were starting to stick shut. There was also some dust in there from all the paint and bodywork, so I'm sure that wasn't helping matters.

Here's an example of what I did to lube the latches...they are all somewhat similar and I think these pictures are from the driver's door.

Dirty - I was getting some sticking of the door and that is why I decided to clean these guys up.

You can access the internals by removing the phillips screw shown in the picture below.

The internals with old dry grease. I think white lithium or similar was used. It was no longer doing a very good job.

Most of the bits and bobs removed -

Cleaned up -

Lubed and put back together -

I used dry lock lube to lube the springs and some green waterproof synthetic grease for the locking mechanism. The green grease isn't supposed to dry out, but it is really sticky which could potentially be a problem. My hope is that this stickier grease doesn't overcome the force of the internal spring and prevent the latch from pivoting closed. I guess time will tell...at least this process isn't too complicated if I have to redo them.
I didn't want to use white lithium grease because it hardens and I have read reports of people having to re-grease within a few years. Would be nice to know what Toyota used from the factory because it seems to have lasted over 30 years (unless someone before me had greased these).

I also greased the hatch and tailgate latch mechanisms, but the latch for the hatch is riveted shut, so you can't take it all the way apart to grease it. I just cleaned it up and threw some lube on the springs and greased the pins.

The tailgate latch mechanism (where the chrome handle attaches) was pretty rusty. I threw some fluid film on this and called it a day. There wasn't much more I could do without getting carried away and it seemed to be working just fine.

 

[Bullzi]

Since the latches were getting some attention, I also cleaned and lubed the door lock cylinders. I ended up taking one of them to the locksmith to have a new spring added to the small lock door so it stayed shut. I also took the locksmith a FJ62 rear hatch lock cylinder to be re-keyed. I am going to be installing the rear hatch lock out of a FJ62 so I can connect it to an actuator and have the hatch unlock with the keyless entry system.

The locksmith did an okay job...the hatch lock was re-keyed correctly, but he actually put the parts back together in the wrong order. It was easy to take apart and fix, but I was surprised by his error.

I'm really excited to be able to unlock the hatch with my keyless entry system. The only problem I am going to face is how to mount the aftermarket actuator. I have an idea that I think will work, but I won't be doing that work until the wiring is back in the hatch...so it could still be a little while!

Here are some pictures of the FJ60 and FJ62 hatch locks side by side. I thought it was interesting...The units look almost identical from the outside (except for the small lever on the back of the FJ62 lock), but the internals are very different!

FJ62 on top, FJ60 on bottom

The little lever on the back of the FJ62 lock rotates back and forth via an actuator and locks/unlocks.

Internals of the two locks - FJ62 on top and FJ60 on bottom.

 

[Bullzi]

Last stop on the grease train for now...Windshield Wiper Linkage

I wanted to get into the front cowl area to clean all the dust and debris out of the there. I also wanted to check the status of the fresh air inlet and make sure it wasn't rusting out. This is part of a larger project to refresh the AC system.
To gain access to the area, I pulled the wiper motor and linkage as one unit. This is super simple to do... 4 bolts from the top (at the wiper pivots) and then a few bolts for the motor in the engine bay. The entire linkage+motor can be pulled right out. It does take a little finagling to get the long arms out, but the entire process only takes about 10 minutes.

After I had the linkage out, I decided to give it a little fresh grease. Nothing too exciting here...there are a few ball and socket joints where the ball is metal and the socket is plastic. I ended up using the sil-glyde from Napa to grease them. The joints have a rubber boot protecting them and I was able to pull this back to clean the joints and put the fresh grease in.

In the picture below, the rubber boot at the wiper pivot is pulled back for greasing.

Assembly greased and boots back in place. There are 4 joints with boots total.

The pivot points also need greasing and for these I used the Aeroshell 64. As I've stated before, this is a super high quality grease for aircraft applications that I bought when I redid my winch. If I remember correctly, this grease is primarily used for metal on metal sliding applications.
One of my pivots is in good shape and the other is slightly worn. The housing appears to be aluminum, and has wallowed out a bit. removing the housing from the rod is easy, there is a single snap ring to remove then the rod pulls out of the housing with a washer. I cleaned out all the old grease and then added the new and put them back together. The function is vastly improved, but the one housing has more play than I would like. I'll see how it works when everything is operational and report back!

I only got a picture of the housing with the rod through it, I forgot to get a picture of it taken apart.

I also want to add, that a new linkage from Toyota is still available for about $250. Part Number: 85160-90A07.
Also, if you have worn out joints, I believe there are a few fixes out there offered by Trail Tailor and Wits End.



The fresh air inlet was cleaner than expected, but there were some leaves and other debris trapped in the corner. I removed this and found one spot at the seam of the inlet that was starting to rust, so I sanded it down to fresh metal, painted it with some Eastwood internal frame coating and seam-sealed it with a bit of 3M Urethane.

You can see the small rust spot forming at the seam, but all in all, it looks really good.

All Cleaned up:

Coated with Eastwood Internal Frame Coating - I used this because it has really good rust inhibiting properties.

And finally coated with some seam sealer. This particular seam sealer is DTM or over primer/paint...I tried to peel it of but couldn't, so it also seems to adhere well to Eastwood's Internal Frame Coating.

 

[Bullzi]

I finally got around to putting the glass back in the rear doors (still have to do the fronts) and wanted to go over the outer window felts. There is some information on this, but I found myself wanting more clarity last year when I was researching what I needed to do and what parts I needed to buy.

My wife and I really like the 80's vibe that the chrome molding on the truck provides and as such we wanted to make sure we kept the chrome around all the windows. The chrome under the windows that the outer felts attach to is NLA, so I had to change out the felts and keep the existing chrome strip. I really wish this was still available new...the black plastic edges of the chrome strip are brittle after 34 years and have cracked in a few places.

Anyways, adding the new outer felt to the existing chrome strip is a super simple procedure...but I will bore you to death with the details just for fun

The part numbers for the new window felts are as follows:
Front Left (Driver Door): 68210-90A02
Front Right: 68160-90A02
Rear Left: 68230-90A01
Rear Right: 68180-90A01

So there are four separate part numbers, but I couldn't find any difference between the two rears or the two fronts. The two rears looked exactly the same and the two fronts looked exactly the same...but they came in the packaging with four different part numbers.

FRONTS:

REARS:

There are 3 different clip iterations for the window felts. Originally, a metal clip was used to attach the felt to the chrome strip and then the chrome strip was snapped into the door. The metal clip was phased out (probably due to the potential for rust) and a plastic clip was introduced. The plastic clip performed the same function as the metal clip. This plastic clip is the clip you want to use if you have it. If you don't have it, there are some workarounds because it is NLA.
The third clip is also plastic, but it is for use without the chrome strip. This is the clip that currently comes on the window felts from Toyota. These felts can be inserted in the gap between the window and door frame without the chrome strip - this is routinely done by people who are wanting to shut out the 1980 vibes and black out their cruisers...shameful!

Here's a picture of the 3 clips:
Left: used without chrome strip
Middle: used with chrome strip
Right: used with chrome strip (try to find the plastic clips as they do not scratch your paint and rust).

As stated above, for attaching the new felts to the chrome strips the best option is the plastic clip. The clip holds the felt to the chrome and has a tab that hold the chrome into the door. The front felts each have 6 clips and the rears each have 4 clips.

The procedure is simple:

• Take the old chrome off the lower window (it helps if the window is rolled all the way down and take your time to carefully unsnap the clips...I found it easiest to have the door card off as well, but it is not completely necessary).
• Remove the old felt from the chrome being careful not to damage the clips. Also reference the location of the clips so they can be snapped back on in the same approximate location.
• Remove the plastic clips from the new window felts.
• Clamp the new window felts to the chrome with the old plastic clips.
• snap the chrome/felt into the door.

The following picture is the felt being clamped onto the chrome with the plastic clip:

Below is a picture from inside the door showing the felt clamped to the chrome and snapped into the inside edge of the door lip.

All Complete - The 1980's chrome glory with new felts!

Now, it is possible (though not recommended) to modify the plastic clips that come with the felt to work with the chrome strips. This might be necessary if you only had the metal clips and didn't want to reuse them or if you lost or broke one of the plastic clips since they are NLA.

To modify it's pretty simple...take the clip and cut off the long tang. It will then look very similar to the clip that used to come with the chrome strip. The only issue is that the small hooks that clip to the inner door edge are slightly too small and do not clip to the inner door edge as securely as the other plastic clips. From my testing, it appeared that the chrome strips would still hold securely, but I felt better using the plastic clips that were designed for the chrome strips.

Clip that comes with the new door felts (with middle plastic tang):

Upper clip is NLA and used with chrome strip. Lower clip is the same clip as the previous picture, but has had the middle tang sanded off.

The picture below shows the new window felt clip with the middle tang sanded off and used to clamp the felt and chrome together. You can see that the hooks do not hold as securely to the inner door edge as the other plastic clip.

Hopefully this is helpful to someone someday...its not rocket science, but its nice to be able to see how this all goes together as parts become harder and harder to find and more parts become NLA .

 

[LazarusTaxa]

There are 3 different clip iterations for the window felts. Originally, a metal clip was used to attach the felt to the chrome strip and then the chrome strip was snapped into the door. The metal clip was phased out (probably due to the potential for rust) and a plastic clip was introduced. The plastic clip performed the same function as the metal clip. This plastic clip is the clip you want to use if you have it. If you don't have it, there are some workarounds because it is NLA.
The third clip is also plastic, but it is for use without the chrome strip. This is the clip that currently comes on the window felts from Toyota. These felts can be inserted in the gap between the window and door frame without the chrome strip - this is routinely done by people who are wanting to shut out the 1980 vibes and black out their cruisers...shameful!

Yes, this is all exactly what I found in my investigation... I posted the same in my build thread Here

There seems to be confusion in the community on two things:

1) that there are separate felts for use with chrome vs without... From all the digging I did, there is only one felt and it can be used with or without the chrome depending on which clips you use

2) that the new clips that come on those felts (with the tang) can be used with chrome.. As you noted, they are meant to be used only without chrome.. The old clips are the ones to use with the chrome.

 

[red66toy]

I finally got around to putting the glass back in the rear doors (still have to do the fronts) and wanted to go over the outer window felts. There is some information on this, but I found myself wanting more clarity last year when I was researching what I needed to do and what parts I needed to buy.

My wife and I really like the 80's vibe that the chrome molding on the truck provides and as such we wanted to make sure we kept the chrome around all the windows. The chrome under the windows that the outer felts attach to is NLA, so I had to change out the felts and keep the existing chrome strip. I really wish this was still available new...the black plastic edges of the chrome strip are brittle after 34 years and have cracked in a few places.

Anyways, adding the new outer felt to the existing chrome strip is a super simple procedure...but I will bore you to death with the details just for fun

The part numbers for the new window felts are as follows:
Front Left (Driver Door): 68210-90A02
Front Right: 68160-90A02
Rear Left: 68230-90A01
Rear Right: 68180-90A01

So there are four separate part numbers, but I couldn't find any difference between the two rears or the two fronts. The two rears looked exactly the same and the two fronts looked exactly the same...but they came in the packaging with four different part numbers.

FRONTS:
View attachment 2807011

REARS:
View attachment 2807010

There are 3 different clip iterations for the window felts. Originally, a metal clip was used to attach the felt to the chrome strip and then the chrome strip was snapped into the door. The metal clip was phased out (probably due to the potential for rust) and a plastic clip was introduced. The plastic clip performed the same function as the metal clip. This plastic clip is the clip you want to use if you have it. If you don't have it, there are some workarounds because it is NLA.
The third clip is also plastic, but it is for use without the chrome strip. This is the clip that currently comes on the window felts from Toyota. These felts can be inserted in the gap between the window and door frame without the chrome strip - this is routinely done by people who are wanting to shut out the 1980 vibes and black out their cruisers...shameful!

Here's a picture of the 3 clips:
Left: used without chrome strip
Middle: used with chrome strip
Right: used with chrome strip (try to find the plastic clips as they do not scratch your paint and rust).

View attachment 2807005
View attachment 2807006

As stated above, for attaching the new felts to the chrome strips the best option is the plastic clip. The clip holds the felt to the chrome and has a tab that hold the chrome into the door. The front felts each have 6 clips and the rears each have 4 clips.

The procedure is simple:

• Take the old chrome off the lower window (it helps if the window is rolled all the way down and take your time to carefully unsnap the clips...I found it easiest to have the door card off as well, but it is not completely necessary).
• Remove the old felt from the chrome being careful not to damage the clips. Also reference the location of the clips so they can be snapped back on in the same approximate location.
• Remove the plastic clips from the new window felts.
• Clamp the new window felts to the chrome with the old plastic clips.
• snap the chrome/felt into the door.

The following picture is the felt being clamped onto the chrome with the plastic clip:
View attachment 2807002

Below is a picture from inside the door showing the felt clamped to the chrome and snapped into the inside edge of the door lip.
View attachment 2807003

All Complete - The 1980's chrome glory with new felts!
View attachment 2807026


Now, it is possible (though not recommended) to modify the plastic clips that come with the felt to work with the chrome strips. This might be necessary if you only had the metal clips and didn't want to reuse them or if you lost or broke one of the plastic clips since they are NLA.

To modify it's pretty simple...take the clip and cut off the long tang. It will then look very similar to the clip that used to come with the chrome strip. The only issue is that the small hooks that clip to the inner door edge are slightly too small and do not clip to the inner door edge as securely as the other plastic clips. From my testing, it appeared that the chrome strips would still hold securely, but I felt better using the plastic clips that were designed for the chrome strips.

Clip that comes with the new door felts (with middle plastic tang):
View attachment 2807030

Upper clip is NLA and used with chrome strip. Lower clip is the same clip as the previous picture, but has had the middle tang sanded off.
View attachment 2807031

The picture below shows the new window felt clip with the middle tang sanded off and used to clamp the felt and chrome together. You can see that the hooks do not hold as securely to the inner door edge as the other plastic clip.
View attachment 2807004
View attachment 2807003

Hopefully this is helpful to someone someday...its not rocket science, but its nice to be able to see how this all goes together as parts become harder and harder to find and more parts become NLA .

Yes! Thanks! I need to do this. I have one window without the chrome and it’s sad looking without it.

 

[Bullzi]

Chrome lock-strip around cargo windows and hatch glass:

When the Bean was stripped for paint, Kelly was not able to remove the factory chrome lock-strip from the windshield, cargo windows or hatch glass without ruining them. I searched high and low for replacement units, but most of it was in used condition and too expensive. I was able to find new chrome lock-strip from Toyota for the windshield, but the cargo windows and hatch are NLA.

So...I searched the forums and found this little gem about Re-chroming the 60 series. The OP, Shane (@RudigarP), is a fellow Cruiserhead in the area that shares my sentiment having to do with the 1980's chrome. He discovered that Precision makes a plastic/chrome lock-strip that works in the factory window gaskets.

The part number is: Precision WLS 848/853 SP
I think I bought it from Summit for about $15 per roll. I used a roll for each cargo window and a roll for the hatch glass (3 rolls total). I think I could have gotten away with a single roll for the two cargo windows combined, but you would have to be really careful not to mess up at all. I found it really hard not to scratch the mylar coating while going around the corners. This process would be impossible without the install tool (Lisle 47000 Windshield Locking Strip Tool). This is the same tool that Shane recommended and is low cost.

I'll be honest here - I found this process very frustrating. It was not easy! Maybe its the fact that my window gaskets are new and tight, but it took me about 30 minutes for each cargo window and an hour for the hatch. The hatch gasket was a lot tighter than the cargo windows for some reason. Anyways, it is very doable, but takes time. Its a great alternative to overpriced, ancient and well used factory lock-strip.

Use plenty of soapy water and read Shane's thread for more info!

I'm in the reflection on this shot

The Seam -

As I mentioned above, I was able to find new OEM chrome lock-strip for the windshield.
Here are the part numbers:

As of 2021

Moulding, Windshield, Outer Upper	75531-90A00	QTY 1	Toyota Parts Deal	$17.91
Moulding, Windshield, Lower	75535-90A00	QTY 1	Toyota Parts Deal	$21.67
Moulding, Windshield, Outside RH	75533-90A00	QTY 2 (RH & LH same part)	Toyota Parts Deal	$11.79
Moulding, Windshield Corner, Upper LH	75541-90A00	QTY 2 (RH & LH same part)	Toyota Parts Deal	$4.77
Moulding, Windshield Corner, Lower LH	75543-90A00	QTY 2 (RH & LH same part)	Toyota Parts Deal	$4.29

 

[Bullzi]

Yes, this is all exactly what I found in my investigation... I posted the same in my build thread Here

There seems to be confusion in the community on two things:

1) that there are separate felts for use with chrome vs without... From all the digging I did, there is only one felt and it can be used with or without the chrome depending on which clips you use

2) that the new clips that come on those felts (with the tang) can be used with chrome.. As you noted, they are meant to be used only without chrome.. The old clips are the ones to use with the chrome.

Great write-up!
I wish you would have written that back before I bought all the stuff to do this last year! I researched and bought all these parts in the fall of last year in anticipation of sending the truck to Kelly. I was pretty confused about what I was going to get when I ordered the felts...I even ordered a few extra clips with the tang because I thought I might need them...oops! At least I only ordered a few and they were cheap...

 

[Bullzi]

My upper radiator bushings were totally shot - in fact, one of them was an electrical grommet sandwiched between the radiator and core support!
These are NLA, but I found here on MUD that a Doorman Wiper Motor Bushing will work perfectly!

Part number: Doorman 49450

The only bummer is the factory size bolt (M8) will not fit with the bushing installed. You could use an M6 bolt and I'm sure the strength would be fine, but I just used an M8 without the bushing and installed a Nyloc nut instead of a lock washer. The Nyloc nut allowed me to not over-tighten the bushing. You want it snug, but not massively bulging.

It looks and works great! Another easy (and cheap) fix thanks to MUD! I got it on amazon for around $6.

 

[Bullzi]

I've been wanting to do this for a while....The Bean's main electrical fuse-box for the EROD LC9 didn't have a diagram or call-out for the circuits that the relays and fuses served, so I recently spent some time tracing down each circuit and verifying where it went.

From my limited understanding, back in the day soon after the swap was done for the PO, the GM fuse block was having "problems" and not working properly. Torfab decided to ditch it and run all the circuits through a Bussmann fuse block. They did a nice job, but never added a diagram or labels for the fuses and relays. They did give me an old hand drawn diagram for how it was originally wired, but said some things had changed and it was not fully accurate anymore.
Anyways, with the diagram, some internet research and my multi-meter, I was finally able to put together a diagram for the fuse box.

I was really impressed with some of Torfab's wiring tricks to get it all to work. It was fun reverse engineering what they had done. Happy to finally know for certain where everything goes! This was an important step for one of my future projects....redoing a bunch of the auxiliary wiring to consolidate and clean things up a bit!

 

[Bullzi]

Front Inner Fenders -

The inner fenders for the Bean were a bit rusty and worse for the wear...after the paint job they had some red over-spray on them that I wanted to clean up and the undercoating was basically missing from the underside.

I decided I wanted to remove them and re-coat them with Raptor Liner.
I never knew how easy the front inner fenders are to remove! a few bolts in the front, a few bolts in the back and a few along the edge of the fender and they just pop right out! Removing the inner fenders was the only thing simple about this project...it snowballed out of control pretty fast. Luckily, this all took place a few months ago when the weather was a little nicer, I'm just slow on posting about it!

This was the driver's side after a good wash but before I decided I was going to repaint to tops. The driver's side was in a lot better shape than the passenger side.

The undersides of both fenders were pretty rusty, so I had the local sandblaster clean them up for me. I figured it would provide a good surface for the Raptor Liner to stick to.

Both fenders had a bunch of holes in them where different accessories had been bolted in over the years (or at least that's my guess!). The passenger side was the worst offender - there were over 15 holes that had been drilled in it. Naturally, I felt the need to fill all the holes and bring the fenders back to their original glory.
This was pretty easy with the welder, but took some time to sand everything down and make it look nice. This also solidified the need for fresh paint.

The passenger side fender also needed a new rear corner because the old corner was rusted out. I cut a new piece out of sheet metal, bent it up and welded it in. Not to shabby for nothing but clamps and a vise!

The fenders all patched up, sanded down and ready for primer/paint and Raptor Liner.

Interestingly enough, the driver fender was grey primer and paint without a clear-coat, while the passenger fender was black primer, paint and a clear-coat. My guess is that the passenger inner fender had been repainted at some point because I don't think the engine bay area was clear coated and there isn't any other black primer on the truck....please school me on this if you have the answer!

Next up - The repaint effort!

 

[Bullzi]

The Raptor Liner and paint were the easy parts - I bought some Raptor Liner 2K Epoxy Primer for the underside of the fenders and also had some Spray-Max aerosol 2K epoxy primer on hand for the tops of the fenders. I would have used the Raptor Epoxy Primer for the tops of the fenders, but it had a slight orange peel finish - fine for under Raptor Liner, but not as good for a smooth paint finish. There were a lot of online reviews that had mentioned the orange peel finish, which is why I had the other primer on hand. I'm not an avid painter, so the orange peel could have been the result of my HVLP spray gun's settings.

For the paint, I used a can of custom mixed Spray-Max from Napa. I think they use PPG paint...the coverage and final result look really good. I also used a can of the Spray-Max 2K Clear Glamour clear-coat.
I really like these Spray-Max 2k products for small jobs. It is fast and makes cleanup a breeze.

A quick side-note: I want to point out that these products are pretty nasty. The clear coat in particular contains isocyanates, which are very bad for you (even is a small amount). Technically, you should have all your skin covered and wear a forced air full face mask when spraying. Most of us don't have access to this type of equipment so spraying outside with a good respirator (charcoal cartridge with N95 or P100 pre-filter) is a must. I foolishly didn't know any of this when spraying this stuff and was just using my P100 respirator filter . I felt/feel totally fine, but I hate subjecting myself to unnecessary chemical exposure. Since doing my research, I won't be spraying anything with Isocyanates without the proper PPE.

Raptor Liner 2K Epoxy Primer on the underside:

The Epoxy Primer orange peel up close:

Spray-Max 2K epoxy Primer on topside:

Base-coat - Freeborn Red. I didn't know this until recently, but there are actually two different colors of Freeborn Red.
The codes are: 309 and 3F4
I always thought Freeborn red was 309, but they switched to 3F4 at some point. The paint I got for the inner fenders was 309, but my truck is actually 3F4. When the painted fenders are next to the new paint job, you can tell the difference, but when they are in the engine bay, luckily you cant .

Clear Coat added:

Finally, the Raptor Liner added to the bottom of the fenders:

I added a little extra to the bottom inside of the back edge to try to keep the rust away in this area!

The fenders came out really well. You can't tell where all the holes were and I think the Raptor Liner will last a while. So far, I am very impressed with this coating.

 

[Bullzi]

More Painting?

So after seeing how the front inner fenders turned out, I decided to Raptor Liner the inside of the tailgate. It was the same process, but I also had to treat the inside bare metal from the tailgate patch panel.

Previously, the tailgate had Dynomat inside it, but it was cut up from tools being stored inside the tailgate and it had over-spray on it.

Here are a few pictures of the inner patch panel that needed to be treated. You can see it in the background with the seam of the new and old metal. Kelly had warned me that he had run out of product and I would need to treat the inside of this patch panel as well as a few of the doors (future post).

After talking with Kelly, he suggested that I use the Eastwood Internal Frame Coating to treat the metal. This stuff is super runny and seeps into the seam really well. It has all sorts of rust treating/preventing chemicals in it.
I spent a few hours with grease and wax remover cleaning the area and scrubbing away any remnants of old Fluid Film and cavity wax in the corners.

After the Internal Frame Coating dried, I covered the seam with seam sealer to hopefully keep any moisture out. Here are a few pictures of the dried Internal Frame Coating with some seam sealer over the seam.

And finally the inside of the tailgate was scuffed, primed with Raptor 2K epoxy primer and coated with Raptor Liner.

I pressed a wire into the seam of the rear of the tailgate (where the sheet metal comes together) before priming and Raptor Lining so the small gap would be maintained and the factory drain holes would not be plugged. You can see this wire in the picture below. I removed the wire as the Raptor Liner was drying.

The final product!

The Raptor came out really nice.
I hope it isn't any louder than the Dynomat with tools being stored and bouncing around in the tailgte. If it is, I may have to add some sound deadening along the edges or bottom. It seems really durable though!

I think I'll Raptor Line the inner rear fenders next spring/summer when the weather gets nice again!

 

[Bullzi]

Treating the inner door skins and quarter panels were a huge pain! They were similar to the tailgate in that there were patch panels that needed to be treated with Internal Frame Coating and seams that needed sealing, but instead of using the Raptor Liner, I decided to try Lizard Skin for a little added noise reduction. The painful part was that nothing would stick to the seam sealer even though it said it was paintable (any time before 30 days) with any conventional paint system.

The reason I wanted to use Lizard Skin (other than the noise reduction) was for the seamless waterproof seal that it would provide for the patch panel seams. I really don't want water running into these seams and sitting. This would certainly cause rust inside the seam.

Raw seam in the driver's side quarter. This is before I prepped for Internal Frame Coating and seam sealer.

As with the tailgate, the patch panels inside the doors were treated with Eastwood's Internal Frame Coating and the seam was sealed with the seam sealer.
This is one of the rear doors, but it was similar for the other doors as well as the quarters.

The Lizard Skin was applied using their spray gun. After using their gun, I think any undercoating gun could be used (Lizard Skin would beg to differ though).
The Lizard Skin stuck like glue to the body of the door, but peeled off in sheets wherever there was seam sealer under it.

So began the frustration! I called Lizard Skin, and they said that as long as the seam sealer was not silicone, it should stick. So, I verified that the seam sealer was not silicone. I was then told to hit the seam sealer with a primer first, so I primed the seam sealer on one door and reapplied the Lizard Skin...same result. The Lizard Skin and primer peeled off the seam sealer. This meant that it was not the Lizard Skin's fault, it was the seam sealers! I read all the literature with the seam sealer and saw one spot where it called for 2k primer before paint, so I gave that a try on another door...SAME RESULT .

Finally for some random reason I decided to try Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator over the seam sealer and luckily it stuck like glue! So I ended up scraping all the primer off the doors as well as any Lizard Skin that wasn't properly bonded and applied rust encapsulator to all the areas with seam sealer. I was then able to finish spraying the Lizard Skin for a seamless door-skin seal. I have no idea why the seam sealer wasn't allowing anything to stick to it (including 2k primer) I will not be using this seam sealer again (Lord Fusor 802HD). I should have stuck with the 3M stuff that has been working really well!

The final result looks pretty good:

 

[Bullzi]

A bunch of people have asked me if I would be putting the Dynomat back in after I had to work so hard to get it all out...and the answer is yes and no.

Here is the breakdown:

• Inner door skins: Dynomat to about an inch above the patch panel seam.
• Inner Door (beneath doorcards): No Dynomat. I am going to use Cascade Audion Engineering VB-2HD which is a sound proofing vapor barrier.
• Inner Rear Quarter Panels: Noico 80Mil from the cargo window down to the body-line that is level with the floorpan. I have Lizard skin lower than that and don't feel the need to put anything else lower than that.
• Interior Wheel Wells: Dynomat (these were Noico 80Mil before)

I will say that the Dynomat is a far superior product. It's lighter, goes on easier and sticks much better. It also gives the sheet metal a lower, deader thud. If I had the budget, I would have used this in the upper sections of the rear quarters as well.
I will also be installing some MLV from Cascade Audio Engineering in the front floor pan and on the transmission tunnel as well. I hope the carpet still fits!

I saved a bit of Dynomat for the top of the fuel tank - yes I pulled the LR fuel tank for a custom pump hanger I've been working on (more details on that someday)...This is getting silly.

 

[TheNeek]

Silly? I don't know anything about "silly".

 

[Bullzi]

And just when I thought I was done with the paint...

I was hosing off the hood, windshield and front fenders about a month ago and found there to be an unusual amount of water on the driver and passenger floorboards. There is usually a little water, but it was running in pretty fast. I had thought it might be coming from the seams under the front fenders or near the hood hinge, so I removed both fenders and went to work finding the leaks.

Water intrusion has been an issue in the past and I had the windshield re-sealed which helped, but it did not fully resolve the issue. I will need to get it re-sealed again because sealant was not used when it was put back in after paint. I have always suspected the seams under the fenders needed to be re-sealed, but never had the fenders off to check.

I used soapy water in a spray bottle and some compressed air from the inside of the truck to find where the water was coming in. It was mostly coming in from the seam under the ledge that runs through the engine bay and under both fenders. Here are a few pictures showing the bubble action:

So, I ended up cleaning up all the seams really well, brushing them with Rust Encapsulator, Seam Sealing with 3M urethane, 2k Primer, Base and Clear.
Clearly this water intrusion had been an issue for a while because the PO or PPO had used some silicone to seal around the door hinges and hood hinges which looked really crummy. It was starting to peel up and I wanted to ensure that it was sealed, so I peeled it all out and resealed with the 3M urethane. The tricky part was blending the paint and clear into the new paint job in the door-jambs. I'm not a painter so I was pretty anxious about doing this.

The seam that runs top to bottom really needed to be sealed. This seam usually has sealer, but mine had crumbled off.

Here is the passenger side.

I had worked really hard to get all the pine needles and leaves from behind the HVAC air intake in the cowl...looks like I still missed some!

There is a really good article about sealing under your fenders and the lack of seam sealer in FJ60s in the Toyota Trails magazine. Its called "The Devil's Patina" by Rob Millson. Here's the LINK. He talks about dealing with the seams under the front fenders a few pages in.

Stay tuned for the actual prep and paint!

 

[Bullzi]

As I said in my previous post, I was pretty anxious about sanding into my new paint job and blending the paint/clear. It was risky, but I was able to use the body lines to hide it and figured that the door jamb isn't that noticeable if I did mess up. Luckily, it came out pretty well. There was one line down low where the tape created a harder line than I would have liked...but it is low enough that with the door on you can't see it unless you get on the ground - and even then its not super noticeable.

I'm only going to show the driver side, the passenger side received the exact same treatment.

First step was to clean out all the old silicone and seam sealer and scuff the areas to be painted. There were quite a few areas that had to go down to bare metal because of surface rust or the silicone peeling up the paint.
I used 800 grit to wet-sand the clear around the areas that would be getting new clear blended into them. It turned out that I ended up putting new clear on most of the jamb from about window height down.

Next, I used the rust encapsulator in the seams and applied seam sealer over it. I didn't take any pictures of just the rust encapsulator, but you can see it under the seam-sealer (the rust encapsulator is silver).

I don't know how this happened, but I forgot to take pictures of the 2K primer step.
After the seam sealer was applied, I taped off the entire truck and applied 2K primer to any bare metal and all of the seams.
After it dried, I wet-sanded a few spots on the door jamb to smooth everything out.

Make-shift paint booth!

Base/clear: