Cool Vanilla 80 overhaul

[Circinus]

I got my 80 a little over a year ago. It came to me thru a trade and was a little rough but under it all I saw a sweet truck. Well after talking about it for almost a year I'm going to town and making the 80 of my dreams. Heres a pic of Grimice the day we got her.

 

[Circinus]

It started with some bubbles in the hood then I kept going and started tearing it down. I took off the rack and welded up the holes. I have those pics on my phone so when I download them I'll get them up. after digging in I found out how bad things really were. 190k of ohio weather hasn't been nice.

 

[Circinus]

So far the worst I've found so far was hiding under the paint. Pretty impressed with toyota's paint. There was next to nothing on my bottom rocker on the qtr panel but the paint held the form so well I had no clue until I got the flair and bumper off. So I cut it off and started from there.

 

[Circinus]

I'm not too worried about matching the factory lines so what I did was weld a sheet in and I'm using Duraglass to smooth it out and shape it up some. It should provide a nice water proof seal as well. I'm making my own rear bumper and might put a step in the side rear bumper so it works out just fine but we'll see when I cross that bridge.

 

[Circinus]

I decided to go with cool vanilla for the color. I combed this site high and low looking at so many pictures of everyones trucks and even did some spray can color testing to get a first hand look at some colors. My brother in law is a rep for a paint company so I'm getting hooked up with the paint. Poly base clear but the catch is no pearl or metallic. Its a high gloss system used for equipment and I can get any color I want it just has to be a solid color. I'm going on a wing here by choosing this color and hope it looks good on my truck. I couldnt find the duplicolor touch up can so it wasnt one of the colors I got to see on my truck. I'm not that savy nor do I have photoshop to mess around with to see how it looks. But those type of colors look great on the 80's so I feel ok about just going for it.


My flairs were busted up pretty good and no flairs isnt an option for me. I'm gonna glass them right on the fenders, doors and qtrs. I dont trail it at all so i dont have to worry about cracking them up. Thats on tomorrows list so I should have those pics up soon. I was going to have my front arb and homemade back bumpers chromed but I'm going to fab up a plow on the front so I'll keep them either flat or semi gloss black.

 

[lndcruz]

Looking good.

 

[yOHda]

I was going to have my front arb and homemade back bumpers chromed but I'm going to fab up a plow on the front so I'll keep them either flat or semi gloss black.

you are going to use your 80 as a plow truck?


this is the first ohio winter my 80 has to sit outside...i dont think it's happy...lol

 

[Circinus]

Yes and no to the plow truck. Yes it'll have a plow but only to keep my 80yr old mother in laws driveway clean and my brother in laws parking lot at his buiss clean. The lot is big enough to fit a dozen cars so not too much else. And my driveway as well. Its a small plow thats on an old cj5 right now so I feel it will be just fine on my truck.

 

[Circinus]

Went to my brother in laws shop to get the paint. Brought a sample of cool vanilla and they scanned it and made the paint. Shook it up and opened it up and we ended up with a tan color. So we called dodge and got the # from them did it again and same color. So looks like I'll have a tan 80. S**t happens but the color is sweet looking for sure. I just hope it looks ok with my grey interior.

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Just my $0.02 but why not just repaint it the factory grey.

That is a pretty rare color to begin with and looks great. My favorite color on the 80.
Plus, you won't have to pull EVERYTHING off and tape off the bits under the hood to make it look good. You could just respray the outside.

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Anyway, good luck with your Cruiser! I'm sure it will turn out great.

 

[lndcruz]

Just my $0.02 but why not just repaint it the factory grey.

That is a pretty rare color to begin with and looks great. My favorite color on the 80.
Plus, you won't have to pull EVERYTHING off and tape off the bits under the hood to make it look good. You could just respray the outside.

I agree. That grey, the collectors edition silver, and 40th sage are the BEST 80 colors.

 

[haffi]

Good job!

I know the feeling how much you look forward seeing your 80 with fresh paint!

I like the 80 best in blue though

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Good job!

I know the feeling how much you look forward seeing your 80 with fresh paint!

I like the 80 best in blue though

I would have to say that your 80 makes that Mercedes Blue look real good.

 

[Circinus]

For some reason life wants to keep getting in the way of my Truck getting done. Between My air compressor wanting to take a dump on me to finding soooo much more hidden rust and junk I didnt count on things going this slow and holding me up. The whole truck is now tore apart and the windshield is out. I have alot of pictures I took on my phone I'll load up as soon as I jump on my desktop. The word of this build/Almost a resto project, is Slow. Oooh so slow.

 

[Circinus]

My dumb luck found a card reader on clearance so here are some pics that were off my phone. As soon as I find my camera I'll get those pics up as well. Still not done. Getting there but ever so slow.

 

[Circinus]

This didnt turn out to pretty here on the first shot. I have since fixed it to the best of my abilities.

 

[Circinus]

Got my doors and fenders in a finish primer. One more time with some 400 wet and another finish coat they'll be ready for paint.

 

[Circinus]

It was 30 degrees outside and my garage was around 82 inside. I owe it all to my trusty burner here. Its been in 3 generations of garages.

 

[Circinus]

I tore my 80 apart and figured it would be done in a few weeks no biggie it was still summer. Then my brother in law passed so it just sat there for 3 maybe 4 weeks never getting touched once. So things got back to normal and here were my 2 BS surprises that kinda happens. The dogs heard a doorbell on the kids tv show and busted through the french doors on a sat. night around 8:30. Lowes here we come. Then I find where a leak had found itself a path to rot the wood out leading to tearing apart the roof around the skylight to fix it before winter gets here. The fun stuff. But I think I'm back on track to finishing my 80. Its my daily driver and I've been carting my 6'3" butt and 2 kids around in a 2 door sunfire. Super glad we have an extra car but ready to park the wifes car from college and have my truck back.