Builds New Build "TAYOTA" Father & Daughter

[youmustbecrazy]

Going back in time a few years, I got a call from Landcrusher 909, AKA Rob because he had found a possible cruiser to build for my daughter. We jumped on the deal and went on one of Rob's cruiser gathering adventures. He had lined up a deal with a guy who had multiple cruisers and was getting rid of everything. Rob took a ton, including a 45, and Taylor bought a 1976 that was in pieces but in great shape. I forget how many truck and trailer loads it ended up being, but at least 4 over 2 days and each load was overflowing with stuff if you know what I mean. My daughter who was then around 15 joined and helped knowing that she was buying / scoring a cruiser. Here are a few pictures of the pick up. Taylor paying for her cruiser, and helping gather parts. If you have been on a Landrrusher 909 adventure, you totally understand...

 

[youmustbecrazy]

landcrusher 909

The legend! Rob, AKA landcrusher909. Rob has been a huge help to the 909 area with cruisers and keeping them alive! Total hero!!!

 

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more photos of the day

trailered up and ready to be buried in parts to make the trip home...

 

[youmustbecrazy]

made it home

No sooner had we gotten home, and Taylor's cruiser had been named by Rob as TAYOTA.

 

[youmustbecrazy]

and into her resting place

in the garage, ended up being next to a friend's 60ish cruiser dubbed "Goldmember", not sure if I have any more pictures of that build which also continues to this day, but if you look close on the right of Tayota you can see the other build

 

[youmustbecrazy]

and the years fly by

Unfortunately, Tayota sat for awhile. Life got kinda busy, I got remarried, my son got married, a granddaughter came along, and time just got away from me. Tayota sat around gathering dust. This past summer I finally found some time and got busy on her. Taylor had chosen orange, pumpkin orange to be exact. The bad news was that the color coordinates for pumpkin orange were not useable by the paint stores I have access to. We ended up matching as best we could. I am sure it is not exact, though we all are very happy with it. The tub has been painted and looks great. The frame got cleaned up and good old gloss black Rustoleum was sprayed on. The underside of the body got undercoater and also came out very clean. Here are some starting point pictures

 

[SteveH]

Keep the story going - is your daughter still helping you on this project?

 

[youmustbecrazy]

coating of the underside

I used a cheap undercoating gun and disposable Gatorade bottles. The thread no longer lines up exacly, but a little electrical tape solved that issue. The nice thing about doing it this way is very little clean up.

 

[youmustbecrazy]

undercoating applied

Pressure washed and scrubbed before coating. Several coats and came out nice

 

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painting the frame

Also pressure washed and scrubbed. Rustoleum gloss black, many light coats

 

[youmustbecrazy]

goodbye smurf blue, hello orange

Tub already had primer on it, I gave it a light sanding, shot my own primer on, sanded more and went for it.

 

[cjgoode]

Looks good, I think I have the same undercoating gun, that bottle idea is great.

 

[gwalt584]

Great!

I love these kinds of stories, Father / Daughter or Father / Son builds. Great looking paint, I have a friend that has an old Bronco in a color close to that color.
Keep it coming.

 

[youmustbecrazy]

Thanks!

My daughter Taylor helps as she can. She graduated high school a year early and is now off to college about an hour away working on a Biomedical Engineering degree. Several years back my son and I did 2 builds together at the same time. I will look for the thread and try to link it. https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/177294-start-2-fj40-builds.html

 

[want2wheel]

This is awesome. I need to find one for my girls to help me work on. That color may be close to what my girls would want also. They are BIG Tennessee fans.

 

[youmustbecrazy]

trying to paint the rest of the body parts

So I teach and during winter break we made a good bit of progress. The loose body parts never got painted during the original paint time. They have been taking up much needed space in the garage and having that smurf blue winking at me every time I was near was just too much. We live in the mountains and normally we would be very cold right now, however, during winter break we were almost sunny and above 60 degrees every day. We jumped on the opportunity and got busy sanding. Some of the body parts were still original and some not. Some with rust and some perfect. Sanding took the better part of a day, but they all seemed to come out nice. In the bad rust areas, we hit the bare metal with red oxide to slow the rust process. For the record, we are NOT aiming for a full resto, we are just building a cruiser that will be very clean. Here are some photos during the prep of the loose parts

 

[youmustbecrazy]

the work continues

The bad news is that paint takes much longer to cure when not hot. The red oxide had not fully cured and in the morning a few of the primer spots had cracked as they cured. I chose to sand it all back off and try again. The loose parts now have been resanded, but the weather has cooled so the parts are back in the way and awaiting a warm day. Hoping the weekend is nice. In the meantime I have taken all the crates and boxes of loose parts to the woodshop where I have space, heat and plenty of bench space to work (I teach woodshop at our local middle school), and have been slowly cleaning, sanding painting and taping as I have time. I hit the shocks first. They were in very nice shape, but as this cruiser had come from the beach they were looking a little rusty. Sanded, cleaned, primed and top coated with Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy which I used extensively on my cruiser and has held up very nicely.

 

[Weber Sarge]

I'd get away from that red oxide primer and use either an epoxy-based or self-etching . The red takes far too long to dry and seems they have removed some of the properties that used to make it a great base . Had to stop using the stuff on restoring old garden tractors , ruined one paint job and that was enough .
Sarge

 

[Cruisertime]

This looks awesome! Keep the pics and updates coming.

 

[youmustbecrazy]

picture of how Tayota came to us

boxes and crates of parts. Starting a list of missing and needed. We bought a 74 frame and are using that platform to avoid the CA smog police.