Our 80 "Grim" Project (1 Viewer)

[Stew80UT]

Not even sure where to begin with this thread, we picked up this 94 almost a year ago and its been non-stop action in the shop ever since. I wanted to do a thread and keep it up to date through the process but I couldnt find the time and energy to start and maintain anything else.

One of the first projects was resealing the birfields with new wheel bearings, brass bushings in the axle housing, etc, you guys know the drill. I did new brake calipers, rotors and pads at this time. I have since opened them back up and installed a Trail Gear Locking nut upgrade set. The drivers side appears to be transfering grease to the axle housing, but doesnt leak oil. I recently change the front diff oil once again, so I will have to check again and see if theres transfering.

We then installed a OME "J" Spring lift, which without bumpers or any extra weight ended up being about a 5 inch lift, which was stiff at the time but is fine now with an ARB bumper on the truck. 35 inch tires were put on, and the flares were removed around this time also. The ujoints were changed.

Anyway into the big part. One day I decided to take an orbital sander to the truck and that kicked off 6 months of body work, inside and out, to fix all the obvious rust. This involved gutting the interior as the previous owner had destroyed the carpet and let rust grow under it. This included removing the rear heater, welding in a plug on that hole, remove all the old butyl rubber, etc.

There was a good chunck of rust in the lh rear wheel wheel going through the wheel well and all along the bottom of the lh rear corner of the body. There was also a large section of rust on the right hand rear wheel well in front of the tire.

 

[family80]

What are your plans for the body? Paint/ bed liner/ wrap?

 

[Stew80UT]

Some additional pictures of the extensive body work. It gets very real when you take a sawzall and cutoff wheel to your body work. The rear ended up getting chopped about 4 inches and I also took about 6 inches off the frame. I plan on having a wrap around bumper Ill fabricate to fill in under the body on the sides and be reinforced to the frame in order to provide protection on rock steps

 

[Stew80UT]

What are your plans for the body? Paint/ bed liner/ wrap?

More to come, but we did raptor liner on it inside and out. I applied it a differently than most so it is very smooth. More pictures coming.

 

[Stew80UT]

Ill probably have to pay to post more photos at this rate but happy to support.

Below is how I welded shut the majority of the fender flare holes. A great welder with a good machine can close up the holes without help but I had to insert pieces of steel behind many of the holes and then fill it in with weld before buffing smooth. It might look funny with the fenders off but youll never be able to tell from the outside it helps a lot to have a bit of material when you start to heat soak the panel. You have to get kind of inventive to hold some of the plug pieces behind the holes, but strong magnets help a lot.

 

[Stew80UT]

With the interior prep done it was finally time to get the interior coating done. The interior was prepped with 240 sand paper by hand and then was wiped out with Paint Prep from Eastwood. Its less harsh than acetone or paint thinner and took off any remaining butyl rubber.

Next I applied new seam sealer where needed, in the seams it was dry rotted and came off when scraping the butyl rubber, as well as around the areas I had welded, and the patch over the rear heat hole. Any bare metal was primed with a sandable primer and sanded before the coat.

Next we went on with the Raptor Liner in black. I applied it with a HVLP (High Volume Low Pressure) paint gun. Heres where you kind of have to do some experimenting with air pressure and how you mix the product. This time around I reduced the product 10% and applied it around 30 psi. It came out to the texture of about 400 grit sand paper.

The grill, tail gate, and head light bezels were also shot at this time. I used 3 bottles on everything and the last coat i shot from about 2 feet away and lowered the volume to a fine mist.

 

[Stew80UT]

Next it was finally time for primer. Please understand about 5 month of body work, sanding, repairing rust and dents went into this. A mud member, whos user I cant recall, supplied a new hood and a rear hatch for us as well as new hood hinges, and various odds and ends. I couldnt have done it without him and I will post his username when I hear back from him. We drove from salt lake to his place in Colorado, in what ended up being the biggest snow storm of the season, to pick up the hood and hatch, it got a little western but all was good.

The primer we used is a 2K (meaning 2 part) Epoxy primer. Epoxy primer is an excellent sealer, but not amazing at being sandable. We luckily had done enough work that it wasnt needed to do a high build primer or anything. We buffed that primer with green scotch brite after it had cured to prepare for the raptor liner on top. We went pretty aggressive with the scotch brite and tried to get a nice cross-hatch pattern on each panel, just like a cylinder wall, so the raptor would have something to really dig into and bond well.

 

[Stew80UT]

Alright time for some more photo spam. I understand I am not explaining each and every step but I am hoping others are able to see what we have accomplished and can ask questions if they would like.

Continuing with the interior, we applied a box of kilmat insulation. This is reasonably expensive stuff but it did seem to make a big difference on the noise and heat in the cab. A layer of 40 oz. jute padding was installed. I would say it was about 3/8 thick. It came in yard wide width and I believe I ordered 12 yards, I ended up with plenty of extra. I applied it with a spray adhesive product called 3M hi-strength. Basically you coat the floor of the pan, and the bottom of the jute with the stuff, let it set up for about 60 seconds and then lay down the jute and massage it into all the contours of the floor pan. Its a stretchy material that easily forms around all the different shapes of the pan. Laying this down took all of about two hours. Plan ahead and cut out large holes where your seats and other components mount. Youll need a generous layer in the more exteme contours around the transmission tunnel and wher the rear seats mount. It eventually will lay down fine.

 

[Stew80UT]

Next it was finally time to spray. I wanted to achieve the smoothest texture I could with the raptor liner. I want the products toughness and shine without the texture. Typically bed liner-ed vehicles scream "cheap rust cover-up"

I ended up using a 1.7mm HVLP. This time around we reduced the product 20% with a urethane reducer. The color is a tint with no binders added. The binders are included in the raptor tintable product. I chose toyota paint code 6V7 which is the army green color available on late model toyota vehicles.

I mixed the product a gallon at a time, but did not consider that when reducing by 20% you're also increasing how much product you have to apply. I ended up shooting 7 bottles of the product and probably wasting a 12-16 oz. But too much is better than not enough in this game. I thought it to be important to mix a large volume at a time to keep the color consistent. The raptor TDS sheet lists all the amounts with percentages. With some basic math you can figure out how much you need. I ended up using a whole quart of the color.

I set my air pressure close to 50 and I shot the product around 18-20 inches away from the vehicle. It resulted in a very smooth application, rougher than paint but I would say on average the texture is that of an egg shell. I was concerned with making it too rough as I had read it is hard to clean the vehicle when its so rough, after the first wash I was happy to find the vehicle washes just like a normal paint job. Dirt and debris came off easily. All told I think the raptor product, tint and reducer cost us around $500.

I'll post the carpeting tomorrow for those following along.

 

[family80]

That came out great I like the smoother texture. You said it’s eggshell so it’s almost like house wall texture? Do you think if you cut it more it would have laid flatter?

 

[Stew80UT]

No I mean like an actual egg. Its pretty darn smooth

 

[06reg4x4]

Looks great!

 

[TheBussman]

love it, pretty much what I'm planning on mine.