Saving the silver 70...

[MrMoMo]

Thanks guys! Yeah, I am very strongly considering buying fenders, but they are not the easiest thing to find (especially at a reasonable price!). If anyone knows of any please let me know!

Once the main body "tub" is done, it's getting painted. The doors, fenders and hood are "phase two" which will happen separately. We have our inaugural camping trip planned for the end of May, so that's the hard fast deadline for the tub to be finished. The way I look at it, everything else can be un-bolted to be worked on one piece at a time and left with primer until they are all done, then back to paint for the phase two parts.

 

[broth9640]

Not exactly cheap, but time is money.


Right front fender 70-series 11/1984-7/2004 [53801-90K04] - $347.70 : CruiserParts.net, Toyota Landcruiser Parts

 

[MrMoMo]

Well it looks like I'm going to come down to a bit of a time crunch very quickly, so I need to ramp up my time on the truck...

Overly busy weekend again and I didn't get a lick done - so I tackled a few bits tonight. Got 3 floor patches made, blasted all 3, painted 2 and welded in one.

Here is the last patch to the floor ribs. Started with a single bend;

Then two more and another trim to remove some floor material...

Welded it in place:

Ground it flush and added a little paint...

Next two patches are ready to go in, which leaves one floor patch left, then the floor is done.

Exploring some options for fenders....

2 hours today, at 165 total

 

[MrMoMo]

Time to catch the thread up to where I am!

Spent a few evenings this past week and worked on the floor. Tuesday night spent an hour getting this patch in place:

Then welded in:

Ground smooth:

And painted....

One hour, total up to 166 now.

 

[MrMoMo]

Next up was the forward part of the drivers heel area, which sits under the floor pan.

Here it is in place with a few plug weld holes ready:

And welded in place:

Forgot to take a finished picture, but when it was done I seam sealed the edges.

Next was the last floor piece! (Holy cow this thing is almost done...) here it is welded in:

Ground smooth and painted... (Whoops, looks like I hit the pedal)

1.5 hours, 167.5 total now

 

[MrMoMo]

So, now that the floor is done, and the inner rocker is replaced - time to tackle the outer rocker.

I noticed that the rot extended slightly further ahead than the "easy" part, so I had to pull the bottom end of the quarter panel off for access. Once that was off here is what I found...

So to start with I made a little piece just to match the front end as the forming was pretty complex. This is the first time I have made bends in two directions on the same piece, and I was pleasantly surprised at how the little piece turned out. I basically made a winged v shape (3 bends), and then put a 90 degree bend across one side of it. Once that big bend was done I flattened out the v part on the one side, and added a little back to the v on the other side. The spacing of the bends was purely dictated by the absolute minimum that my bender could do, which turned out to be perfect!

And here it is in place temporarily....

Next I blasted it and primed the back side, as well as the area in behind where it sits, then welded it in and ground it smooth with my 2" flap wheel on my die grinder. Wire brush handle was just the right size to hold the fender out of the way...

Since I could still get at the inside of this part, I painted it. I also painted the inside of the entire inner and upper rocker, then followed by a generous application of what I am using as seam sealer, along every seam I could reach inside the rocker, and the back side of every weld I could reach.

 

[MrMoMo]

and now of course, the outer rocker. Yesterday I called up a friend who owns a small machine shop and asked if he could do two quick bends for me - he said if I cut and brought the material he could do it while I waited no problem... Perfect! So I cut a strip 41" long and 120mm wide (yes, I'm bilingual in measurement).

One bend at 60mm, and another 40mm past that, and I had a long outer "lower" rocker, so much easier and for 10 minutes of playing with a "big" press brake, vs hours of messing around with mine, and then welding multiple panels together... So worth it!!

Once I had the old rocker cut out, I placed the new one in place and marked where to trim it, and where to make the bends at the back to tie into the wheel well lip. Also had to make a bit of a notch at the front where there are a few extra layers to sandwich together...

Here are the old and new side by side:

With everything trimmed to fit, I sanded the back and painted it (too big for my blast cabinet!). With a few plug weld holes drilled, I applied sealant between and above the holes, then clamped the outer rocker to the inner rocker across the bottom and hit each of the plug weld spots...

Next I welded the front seam up:

And then I stitched across the top, right below the little lip that sticks out. I did a series of spot welds, each about 1/4", to make a stitch about 1-1/4" long (so usually 4-5 spots) with the stitches spaced about 6" apart. Then I would add another stitch to the end of every other stitch, until the whole seam was welded. After each stitch I hit te weld with a blast of air from my blow gun, and I also blasted air inside the rocker to put out any paint fires that were going!

Seam welded!

I am currently about 3/4 through grinding the weld back down, to re-create the little lip that runs along here. So far it's working exactly how I hoped it would. Absolute minimal filler will be needed here.

5.5 hours, 172 hours total now.

Light at the end of the tunnel is rapidly getting bright now. Once this grinding is done, all that's left is the drivers side body mount to rocker "curve".

Hopefully by next weekend I'm fully prepped for paint on the back of the truck!

 

[HoffLarr]

Keep it up! That's a crazy amount of body work!

 

[MrMoMo]

Well, HERE WE GO!!!

Insanely busy week this week, here is a catch up (this will be multiple posts due to photos!)

So, I finished grinding down that weld, I think it too me ten minutes... Not adding that to the count as I'm sure I've over estimated by that much somewhere along the build.

Now it's time for paint prep. First, let me make this clear, I have never painted a vehicle (properly) before (meaning pulled the trigger). Sure I've hit stuff with spray bombs, I've done some minor body work, and paint prep - so I have some knowledge, but it's limited. What I do have is a good friend who runs a paint shop whose brain I have recently drained of knowledge - and a lot of interactions with paint processes, being QA manager at work. I've seen good paint jobs, and I've seen bad ones, and know some of the reasons why they happen. That said - here we go!!!

First step was prepping it, removing the rear windows, removing all the temporary paint I had put on to protect it as I finished, and giving the surface some texture for the epoxy to grab onto. The whole back half of the truck, from the front of the rockers to the under side of the drip rail was sanded with "80/120" grit on an orbital air sander. I made sure that all the metal had a good "pattern" to it and all the previously painted areas were well scuffed, and any poorly adhered areas were sanded right through.

The area around the filler neck was previously repaired, and though the new quarter panel got rid of most of it, the bondo was pretty thick (for no reason) around the marker light area, so quite a bit of sanding down there.

Once everything was sanded down, I gave the truck a good blow with air, then wiped everything down with clean blue paper towels and glass cleaner. Next I masked off the windows (from the inside of the frames) and prepared the front and rear door areas for masking, by taping from the inside.

Next I built a cheap but effective (and apparently legal) booth. This is constructed of 2x3 lumber and plastic used during housing construction. The lumber is just over $2 a stick, and the poly was $13. I did use about 3/4 of a roll of tuck tape ($$) as well (the red tape on all the seams), but total booth cost is around $50-$60.

Now I know what you are thinking, how is this "apparently legal".... Well, sometimes we have to paint massive boats at work, and there is no booth big enough to fit them, so we build these structures around them. We install two massive fans at one end, and a bunch of filters on the other - and everyone is happy (no electrical inside, all the lights and fans are outside (fans are special type in that case)

So, modeling my booth off that, with the slight difference that my fans are pushing air in so they never see the paint fumes, and the exhaust air just goes out under my garage door through a little section of cardboard box...

Once the truck was in, I closed up the front, and used the remaining poly to mask off the front of the truck, roof, doors, wheels, and underbody between the rockers.

 

[MrMoMo]

Next I mounted my desiccant air drier, and filter (first stage) on the outside of the booth, making sure I had at least 25' between the compressor and the drier inlet. On the outlet, I mounted a particulate filter.

Before putting any air through the drier, I drained the water from my compressor tank. I think I need to do this more often!!! EEW.

Then I prepped my new HVLP gun $60 from princess auto, and added a final air filter/drier to it. Also mounted a hook inside the booth so I had somewhere to put it.

Then I suited up and psyched up.... Do I really know enough to do this?? Tyvek suit from Napa. Respirator filters are 3M # 07046 for anyone wondering...

Anyone else ready for this?

 

[MrMoMo]

So even though I wiped the truck down twice with glass cleaner, I went around again with wax and grease remover, glad I did because this is how the the paper towels looked!!!

RIGHT THEN, on with the paint!!!

Loaded the cup with my pre-mixed epoxy (thanks to my friend earlier in the morning) and started to play with the air and paint adjustments, and the pattern. I just sprayed the booth wall until it looked "useable" which turned out to be a great spray pattern. Was running around 15PSI.

Worked my way around the truck, used a little over a quart, this stuff went on like GLASS! I couldn't believe it! I hope the top coat goes down this smooth!

Across the back, around the wheels, along the roof (and over the hill to grandmas house we go)

So, after about 1/2 an hour I had gone around, checked, checked again, and made sure I hit every spot. Time to clean the gun and mix up the 2K high build.

 

[MrMoMo]

And here goes round two. Loaded the gun with un-thinned 2K high build and worked around the truck again.

This stuff was quite noticably thicker, and either I didn't quite get my gun cleaned out, or it wasn't set as nicely as the last batch, but this stuff was going on all orange peel-y - not the end of the world as its high build and gets sanded out anyway. That said, it did self level a LOT after it sat for a while. Looking at it after, I think I probably could have put it on thicker, but more on that in the next post...

Again, it seemed to be about 1/2 an hour from beginning to end. I did raise the air pressure a little on this and it seemed to help a little, but it was fairly slow moving on each pass.

I was told to put this stuff on as thick as I could and not worry about runs - because it's getting sanded. Some areas where the metal wasn't quite as "nice" I loaded with a few extra passes, and near the end I started playing with how thick I could get it without it running...

 

[MrMoMo]

And of course when you push limits, you find limits...

This spot had just a little too much paint in one pass - it started to sag... No biggie - that's why we have sand paper.

And here was a combination of two mistakes, moving too slow (too much paint) and I was way too close!!

Again, no biggie - it gets sanded out. Now - I have to be sure I don't do this with the TOP coat!!! What I did also learn here was that this high build likes to be thick. The thicker it is, the less it seems to be orange peel-y, but it's also just before the point where it runs...

All done this part of the paint!!! Next up is a whole lot of sanding, filling, and etch priming over the filler.... Oh my arms and hands are going to be tired tomorrow!!!

Very impressed with my $60 paint gun - and happy to report that this paint thing (for primer and high build at least) is not all that hard!

Over the past week, I'd say I probably have 15-20 hours in prep and paint, including building the booth, and of that, only about 2 hours is actual "painting"!

 

[broth9640]

Nice work, this is exactly how I painted my 40. Worked like a charm, but Manitoba is a lot of work. You make it look easy.

 

[MrMoMo]

Yep, Manitoba sure is a lot of work. (I hate autocorrect too!) I'm glad it looks easy, because it sure isn't!!!

We (yes, we) spent ALL DAY on Saturday sanding. All the little corners are a bugger, and there was quite a bit of orange peel to sand down. Once it was sanded down I had to skim the "flat" where my weld was, and etch prime all the little spots that we (* I) sanded through.

(Yep, she likes fiddly corner sanding)

So a few things.. 1) I can't for the life of me seem to mix bondo that isn't super hot - I seem to give myself about 3 minutes working time no matter how hard I think "this is much less hardener than last time". 2) You need way more sandpaper than you think. 3) nothing is as flat as it looks before you start sanding.

So after several batches of bondo, and lots of sanding it basically looked like this:

I decided that I really should put another layer of high build 2K over it. Looking back, I probably should have just etch primed it and moved on. But, since I didn't - it put me a little behind where I wanted to be.

So, late last night the "last" coat of 2K went on - and it got sanded off this morning. I did a final sanding of 400 grit by hand, a few more spots of etch primer (and sanded again) and after cleaning out the "booth" I let everything settle for about an hour.

I went back and re-wiped everything down - here is a shot just before paint - everything sanded to 400, wet wiped, tack cloth wiped, and ready...

Nothing left to do but mix some paint, cross my fingers and see what happens. Now, while I am hoping for a top coat that goes on like the epoxy, I'm really just hoping to get a top coat on... This is after all a "backyard" paint job - the first I have ever attempted. It's not going in any shows.

Here is the topcoat system I used...

 

[MrMoMo]

So... Mixed the paint, strained it into the gun, hooked up the air and played with the gun settings. Holy CRAP this stuff is thin - what am I doing!!!

First let me say that I learned a lot laying down this coat. 1) silver metallic probably shouldn't have been the first colour that I tried to spray. 2) silver metallic over top of grey primer probably wasn't wise either. 3). Starting on the "dark" side of the truck meant I really couldn't see what was going on as well as I should have seen it. 4) I should have done an EXTREMELY light first coat, and let it tack up a little more, and maybe even done 3 times around with light coats.

That said... It is silver now!

So, of course I am going to show you the good side - which is the "lit" side (as opposed to the "dark" side) partially because it's hard to take pictures of the dark side!! There are runs, and they are accented because the metal flake slides to the bottom of it. The problem here is that it is single stage, and not exactly sandable.

Now, the areas that did come out nicely, came out quite nicely!

But there are a few crap spots...

That's not the only one, but a run is a run, so I'm not going to upload photos of all of them.

Basically the outcome is this;
- I am by no means a painter!
- the front half, front and rear doors, and roof all still need to be painted - so I'll re-shoot all of it at the same time, knowing now all the little details that I learned this time around.

For now, it is what it is, and it's protected from the environment, it's kind of the same colour, and it's not full of rust and holes. It's another step in the process (even if it needs to be done again!)

Now, I need to get everything bolted back together by Friday morning to go camping next weekend!!

 

[divemedic]

So awesome!

 

[MrMoMo]

Right then, no time to mess around - going camping this weekend in the 70!!!

RTT Re-mounted, windows back in, carpet back down, kick panel and door trim back in, seats in, side vents in, side markers back in, back doors back on (not in this pic)

And found a good way to deal with a few of the runs...

Before:

After:

Full side shot (two Om-NOM-NOM monsters eating paint runs)

Still need to bolt the seat belts back in, mount the tail lights and a few odds and ends...

OM-NOM's will be removed when the next stage of painting (roof/doors/hood/fenders) takes place, or when the truck gets washed (it's just wax pencil)

 

[HoffLarr]

Very creative!

 

[MrMoMo]

Almost ready to go camping!

Just down to an electrical issue on the passenger side tail light, and need to mount the gas door & release lever/cable...