Here is a link to the shortened album for those of you who want to follow the story as it unfolds
4Runner Restoration Progress (Timeline) - Google Photos
Over the course of the last two and a half years, a major transformation took place with the old rusty 3rd gen. The previous owners thrashed this rig to the point of it becoming a colossal POS (Spinning out in a barbed-wire fence, front end collision, etc). After being made fun of at far too many off-road meets, I angrily vowed to do a mediocre paint job to restore the poor beast to its former glory.
This journey began with the cracked windshield coming out and a new windshield replacing it (after converting the rust underneath it). The next step came with replacing the rusty, damaged fenders/hood with the straightest parts I could source in the junkyard
across a 6-month span (replacement fenders/ hoods you order from warehouses used significantly thinner metal that I couldn't bring myself to trust).
I ended up with a vehicle that looked far worse than it did when it was just busted up and rusty.
White body, green hood, and two mismatched grey fenders. To say I was thoroughly embarrassed would be the understatement of the century. Just to give you an idea, I was looking through all of my photos (including the deleted photos back up) and was only able to find one single photo with it having all the mismatched colors when I was out mudding in clay.
One of my neighbors took notice of the nightmare parked in the driveway and couldn’t help but begin to offer me advice on my project. I would later find out that he was a master of paint and bodywork with the background of running an auto body shop for many years.
I'm out of time to finish the story for now. If people are interested in me finishing it off, I'd be happy to.