89FourRunner's Rust Repair Progress Thread

[89FourRunner]

So I (and my father) have began the process of fixing the rust on the rear quarter panels of the truck. Although most of the pictures I have posted here in the past have given the illusion of a rust free truck, under those ugly bushwacker flares was the truth... You didn't think I actually liked the look of those mosters over 31x10.5 tires did ya?

These two pics are what I was dealing with. The entire flare is practically shot, as well as the majority of the area in front of it, and a bit behind it.

My now retired father and I began to the cutting, he is taking care of the passenger side as seen in the pictures. It is a nice project for us, as he is a big TOYOTA fan and had a really sweet 1987 Pickup when I was a kid. Loved that thing. Unfortunately his died of cancer....This one will not!!

Here is what we wound up removing. We also grinded off most of the rust, but the pictures are before I got down and dirty with a wire brush and sandpaper. The pan on the passenger side seen in the picture just made it...its close...the driver's side pan is in better shape.

Finally I POR15'ed the exposed metal that would soon be covered. I got the inside of the sheet metal as well.

I am going to put a second coat of POR15, and then we will custom fabricate one long piece to weld in. Well...maybe two but here is hoping we can do it in one.

Keep you guys posted.

P.S. There was a LONG red rubber hose falling out of the passenger side fender....I just coiled it up and shoved it in a pocket near the gas filler, as seen in the final picture (POR15 picture). What the hell is it??

 

[SV_Dude]

So I (and my father) have began the process of fixing the rust on the rear quarter panels of the truck. Although most of the pictures I have posted here in the past have given the illusion of a rust free truck, under those ugly bushwacker flares was the truth... You didn't think I actually liked the look of those mosters over 31x10.5 tires did ya?

These two pics are what I was dealing with. The entire flare is practically shot, as well as the majority of the area in front of it, and a bit behind it.

My now retired father and I began to the cutting, he is taking care of the passenger side as seen in the pictures. It is a nice project for us, as he is a big TOYOTA fan and had a really sweet 1987 Pickup when I was a kid. Loved that thing. Unfortunately his died of cancer....This one will not!!

Here is what we wound up removing. We also grinded off most of the rust, but the pictures are before I got down and dirty with a wire brush and sandpaper. The pan on the passenger side seen in the picture just made it...its close...the driver's side pan is in better shape.

Finally I POR15'ed the exposed metal that would soon be covered. I got the inside of the sheet metal as well.

I am going to put a second coat of POR15, and then we will custom fabricate one long piece to weld in. Well...maybe two but here is hoping we can do it in one.

Keep you guys posted.

P.S. There was a LONG red rubber hose falling out of the passenger side fender....I just coiled it up and shoved it in a pocket near the gas filler, as seen in the final picture (POR15 picture). What the hell is it??

Did you find another runner to cut the fenders out of?

As for the red hose, it doesn't belong there. Most likely the p/o or someone stuffed it behind the interior panels for something and left it there.

 

[89FourRunner]

Did you find another runner to cut the fenders out of?

As for the red hose, it doesn't belong there. Most likely the p/o or someone stuffed it behind the interior panels for something and left it there.

No, we are actually making panels out of sheet metal ourselves, believe it or not. There will be a few areas that will not be the same as factory, but the goal is for it to not be all that noticeable, although it will be custom.

 

[Nervo19]

Your work is awesome. I will be watching this thread. I can't wait to see the final result. I'm not sure why I get so excited to see rust repair. Oh... It's fixed now.

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[DeclansDaddy]

Nice!! This is something I'll be tackling on my 86 here before too long and have been debating on donor truck, buying replacement steel panels, fiberglass or just building my own. Mine as far as I can tell are nowhere near as bad as yours but until I go digging out what the PO already did I'm not sure how bad. In any case I'm glad you started this thread. Keep the updates coming!!

 

[89FourRunner]

Okay, the first custom panel is in. I need to remind everyone that these were made from 18 gauge steel sheet metal, and were created using nothing but hand tools, not even a sheet metal brake, in a back yard in the dirt.

The panels were riveted, not welded, and riveted heavily, to the OUTSIDE of the existing sheet metal, along natural lines, so when a small layer of bondo is added and finished, you will never see them.

The entire job is estimated to have cost me $75-$100 from start to finish, including both sides. Thats down to even the finishing rattle can job.

In front of the rear tire we can no choice but to roll the end up a bit to make a strong structure. The entire panel is solid...far more solid than any original part of the truck.

This is where we are so far havn't finalized bondo yet, fyi, just rough:

 

[Chuckles89]

Sweet!

 

[89FourRunner]

Alright - so about 30 hours went into the job, and about $130. It is pretty much finished, although I am going to leave primer on it for a week before I rattle can it, and see if I want to fill in any imperfections with a little filler. All in all, not bad.

I documented the next side a little more carefully to show the process in action..

Here we started with galvanized 18 gauge sheet metal. If you have a brake, thats fine, you can bend your lip (for the bottom of the truck body) with that, or you can really red neck the job, and use an adjustable wrench and hammer like we did:

That is the only time we put a bend in any metal, and thats why we did not bother with a brake. The rest of the sheet metal will be formed on to the existing metal, and the wheel well pan. You start by drilling out a few spots to rivet the sheet metal in place. Because this panel is mounting over existing body, you want to make sure that you line up your edge, as we did by the door. This will take just a sliver of bondo to conceal:

Once you have your piece aligned correctly and riveted into place, you can begin to cut along the sharp angle we chose here. Because the edges will generally be flush, only a small amount of bondo will be required:

As you can see, we are starting with metal that is not bent, just cut into the general size needed, riveted into place to hold it, making the cut, and then riveting the metal on, inch by inch. This will force the sheet metal to follow the original shape of the vehicle, and will result in a job that looks nearly like factory panels:

As seen in this picture, we are no where near pros at this haha, the flare was rounded around the pan with a nail hammer. You can also note how rough our cuts are. In no way did we use templates or draw lines. This takes all the mistakes out of the job. If the templates off, you wasted the steel. Forming and cutting the sheets right on the truck actually works out better. You can see we had to swiss cheese our new panel a bit at that corner. Eventually I figured out we can just pull them together with a long sheet metal screw and rivet the shit out of it:

More forming and rounding onto the steel wheel well pan with a standard screw driver and a hammer as we go:

Bondo time. Because the patch panels are sitting on top of the original body, some areas require you to be liberal with your bondo, but you will sand the majority of it off. It is just important to be liberal in certain areas to ensure you can create a decent ramp to remove the ability to see the metal on top of the other metal:

Now comes the sanding. The angle where the flare begins, that little corner that would be the end of the handle if the line was an upside down big dipper, is the largest challenge. It requires a little bondo to shape something acceptable and to also hide the two merging patch panels:

Finally, here is the finished result. It is by no means perfect, but the job was 30 hours of backyard hand tool work, at a cost of $130. Keep in mind the truck had been rinsed off so what may look like imperfections could be running water on the primer. I also removed the mounts for that ugly plastic drop down side trims, and got creative with the bumper caps, chopping the back off of them, pressing them further into the bumper to shorten the bumpers width, and screwing them on.

 

[slowpoke99]

Nice work!:cheers:

 

[DeclansDaddy]

Sweeeeet. Makes me want to break out the sawzall. If my wife doesn't pop this weekend(9 months preggo) I think I might tackle one side.

 

[SV_Dude]

Well done!

 

[KidVermicious]

If my wife doesn't pop this weekend(9 months preggo) I think I might tackle one side.

I'm gonna go ahead and recommend you wait on that. Newborn baby puts a big dent in your wrench time.

 

[DeclansDaddy]

I'm gonna go ahead and recommend you wait on that. Newborn baby puts a big dent in your wrench time.

Tell me about it. My first born is 22 months old and I'm just now picking the wrenches back up. Trying to get as much done as I can before hand.

 

[jgilk1]

that is truly a hack-and-pack job done correctly...

 

[89FourRunner]

that is truly a hack-and-pack job done correctly...

Haha thanks, I think.


I am not trying to convince anyone this is a viable option for a repair, but it is what I had to do. In another winter I would have lost way too much body.

I sprayed color on the truck, and the spray cans from duplicolor are a perfext match, but the glossy nature vs the flat nature of the primer highlighted the flaws and uneven textures as you might imagine. Not much I can do about it however. I'll wait a few days and spray another coat or two and hope it all evens out but I'm calling it a day.

The rust is gone for now and thats what counts to me, I'm driving it into the ground. Ideally that day wont come for quite a few years.

 

[jgilk1]

it was ment in a good way... it was ment in the best way possible... i know a body guy in up state ny that makes a pretty good living doing these kind of patch jobs (what would it cost to fix it inaurence wise... $1000-$1500 in labor body work and another $500-$1000 in sheet metal?) you just did $2000-$2500 worth of body work for $300.. be aware though that if you didn't/don't rust prevent well enough itll be back with a vegence... (rust is a *****)

 

[RiFF RaFF]

Awesome job on the R&R (Rust Repair).

Did you ever figure out what the coiled hose was for? I was thinking that someone got carried away on the rear diff breather tube.

 

[89FourRunner]

Awesome job on the R&R (Rust Repair).

Did you ever figure out what the coiled hose was for? I was thinking that someone got carried away on the rear diff breather tube.

No, I never did figure out what that was. The hose was sealed off at the end.

 

[89FourRunner]

Here are a few pics of how she stands today. Its been a few months, everything seems good. I have since sprayed it with some Duplicolor autozone rattle cans, "Classic Silver Mica" Toyota color. It's a perfect match. The paint could use color sanding as you can see some rough spots in the light, but I have sort of moved on. The last pic will also show you how I shortened the width of the bumper by moving the end caps in (the side plastic pieces no longer fit after repair so I cut off the mounts). I also stenciled out the "4WD" lettering on the mud flaps and sprayed them with white spray paint, as they were in bad shape.

Please no hate on my choice of manual hubs.

 

[RedSled]

Looks good man, and from a distance the paint looks pretty good also.