'97 SR5 repair/rebuild/upgrade

[Crammit442]

Long story short. I bumped an '05 Mustang convertible from behind last June. State Farm gave me the option to repair or total. I have another vehicle to drive so i haven't been a big hurry. I finally decided to total it and also bought it back for $600. Ive been looking for several months for a REALLY good replacement 3rd gen and just haven't found the one. After thinking it through, I've decided to put mine back together. The damage is relatively minor. Needs a new core support, radiator, fenders , hood, lights, bumper, etc. It didn't even vent the AC. Still blows ice cold. All the pieces will be here by next Thursday and I'll have a long weekend to get going on it. I didn't take any pics with the fenders and lights still attached, but here's where it's at now. I'm about to pull the hood, radiator, and remove the old core support. The HUGE savings in repairing myself vs replacing will allow me to add a few things like a Shrockworks bumper and a few other upgrades. Also going to freshen up the front and rear suspension and do the LBJ's while I'm in there with the fenders out of the way. Im hoping to get the support in and fenders hoold mounted and squared up so I can shoot paint as soon as possible. Here are the current pics. More to come as it progresses.

Charles

P.S. While I was typing this the doorbell rang. Two new fenders just arrived. Surprisingly undamaged! Would have preferred to get the core support in first, but since I only ordered them Thursday night, I'm pretty impressed!

 

[jgue467]

Very cool rebuild! Wish I had the skills (and bravery) to take something like that on. Luck and enjoy that runner! :cowboy:

 

[LodeRunner]

I think you made a great decision. Good luck with the rebuild. Look forward to seeing the progress!

 

[kale2s]

Sounds like you made a good choice. Cant wait to see the progress!

 

[Crammit442]

I'll get a couple of pics in a little while, but the core support is completely off the truck now:biggrin2: I actually used a spot weld cutter instead of just drilling through so I still have solid sheet metal to attach the new core to. I used a cut off wheel to make a slot in the old support so it could be removed w/o venting the AC system. My condenser is deformed enough that the right thing to do is to replace it and the receiver/dryer and have the system evacuated and recharged. I was hoping to avoid that since I've still got ice cold air, but that would mean cutting the new support to install it and then tacking it back together. It could definitely be done, but I think it would be an amateur move to do it that way. I guess I'm about to go ahead and order the parts. I really don't want to have to hide my work because I did a half ass job. AC parts included, I'm still going to be about $4k better off than replacing the truck.....and I get to keep MY 4Runner that I've been driving for 19 years:lookout: It may be old, but it's MY old 4Runner!
Charles

 

[Crammit442]

Here's a pic of the front w/the core support removed. The other two pics are what's left after cutting the spot welds. All I have to do is grind the spot welds flat and I'll have good sheet metal to mount the new support to. I'm glad I took the time to do it this way instead of just drilling them out. I did go ahead and order a new condensor/receiver drier/o-ring set. The pictures show how much deformation the condensor has. Having it out is also going to make replacing the cross member under it much easier. The picture makes the lower support look worse than it is. There's a donor w/a good one at the local pull-a-part.
Charles

 

[Crammit442]

I'm not completely out of the woods yet, but have made some progress. Got the the new core support in and the hood and right side fender mocked up. It's going to take a little tweaking to get everything perfect, but I think it's gonna work out ok. Picked up all the paint today. If I can test fit the other fender tomorrow, I may be able to shoot paint late tomorrow afternoon.
Charles

 

[Crammit442]

Finally making some real progress. Got the new core support in and the A/C back up and running. Got the fenders, hood, and grill painted today. New OE LBJ's came in today and I'm going to install those before I put the fenders back on. Hope to get them done and the new bumper painted tomorrow. If I don't hit any major snags, I should be back on the road in a week or two at the most.
Charles

 

[Lamer]

nice job man, really nice on the paint too, this should look great when put back together

 

[Crammit442]

nice job man, really nice on the paint too, this should look great when put back together

I appreciate the compliments. The paint looks good, but will look way better after sanding/buffing. Spraying in the carport invites lots of dust and small flying critters. They're not too bad when you're shooting the base coats, but they come from miles around as soon as you shoot the first sticky coat of clear. My rear bumper didn't get damaged in the accident, but since it had a few trailer dings I figured I'd go ahead and put a new one on since I already have to paint the front. You probably can't see it in the pics, but the grill is already cut and prepped for a Satoshi mod. The perforated metal is already done and I've got the Toyota emblem for it. Bigfishallday's color matched grill looked so good that I decided to do mine the same way. Since I don't have fenders mounted, I think it's going to make doing the LBS's much easier. You dont realize how cramped the fenders make things until they're out of the way. As much as I was looking forward to getting a new truck, I think I'm going to be MUCH happier having MY truck back.
Charles

 

[Scramble]

Looks great! Good luck with her! (you should have gotten a sport hood :naughty: )

 

[Crammit442]

Looks great! Good luck with her! (you should have gotten a sport hood :naughty: )

I almost did! The only reason I didn't was that (other than looking very cool) it doesn't actually do anything and it looks like a good place to catch bugs on the road. Now that it's mostly done, I do wish I'd done the Tacoma front end swap. I didn't know exactly what I was getting into and was concerned that gathering all the right parts might be confusing. In retrospect, it wouldn't have been any more difficult and I like the ones I've seen done. I'm about to go sand and buff the hood and do the LBJ's. The hood is sturdy enough to work on off the truck. The fenders are pretty flimsy until they're mounted.
Charles

 

[Crammit442]

So much for my big plans. I decided to go ahead and buff the hood. That went well.......slow, but well. Sometime in the middle of buffing, the the weather decided we'd get two inches of a 15% chance of rain. With a river flowing through my carport, I decided I didn't need to install my LBJ's bad enough to crawl around in the water. Instead, I got the perforated mesh painted black for my take on the Satoshi Grill. I need to paint the front side of the lower two grill mounts black so they don't show. The hood paint is good, but I've done better. The spot on the front edge of the hood is just the light. Also, the grill is not assembled. I just set it on a table to get a pic. Not sure if it's true to the Satoshi name, but I like the way it looks. I started to go ahead and install the hood by myself, but I figured there was a fair chance of scuffing it up. I'll wait and do it tomorrow w/an extra set of hands. Everything ALWAYS takes longer than I think it will.
Charles

 

[beefsix]

Everything ALWAYS takes longer than I think it will.

same tbh

 

[BamaDrewski]

So much for my big plans. I decided to go ahead and buff the hood. That went well.......slow, but well. Sometime in the middle of buffing, the the weather decided we'd get two inches of a 15% chance of rain. With a river flowing through my carport, I decided I didn't need to install my LBJ's bad enough to crawl around in the water. Instead, I got the perforated mesh painted black for my take on the Satoshi Grill. I need to paint the front side of the lower two grill mounts black so they don't show. The hood paint is good, but I've done better. The spot on the front edge of the hood is just the light. Also, the grill is not assembled. I just set it on a table to get a pic. Not sure if it's true to the Satoshi name, but I like the way it looks. I started to go ahead and install the hood by myself, but I figured there was a fair chance of scuffing it up. I'll wait and do it tomorrow w/an extra set of hands. Everything ALWAYS takes longer than I think it will.
Charles

Hey brother. Now that we know we are local to each other, would be cool to share ideas and notes. That satoshi grill looks awesome! I am always thinking of sh!t to do with my rig and having someone else as motivated helps alot in these parts of the redneck rivierra....LOL

 

[Crammit442]

Got the hood mounted and stuck the grill in place just to see what it's going to look like. Went ahead and did the LBJ's while the fenders are off. They went easily, but I definitely need OTRE's so I'll be swapping those tonight. Here's a of pic of the grill on the truck. It's not actually off square; just lightly stuck on to look at it.
Charles

 

[raKnizek]

Great progress! Glad you decided to fix it up. Did you buy that grille already painted? I really want to color match mine.

 

[Crammit442]

Great progress! Glad you decided to fix it up. Did you buy that grille already painted? I really want to color match mine.

I had to replace the grill anyway, so I just bought an aftermarket from Amazon. I prepped it for the mod and shot it when I sprayed the hood and fenders. It came dark metallic gray. I saw a pic from Bigfishallday where he matched the grill and it looked good so I decided to try it. It'll be interesting to see how it looks w/the metallic gray bumpers once I get them painted.
Charles

FWIW, Matt at CustomCarGrills.com does great work and is a wealth of good info and is an all around cool cat. I did my own, but I wouldn't hesitate to use his pre shaped grill material. He's pretty much got the grill thing figured out.

 

[Crammit442]

Finally got caught up on things and got a little more done. I've painted for twenty five years, but it's been mostly work with composites. The painting is actually enjoyable, but working to get all the gaps and lines square is a whole different kettle of fish. For the first time since I wrecked it, it's beginning to look like a truck again. I've still got a ways to go, but I think I see light at the end of the tunnel. The bumpers are next and then a bit of interior work and I should just about have it. My optimistic goal is to be completely finished by next Friday (Friday week). I went Saturday and got a new Optima Yellow Top, my OEM bug shield is here, new vent visors came in.....just got to get crackin'. Here's a pic of the way I left it tonight.
Charles
P.S. For those that have never tried Piaa wipers, I can't say enough good things about them. My Piaa's are almost seven years old and wipe like the day I bought them. I do regularly gently wash the actual blade and my windows are always treated w/PPG Aquapel, so I'm sure that helps, but the quality is incredible!

 

[Crammit442]

Slowly but surely its coming together. It's not showroom flawless, but I think it's looking pretty decent. Got the evil under headlight filler panels installed. I managed to get the front bumper sanded and buffed and installed. I was fortunate to have what's left of my old bumper so I could get all the hardware for the lower valance. The bumper came with two funky brackets in addition to the main brackets. I'm going to have to find a pic or a diagram to figure out how that goes together. I've got o reinstall the skid plate, plastic fender liners, and the flares and it should be pretty close. I'm still kind of leery about using LED bulbs in a reflector housing so I'm running Hella 80/100's aimed a smidge low. They're not HID bright, but the high beams are pretty decent. I took it for a good drive tonight and it feels so good to be in MY truck.
Charlrd