aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner

[aemravan]

well, the first iteration of fiberglass was a failure this morning. I think my resin sat around too long and has gone bad. I woke up to a goo that hasn't hardened.

Luckily,it did harden much at all so I was able to pull off all the glass fibers and then clean up the resin with some acetone. The fender is back to where it started.. disaster avoided.

Headed to Lowes here in a few to pick up some good, actual fiberglass resin and do a 2nd iteration of fiberglass in between my conference calls for work.

Have a slightly different idea of how I want to try it this time so we'll see how it comes out. Did I mention how much i LOVE fiberglass?

 

[aemravan]

Iteration #2 is going much better.

Decided to use some play dough type clay to give me a lip to glass to and bought some new resin. 1 hour and its already hardened.

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[aemravan]

The process isn't fun, the process is damn dirty, and sure as hell isn't pretty... but taking baby steps here and at least my door gap is all closed up.

The Passenger fender should be done as far as fiber glass, I will let my brother do the finishing trimming and body filler work. I can do it myself, but will take me 10 times longer and come out nowhere near his quality. Now i just need to knock out the other fender and get them preped for paint.

Though I still haven't figured out how I want the fender arch to bumper to look like yet... I'll need at least a 1/2", maybe 3/4" gap from bumper to fenders for clearance so I guess i'll start trimming a little at a time and see what it looks like.

While waiting for the fiberglass to dry, I decided to do a transmission fluid change/flush. Figured it wouldn't take me more than 30 minutes with all the stuff apart and having a dipstick hole for filling. Boy did I ever F**K it up.. 3 hours later I am done cleaning everything up and have the car running healthy again... long story short, in my fiberglass dust high I, like the idiot that I am, pulled the dipstick to the engine oil instead of the transmission. 6 quarts later I realized the idiot that I am. 3 hours later I am finally done flushing my engine oil completely, and the transmission is topped of. Apparently I miscalculated and overfilled it at first, which resulted in almost no acceleration/torque whatsoever. I guess the torque converter doesn't like it when its drowning in fluid. I had never imagined myself doing something so idiotic, but here I am. Never say never

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[aemravan]

The car is alive and well. Made a 13 hour, 800 mile round trip without skipping a bit.


Made some progress ahead of the weekend.

The fiberglass work should be done and ready for the filler work Saturday! The gaps are all closed up and starting to look like something !

The front bumper has been fully sanded and is also in the finishing stages. Made some circular plugs to weld shut the turn signal cutouts before I paint it.

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[aemravan]

I am one lucky dude to have a brother who does some amazing bodywork for a living.

He spent almost 10 hours today finishing the work on the fiberglass fenders and front bumper. He started with shaping the door gap amd smoothing out my transition into the additional material and then wemt as far as reshaping the bodyline of the Tacoma fenders to gradually blend into the factory door bodyline. Watching him work was border line mesmerizing. I would never have gotten any of thr pieces to this point in the build without his help.

Both fenders are now primered and ready for paint. The front bumper also got some finishing work and is close to getting paint.

Everything came out so .ugh better than I ever anticipated. I'm amazed at thr look and can't wait to get thr bull bar on and paint everything!

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[TejasRunner01]

Love the build! Seems like it is really coming along well. Do you know what brand on window visors they are, and do you like them?

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[aemravan]

Love the build! Seems like it is really coming along well. Do you know what brand on window visors they are, and do you like them?

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Thanks ! Making progress, lots of jt !

As far as the visors, they are AVS and I absolutely love them

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[aemravan]

Made a huge step.forward today yet again... Fenders and grill are painted and on the car! No good pictures yet, but man... I am so happy with how everything is coming together !

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[waught10]

I know it would get banged up but it would look pretty slick with the bumper color matched.

 

[aemravan]

I know it would get banged up but it would look pretty slick with the bumper color matched.

I'm actually planning on doing the round in body color to see how I like it all complete. I don't mind it getting banged up, I can always touch it out, its fast for me.

If it doesn't end up looking good in body color I'll just go black like originally intended.

 

[aemravan]

Here are a couple of "almost there " pics. I can't wait! Absolutely stoked about the build thus far.

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[aemravan]

Re purposed my roof rack lights for some fog lights in the coastal bumper. Digging the look, helped fill out the void, conceal the mount bolts, and will provide some additional trail light

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[xtremewlr]

That front end looks so good on the 4th gen 4runner. I'd love to do it but stuff like this is way low on my priority list right now.

Excellent work by you and your brother!

 

[aemravan]

Help me decide.... I'm torn... lol

I was hoping doing a quick photoshop would set my mind, but I'm definitely undecided yet. Body color definitely looks clean, but black isn't all that bad either. At the moment, I think my plan is to spray it silver once the bull bar is on and see how I feel. If anything, i'll go over it in black I guess.

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[phatcheeks]

Im digging the black

 

[aemravan]

Im digging the black

yea, but you're very biased!

I think I like the black as well.. it would just be very hard to go back to a body color match silver over the black.. and I have a quart of the paint left over, I'm pretty certain its going black, but once the bull bar is on and I have it painted I guess I can see what it looks like in person..

 

[Piggity]

I like it silver tbh. Plus you don't see many, if any, people painting their offroad bumpers body color.

 

[xtremewlr]

Black. Easier to touch up when you scratch the shit out of it. Which WILL happen!!

 

[montijo505]

Devils advocate for silver here.....


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[JBend]

body color match. I'm a bit biased as I also have a silver car but i think silver is the only color other than black that looks good with a body matched metal bumper.