Fightman's Build Thread

fightman80 said:
I use an Undercoating gun that I bought at a retail store that sells automotive supply stuff, and also recycle my used motor oil for this purpose.....

There are different schools of thought on this practice though. People will tell you that it's messy, (it is), others will tell you that the acidity level in the oil from being used, is not good for your truck....(I beg to differ!) I've done everyone of my vehicles since I first got each one, and the undercarriages and bodies look great on all of them. My 4Runner is 13 years old, and I see 99's or newer models for sale that are full of rust.....body panels and bumpers with holes rusted through, and undercarriages that are so orange....you'd think someone sprayed KD powder under the darn things!

Bottom line, in Northern Climates where Road Salt use is common practice in the winters, the only way to keep a vehicle from rotting is to spray it with a rust inhibitor.....motor oil done by you = CHEAP ALTERNATIVE! :)
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Thanks for the tips. I've never actually seen a 3rd gen with rust holes in the body ever haha, Canada must use some super crazy stuff on their roads. I can remember going crazing over 3rd gens when I was a kid, can't believe that they're 10+ years old now haha.

I checked out the undercoating gun online.. now I just need to get me an air compressor too. I'm really lacking in tools lol.
 
Rust Repair Continued / and Another project in the works!

Alright, so today was a busy day! Not only did I finish the rust repair, but I started on another project today as well! (more on that in a moment...)

Here's a few pics of the base coat and clear coat applied on top of the Rust paint:

P1130790.jpg~original


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A shot of my master mechanic assisting me with re-installing the carpet trim piece!

P1130793.jpg~original


Now aside from the rust repair, I had my dad coming over to visit for my youngest daughter's 1st birthday!

P1130836.jpg~original


While he was here, we decided to mount my New (to me) tires on my stock rims today, He does it the "Old fashioned" way, using a couple of steel bars, some dish soap and a little muscle to mount the rubber on the rims......no tire mounting machines! I don't have any pics of him doing this....as he's not much for taking pics when he's working.....Since he was coming over to do that, I figured it would be a good opportunity to strip all the old coating off my rims, so that I could just paint them once the rubber was installed.

Here's a shot of one of my rims in their pited and corroded state:

P1130794.jpg~original


Here's a shot of it after I wire-wheeled it:

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And here's a pic of all 4 tires mounted on the rims:

P1130799.jpg~original



Now it's time to do some recon, and look at some painted wheel pics and see what I can come up with on my own!
 
Wheel Painting

So this morning I went to my local Canadian Tire Corp. Store, and did some shopping!

Using the buyers points I had on my Canadian Tire Mastercard, I bought some Zinc Primer, Duplicolor Metallic Grey Base coat, some Duplicolor Clear Coat, a tube of pre-mixed Bondo, and some new Valve caps!

P1130870.jpg~original


Next, I took all my wheels, and spread them around the garage floor, and started masking them all off:

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Under the watchful eye of my 3 year old.....when she wasn't taking pictures of my poster board of Rocky Balboa:

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I then coated them all with the Zinc Primer. (The can says it's recommended for Aluminum or Galvanized Steel, so I think it was a good choice!)

P1130892.jpg~original


Ok, so after alot of patience, and hard work....I'm almost finished these darn wheels! The problem is....I ran out of paint.....twice! HA HA! The first time, I ran out of Base Coat....the second time.....Clear!

Anyway, gonna have to wait till tomorrow morning to get some more, and maybe finish them up before I go to work. In the mean time...here are some teaser pics:

Here's a shot of one of the wheels....look closely at the "TOYOTA" lettering, I did that in a Metallic Red paint:

P1130895.jpg~original


I also decided to sand off the outer lip of the rim, leaving the bar aluminum exposed, and then cleared over it all.

The wheels are almost done, but one got fudged up just after clearing it! The darn newspaper I used to mask the wheels, ended up blowing over in the wind and landed on my newly clear coated wheel!! So gonna wet sand it smooth tomorrow, and then re-clear it.

The next pic...is one of the Center Caps:

P1130896.jpg~original


All of the wheels need some more clear coat, and the center caps haven't been done at all, so once I get that Clear Coat paint.....should be wrapped up fairly quick!

Alright, so first thing this morning I drove over to Canadian Tire to find more clear coat and some more of the base coat grey. When I get there, I find that the original Duplicolor Clear coat I bought was OUT OF STOCK. So I look at some of the others, and find some Duplicolor High Performance Wheel Coating. I picked it up, and headed home.

P1140005.jpg~original


Once there, I wet sanded my fudged up wheel, and then used the base coat to blend in the repair. After that, I clear over top, and then continued to do the rest of the wheels and center caps.

Here's a pic of the finished product....I took the time to shine up the tire too...just to give you guys the full effect! lol!

P1140006.jpg~original


You can't even see the repair I did......:banana:

What do you guys think??? Here's a quick before and after:

Before:

P1130794.jpg~original


After:

P1140006.jpg~original


After it was all said and done, 3 coats of Zinc Primer, about 6 coats of Basecoat, 5 coats of Clear Coat!

I'm happy with the result! Almost want to take off my Procomp's and Bighorns and Run these Now instead of the Winter!!!
 
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I say keep 'em yellow ;) haha

looking good dude.. I've been putting off cleanin up my wheels. Wish I had your patience and time.
 
kruegs said:
Looks fantastic man... how the heck did you get the Toyota lettering red on those rims? Great work!
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V - E - R - Y C - A - R - E - F - U - L - L - Y! HA HA HA! Seriously though, I used a fine paint brush and just took my time...honestly, after 15 or so years of building and painting 1:25 scale model cars.....it was pretty easy for me to do.....only took me an extra 10 minutes to do all 4 wheels.

Thanks for the compliment man!
 
Night and Day man. Great work on the refinish of the wheels. You should slap 'em on the truck ASAP and get a couple pics so we can see how they look! :bigok:
 
You guys are killing me!! HA HA HA! The tires are only 265/75/16's, I'll be running this set from November to most likely March......

If I get a chance this week, I'll see about getting them mounted on the truck for some pics, but keep in mind....I'll be getting some Wheel Spacers to bring the wheels out a little bit for those 265's.......

Thanks for all the compliments guys!
 
Those turned out great! :bravo: Now I'm gonna be using all the same products when I repaint my wheels.
 
I'm definately really happy with the way they look right now! Just hope they hold up to the elements this winter........
 
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