my 97 sr5 build

[mark21742]

Here is my 97 SR5 I bought off my next door neighbor this weekend. She has 199,799 miles on her and had a hard several years as a farm truck.
The body has a dent in almost every panel but the only rust is on what's left of the rear bumper center section.

My plans are to make it into a good family and utility vehicle.
Custom front and rear bumpers
Custom roof rack (big enough to hold a 4x8 sheet of plywood or drywall
Better lighting (off road lights) front and utility lights rear
Matte black paint after all the body wprk is finished


Friday night my neighbor got all his stuff out of it and left it parked in his field for me. I picked it up and paid for it Saturday morning, then after owning it for about an hour and a half I had most of the interior stripped out of it. I'm SO glad I decided to gut it first because I ended up pulling about a half a bail of hay, corn, mud and cow poop out of it lol.
Right now all that is left inside is the main dash. I scrubbed all the parts then started spraying all the tan/brown parts satin black.
Here is what I have so far!

 

[jlstick2]

Welcome to the forum! It looks like you've got a fun project ahead of you. I have to ask, why matte black? All of the cars I see dipped or rattle canned matte black look atrocious.

 

[mark21742]

After looking at lots for color options i like this one the best (i know it's a gen 4 not 3, but same basic size)

All my other cars are bright blue or bright orange so i could use a change lol.

I've done a lot of mixing and trying different shades and amounts of gloss to get what i like, and do have to agree with you about matte/ flat not looking right if it doesn't have the right sheen to it. I dont think rattle can or plastidip will ever look the same as real paint out of the gun.

 

[mark21742]

Here is some more of my fleet, 78 widebody MGB with a healthy 400 sbc( toy) , 94 BMW (daily driver), 98 Ford Escort with a honda D16 drivetrain (backup pos driver), then the other pic is my 04 GTO race car.

On the GTO I played with the mix of flat and gloss till I found my perfect sheen and even after it having the paint on it for 4 years all i have to dp is rub it down with a clean towel to get the perfect sheen to come back and stay.

 

[Technoplasm]

I wish I could buy a 4runner in this condition, I would likely practice wrenching on it and wheel the absolute hell out of it. Well, not necessarily in that order. Looks like a fun project bro

 

[mark21742]

I wish I could buy a 4runner in this condition, I would likely practice wrenching on it and wheel the absolute hell out of it. Well, not necessarily in that order. Looks like a fun project bro

Yup, this is exactly what i was looking for! I just took the bumpers off last night and the rear bumper (you can see in the pics) is completely rusted out but that is the only rust on the truck other than some surface rust here and there on the chassis.

He rigged the 4wd and it works fine, just no 4wd light in the dash. I'm a body guy by trade, so all dents and bad paint do is save me money on vehicle purchases lol

I only paid $1,500 for it, so it is worth putting the time in to clean and fix up

 

[zoombyu86]

I have a sport bike when I wrecked and rattle-canned after turning into a streetfighter look. I initially did a flat black and it looked very dingy. I wasn't too impressed so two years later I did a satin black. its a 100x better look over the flat.

I also feel that you have to have a certain look to the vehicle without making it look stupid. Correct wheels and color, tinted windows. etc. It's like when I see people put aftermarket wheels on a car that isn't lowered. It looks out of place.

 

[mark21742]

I pulled the bumpers and stock roof rack off, picked up a few big peices of 1/8" plate steel to build the new bumpers, and got the floor of my new roof rack all welded up.

Zoombyu86, i found for smaller parts and even used it on motorcycle gas tanks i like the high temp bbq paint. Spray it on, let it dry good, then rub it really good with my hands to get the sheen up and even.

 

[gtd2000]

In a similar situation to yourself. My GF was given a 1996 model with 200K on the clock. Supposedly has a failed ECM which stops the fuel pump running. The car just had 4 x new tires fitted and a full brake job plus fuel pump fitted. After the estimate for the ECU/ECM replacement, the owners called it a day. They were quoted $1200 but I see they can be picked up on eBay for around $50!! This one needs the interior tidied up as well.

 

[99Runnr]

Looks like fun, haha.

BTW, I have rattle canned 5 cars for friends flat black. I use a little propane torch from walmart and $5 cans of rustoleam. You can lightly go over the surface and evenly watch the paint "dry" as you apply heat. This gives it an even, smooth finish with no streaks or lines.

Last truck I did was a 90s Comanche and it took me like 3 hours to paint the entire truck. He was SUPER happy with the results.

 

[mark21742]

My garage is an absolute disaster with interior parts and motorcycles everywhere, but managed to clear enough space to build my 4' x 8' roof rack. The bedliner on it is drying right now. Also made mounts for my 44" LED light bar under the front edge of it and 6 LED work light on the back corners of it!

 

[mark21742]

Well i took most of the evening cleaning the garage, then finally got to work on my new front bumper!

I mocked the whole bumper up in poster board (i use poster board for all my patterns).

Traced my pattern out on 3/16 plate steel with a sharpie, then used 4 4inch cutoff wheels to cut my pattern out, then with the help of some wooden blocks and my big rubber hammer i started shaping it!

After work today I'll test fit it to get the curve perfect beforw i start welding all my seams (had to cut a deep trech where all the bends are to beable to bend the plate steel)

 

[seank]

Nice progress on the bumper and rack! Following along for inspiration and motivation.

 

[mark21742]

Short 10 hour day at work today so got a little bit of welding done!

 

[HammerTime]

Following! Looks like it was in pretty good shape for some of the farm trucks I've seen! I'd say you got a sweet deal! Nice work on the bumper, too. It looks like you've done that before.

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[mark21742]

Thanks HammerTime! Been building cars and bikes for the last 20+ years, but this is my first 4x4 lol.

Happily there was no rust other than the rear bumper center section, but she does have dings all,around her and the wind caught the drivers door and sprung it into the fender which did a good bit of damage to both and a cow kicked the drivers side rear door lol.

 

[mark21742]

I just have to prime and block sand a few small spots on her then hopefully I'll be slinging paint later today!

 

[mark21742]

I finally feel like im getting closer to the end! All my new exterior lighting wiring is ran from the roof rack (front 40" led, rear and side work lights), roof rack is mounted, headliner and a lot of the interior is back in. I forgot just how many little plastic ok peices go into the inside of this thing!

Interior going in, my custom headliner to bring a color into the inside, and roof rack with the 40" led bar mounted!

 

[kolelt]

Looks good mate. Digging the head liner. But holy moly roof rack !? Damn bro you going on safari rides ? Juat messing with you. Seriously, looks good. Keep it coming

 

[HammerTime]

Wow! It's coming along fast! It would take me a solid year just to do what you've done. That rack will be handy. If it's had as hard of life as it looks like, you are probably going to want to change the transmission fluid and maybe filter, and also the oil in the diffs and tcase. Just don't have the transmission flushed. Keep the updates coming, Mark!

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