I have gotten myself up and early and juicing up on coffee and if all goes well I will have paint on the cab today. The bed will have to get done at a later time as I need to do some final sanding on it and it has been sitting out side so it is contaminated with dirt and such. Hoping for the best today.

 

I hear you Terry. Its crazy now the opportunity these kids have today to get into this field. I have Manufacturer schools that contact me all the time to recruit kids because they cannot find enough to attend.

I currently have two boys in the morning that might go to the Toyota T-ten program at kirkwood community college in Cedar rapids. The Toyota, lexus and scion dealers in the area are screaming for kids to start young and go to the t-ten school. Its a great program, they can make upwards of 20+ an hr and thats before they are fully ase certified.



Im really going to try and make the tuttle trip. I have to make sure there is nothing going on that weekend with the wife.

 

This is not the windshield sprayers I like. They have a skirt on them and I have difficlut time getting them off. The other style just pops right in and out and I will post pictures of them later when I get a set. They easily interchange.


With my hand on the top side of the hood, I support it and then thump the nozzle a time or two to get it to pop out. Not the best way but these can be a pain to get out.


Here is what they look like out.


All of the edges on the hood is eating up sandpaper, grrr...


Here I use a wet rag with a few ounces of thinner as a degreaser. Under side is finally done and will be getting primer on soon.


I cant find one dent in this hood. Some rock chips I will need to work on. This truck had been painted before and if you notice the doors have different colors on the inside. One is silver and one is blue. They used a lot of straight parts for this truck the last time. I think my hood came off of a carbed truck as it looks like it may have been back firing a time or two and that is what made the hood rough in the area where the carb sat. It didnt damage the hood, just made a it a pain to get smooth. The emission tag is unreadable to find out what the hood went to.


Starting to fix my goof up. I am going to have to get the cab higher yet to get a spray gun in there.


Here with the wet rag and thinner is where I am degreasing the truck. Will do the whole truck a few times. Before.


After

 

Lookin good terry, doing as full color change like you are doing is rewarding but man its a lot of work.

 

Hello Mark...I missed your last post. When I was in school, I dont know if the trade schools were like they are now. If they were, I wish someone would of guided me towards them. They just pressed for more degrees that were more office work which I am not cut out for. Kids in your class are lucky to have someone like you that could give better guidance then what I had. Just like Jason ^^above, I have seen what two motivated guys can do to a truck in a few days and me and another guy are quick when we work on a truck as well. There are oppurtunities out there if they want to jump on it. I turn down alot of jobs as they want it done soon and just no way I could get them done as fast as they want. The right shop and experience makes quick work of things.

Hello Jason... It is alot of work. I am hoping it shows when I am done.

 

Getting ready to go have lunch with the wifey. We do that while the kids are in school. hehehe, if they only knew, they would raise some cain. Besides I got to get some mixing cups.

Got the underside of the hood done, inner fenders, and cowl. I am only going to coat them with primer and paint as it wont show. Better then what the factory did. I wont use sealer on these parts.


High tech hood holder thingy. Cherry picker and a tie down strap.


With my million dollar shop ( yeah right) this air compressor will do the job. It is what I have used to paint every truck I have with. You are not on the trigger every time and my air gun is at 40 psi and the tank goes to 120 psi so it has plenty of time to catch up. I drain the tank in between stages and also use a disposable air filter that will catch any moisture.


Those paint mixing cups are to complicated for me. Jason showed me this trick. I use ounces or millileter cups. The paint will be a 2:1 ratio. 200 millilters of paint to 100 milliliters of activator or just double what I need. So much easier then those paint cups. I have been wet sanding the truck and am taking a break and letting it dry out.


I just painted the front end, cowl and inner fenders. I will be painting the inner fenders again that show once I have the fenders back on. I did not use sealer as these parts wont be showing. I did not paint the whole front end as Toyota has the bottom half black so I will do the same.


Got the hood done. I still need to clear coat it but I need some activator for the clear. Something I did forget to get. It has turned out great.

 

Great work terry.

I agree the mixing cups have always confused the heck out of me. Glad you found an easier way to mix it in will have to remember that.

 

Hello Mark...Those mixing cups are confusing to me. Jason showed me that trick and it works so much better. Our earlier conversation sure came in useful today. My oldest came in with a D on his progress report and I showed him where even as old as we are that we wish for some of the oppurtunities these kids have. My youngest works his butt off in school and my oldest needs a boot in the rear every now and then. Told him I wish I was able to go to school. Was even able to show him and this was before he got home. I was not expecting progress reports today, so it worked out.

 

I fizzled out today and just wasnt able to get the rest painted. I got to start getting ready for work and I had been on this since early this morning. Also I dont have the cab high enough to finish prepping the rockers. Hoping to get the rest finished tomorrow. Maybe get the rockers and paint on it I hope.

The brats did get to shoot the clear coat on the inner fenders. This wont show and gives them the feel for painting without doing to much damamge. My mask would not seal up on them so I had to let them do it without a mask but did have the air flow going good.

Clear coat is the one I will have problems with. I have never run paint but clear will run or orange peel on me. It is easy enough to fix just so much better when it lays down right the first time.

Justin shooting clear for the first time and they both actually did a great job.


Hunter doing his part. Probably did better them me, lol. I got the hood done just did not get the picture. Base coat has a dry chalky look. The clear is what gives it the wet, bright look.

 

Those boys are lucky to have a father like you that cares enough about them and help guide them in the right direction. Just the simple fact that you spend time with them in the shop teaching them skills is unbelievable.

Couple more years you could have a terry and sons yota repair shop.

 

Thanks mark...My wife works in the school system like you do and what some of those kids that she has to deal with is a result of the homes they live in. Some of it is really bad. Should be a few more steps involved in having kids. We had a neighbor and his mom was terrible. I tried working with him in the shop but he is always in trouble with the law now. Last I heard he was in the bar hotel. Doing everything I can to keep them out of trouble and to have a great start on life.

Justin has been doing what he can with the red runner I have out back. He has done several of the things I have showed him when I work on mine. Not the best results but nothing that cant be undone. Once I get my truck done, I think I will pull it in the shop and help him with it. It will be a slow build as he will do all of the work. I have just about everything to at least get it moving and somewhat together.

Hunter does quite a bit with me as well. He still hasn't learned patience. They want to see results after 5 minutes worth of work. Doesn't quite work that way but he tries.

 

I seen on Power Nation TV that there is some sort of glass polish. I have looked into it on the web and really didn't find a whole lot of glass polishing. Power Nation looked to have some great results. My uncle years ago said good looking glass can helped the looks of a truck a lot. Mine does have a few scratches in the glass that I would like to get rid of. Also when this truck was painted before, there was a lot of overspray on several items. I am getting that cleaned up as well.

Nearly got the truck ready for paint. Biggest hold up now is getting it high enough to get to the rocker panels and finding a way to paint the roof and high parts of the truck now.

Here is Hunter getting the tint off of the side glass. He just wanted to hurry up and get it peeled off. I tried to explain that he needed to get the glue off as well as the tint. Don't think he quite understood as he just liked seeing the ting come off. He got it done. I did have to go back and get the glue off at a later time. I got the other two bushing I needed for my lower control arm for my 86 runner and hope to get my front end rebuilt here in the near future for it. I have everything to do it now, just need to get the parts on.


What took me ten minutes getting all of the tint and glue off, took me an hour to get the glue off of what Hunter left behind. If you use heat and slowly work it with the tint at the same time it will come off so much quicker. I spent an hour getting the glue off of the one Hunter worked on. At least he tried and he did better then I expected.


Along with the parts above, I did have a tote bin full of parts that came from underneath the hood. Cleaned them up and with some hoses I got from the salvage yard, I took the best of them and cleaned them up and made sure they were clear of debris. I would like to find something to give them the new look.

 

Nice work. I would love to have a sink like that in the garage or basement. I'm always needing something like that at the house. Unfortunately, whoever built this place did not leave room for a sanitary sink. So I have to use the bath tub a lot.

I have had good luck using car wax on the window and buffing that out. Helps repel water really well.

 

Looking good Terry. Can't wait to see this thing painted!

 

Great job terry,nice to see the boys helping out,this trucks gonna be a beauty when your finished,can I take it to prom???hehe.

 

Hello Mark...It does come in handy. Unfortunately it is not mine but the one at work. I have used it for tons of cleaning. One reason I will be glad to get my truck on the road as I need it to haul things. I currently put everything in to a tote bin and haul it up there. It is handy to have. I will give the wax a try and see if it will help hide the scratches.

Hello 85sr5excab...I cant wait to see it painted as well and start coming back together. I am going to give a big push on it here this week.

Hello Chris... If they take care of it they will be able to use it. That is something they will have to prove. I hope they will but will wait and see. One reason they are going to have to build their own trucks. As soon as we get a chance we are going to take both first gen runners on a local trail here locally and let each one of them do some trail driving.

 

I am hoping to have a couple of more hours worth of work and can start to get the cab in sealer. I got some help over here and was able to get it up high enough to get to the rockers. Now I am mostly down to chipped paint from not having mud flaps on it. Still will take some working at when I go to paint it but think I can get it painted well with the way it is.

News just said summer is over at 9 oclock tonite. Urgh!!! It is starting to get dark earlier and takes alot longer for daylight to kick in. Seems like yesterday summer was just starting. Really wanting to get it all together while still some descent temps.

Getting down to the small stuff. Hope an hour or two more and it will get into sealer.

 

Yep,summers over,falls here.if you need any parts I just bought a 84 extra cab.

 

Thanks Chris... I think I am good for now on the parts. My biggest issue is coming up with the correct injector harness. I do have a few 22r harnesses and if I cant come up with an EFI harness quick that will work, I will temporarily do a 22r mod and might need some harness sections then. Thanks again. I am sure you have talked to Mark. Eventually he will get this way and if there are some parts you need let me know and I can send them back with him.

 

Just passing on some info for painting. Depending on what pressure your gun takes, I set my pressure with the trigger pulled and adjust it to the correct pressure that way. Usually the pressure will read a little higher when you let off of the trigger.

I finally got smart and cleaned off the gauges to where I can read them and when spraying, I throw a towel or something over the gauges to keep over spray off of them.


Not much masking to do. Mostly here to cover the handle and to keep the door mechanisim from getting covered and making it hard to operate. I also covered the door lock and put it in the lock position for better covering.


Here is how I plan on opening the door when painting. It will be covered when I reinstall the door handle and should be very little touched at all.


Covered the latch. I will have a little over spray on the latch but it is easier to get the paint off of later.


Here the hood is ready for sealer. To get an idea if it is straight and ready for paint, it basically should look like it is wet and waxed in my opinion. Should be a good idea if you have it smooth.


I got the cab in sealer. I have about 3 places to touch up. I then will go over it with 600 grit. That will give it a slick surface. The first layer of paint I will do good to get 50% coverage as it will run easily. I let it tack up for a few minutes and then add a second or third coat until I get good coverage.

I need to pick up 600 grit paper tomorrow and for the very few places that I am sure I will burn thru the sealer and get into primer, I will just use rattle can spray primer for those areas. Will mostly be on creases or something like that. If all goes will I may get the cab into paint tomorrow. I am going to have to come up with a better way of painting the top of the cab. I dont have the best set up for now on getting to the top so applying the sealer did show what I need to do to get ready for paint.

Also I am going to need to get some better lighting for the passenger side. It is dark over on that side and this is really the only angle that I can get a descent shot of pictures.