97 Tacoma Partial Restoration Engine/Paint

1997 Well my friends in the Alabama thread suggested I post a thread on my truck and what is going on. To catch people up to speed, on March 9th I had developed an engine missfire. I had spoken to my sister and brother-in-law whom I purchased the truck from, and they said that they had not done a tune up in at least 50k miles, so I purchased new plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter, etc. I was taking care of all the maintenance items. Well during the spark plug replacement, the plug broke off inside the head (I have the 2.7L 4 cyl) and I found myself in need of pulling the head to extract the rest of the plug, and clean any metal that may have fallen into the cylinder. I was quite shocked when I found a large crack inside the cylinder bore for the #2 cylinder! Engine is toast.

Well I considered doing a V8 swap for some fun, but quickly realized that it was going to cost me much more than I was willing to put into this truck at this time. It is my daily driver, and I need it to get some decent mileage. Below you will find some pics of what things looked like at this point:




You can see at about 1/3 of the way down there is a significant crack that has developed. You can even run your finger across it and feel how bad it is. This has been developing for a long time!

So I began looking for used, low mileage engines. Those things are hard to find, and expensive! I actually ordered my parts yesterday. I got myself a totally reconditioned block, and a new cylinder head for less than the cost of an engine with 35k miles on it! So this was a no brainer. For those who do not know me, I am the owner and manager of Marion Bumper2Bumper Automotive, LLC located in Marion, AL. Full service automotive mechanical repair shop covering every brand, so we have access to all the tools and equipment needed to take this project on! I have been an ASE Certified Master Technician for almost 20 years, so I can do this job easily.
Here are a few pics of her while she is waiting for parts:







Well here I was a few weeks back looking at my truck and was thinking, she could use a freshening up....let's paint her while we are waiting on the engine! So off came the hood and front fenders (there was a lot of body work needed on them) and out came the grinders, sanders, and body tools! I am ordering the paint some time today or tomorrow. She will be Dodge Viper Blue Pearl with 3 coats of base and 6 coats of clear. A sample of her color is below:






Right now she has been stripped of all removable glass and parts, and is being sanded and all dents and dings will be fixed. After the paint is completed she will be getting a new, spray in bedliner from Speedliner (R) <===shameless plug, and soon after we will be looking at lift and tires! Comments and suggestions will be welcomed!

 

Here are some shots of the broken plug, and cylinder head




Here is the inside of my shop. 4600 sq-ft of floor space.



And here are some photos of the trucks body work so far:

 

Looking good Bill!! Its a shame i dont live closer to ya or else i would be down there at your shop every oppurtunity i could to help ya out and turn wrenches.... been too long since i built a motor.

1 idea came to mind though when i was looking at the thread..... you are gonna spend all that time making the body pretty and laying down what i am sure will be a beautiful paint job........ you CANT go back with the same signage on the side of the truck!!!! wont fit in. have you ever thought about givin sockmonkey a holler and seeing if he could design and make something custome for ya out of vinyl or maybe talk to a local sign shop and see if they could lay out a vinyl design to really blend in the signage on teh side of the truck yet still make it POP. just my idea...... custom paint custom graphix(not called sign anymore after that)

 

Wow, Bill, this is going to be one heck of an overhaul. Can't wait to see the end result!

 

nice.

Love the sig BTW

 

pass it please thank you

 

sheesh.... quit being stingy dangit!!!!!!




I got a lil more hungry... thanks haha. oh forgot my

 

Thanks for the input guys! It helps make the job more fun when I get to share it with friends and others who can appreciate the work being done. As I type this my nephew who works for me is doing more wet sanding and prepping for the rest of the body work. If it were not so expensive and time consuming I would go old-school and lead-fill like I used to back in the day. Unfortunately cost and speed are needed here, so Polyester putty and bondo will have to do. All the dents are being pulled and tapped so that I will have less than 1/32 inch of filler on any of the dents.
As for the signage, I may look at different signs at that point. The only reason I am not going to go with graphics is because this is my personal vehicle as well, I may want to be able to remove the signs as needed. I will be looking at redesigning them though. I located some real nice metal flake, so I am thinking of doing some VERY subdued flames on the hood. You will almost not be able to see them unless the sun is shining bright. I don't want something that SCREAMS flames, just a little more like "Hey! look, I'm not the usual paint!"

Almost forgot, for the guy who commented on my sig, you should talk to the guys in my Alabama thread. I change them out and this one is actually one of my more subdued sigs....lol.

 

Maybe the classic stripes that the old Toyota pickups had on them in flake? I just don't know about flames on a taco, my friend.

 

It's still in debate. What I am looking at is doing the entire truck in the base coat, then taping off the classic type flames on just the hood, and hitting it with the clear coat and metal flake. After that shoot the entire truck with the last 3 coats of clear. That way the flames are not colored much differently from the base color, they are just metal flake. Again, I have not locked that in stone.

 

up 4 pics




so Bill, your truck accepts VISA???? Ill buy it!!!!

 

Sure! although she feels she is worth at least 12k...I don't think you could talk her down...

 

didnt realize the shop was that big. Looks like you got a lot to do Bill. Goodluck and hope to see you out at the meets again.

 

Its not too bad. the square footage is nice. I honestly dont think I will need any more footage. I have plenty of room to install additional lifts as well as an alignment machine in the future. We now have the bed off.





Work in progress. The replacement engine is being built now and the new head is on it's way. Going to replace the clutch and pressure plate while I am this far into it. Kinda stupid not to.

 

yea since you used and abused it at the last meet!!!! lol

 

I couldn't read past your signature...