MatosTaco's Build Thread

Well, the black plastic came in and my two Lexus wheels are officially getting rebranded. The print looks really good. Now I just need to sand down the silver trim on the bottom and spray it black.

20210618_160550 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Here is what the steering wheel looks like once assembled. I really like the look. It's going to be even better once that silver is gone!
20210618_165957 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Here's the latest update of where my Tacoma project is

https://youtu.be/JSteERnzB48

 

In order to get the hood ready for restoration, I cut the excess material hanging from the bottom where the vent is. Now that this is cleaned, I can fit a mesh in from the bottom. However, before I do that, I am going to wet sand and then clear coat the entire hood. Before even doing that, I have a couple of defects and holes in it the hood that need to be filled with epoxy.
20210622_164554 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Here it is after it dried in the sun (I rinsed it to get off the dust from cutting the excess material). I have to say, it looks way better just by not having that bit of material exposed at the vent. Now you just see pure engine bay. I can't wait to have it all polished, clear coated, and meshed.
20210622_183233 by Jose, on Flickr

 

As part of the process of restoring the hood, I decided that the windshield washer holes had to go. The hole I mistakenly made years ago (when cutting the openings for the hood hooks) also had to go. In order to do this, I cut small squares of aluminum foil and taped them down over the holes atop the hood. Then, I flipped the hood over and poured some clear epoxy into each of the three covered holes.
20210622_212229 by Jose, on Flickr

Once that dried just enough to get tacky, I put a small piece of carbon fiber in each. Then, I added more epoxy in order to soak the carbon. Once that was dry, I flipped the hood over and removed the tape/foil. From there, I added more epoxy from the top side. Once that dries, I will sand it down flush with the top of the hood.
20210623_171518 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Up close, you will always see the difference at these points- especially since the carbon I used is a different weave. However, I don't care too much about that. I was more concerned with filling it. I may also paint the center of the hood, so it may very well go unnoticed.

 

Started doing more work on restoring the hood yesterday, namely the wet sanding part.
https://youtu.be/B623jpPnncQ

 

Working on this has me wanting to make random carbon fiber parts. Stay tuned for random carbon craziness lol!

 

Here's the sanded hood once dry
20210624_215104 by Jose, on Flickr

Can't wait for the epoxy to be hard enough to sand so I can even this out and clear coat it all.

 

My local junkyard got a Tacoma in, so I woke up early to go take parts off of it lol. Snagged a hub, valve cover, tailgate latches, interior door handle, visor clips, etc. May go back tomorrow and get the tailgate too, we shall see. My visor clips broke years ago, as did one of my visors, so I had gotten one from the junkyard.

20210626_111825 by Jose, on Flickr
20210626_111827 by Jose, on Flickr

Turns out, the visor I got is the wrong length. I realized it because I put the clips in and it did not reach. I may have taken it from a 4Runner now that I think about it. Oh well,
the plastic on it is the wrong color anyway. I will have to hunt for a new one.
20210626_112349 by Jose, on Flickr

I did wrap both of these in microsuede way back when, so I will have to redo this once I find a new visor
20210626_112405 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Here are the other spare Taco parts I got from the junker
20210626_205219 by Jose, on Flickr

20210626_205213 by Jose, on Flickr

They look like junk right now, but I will restore them to look fresh really soon

 

The other thing I got at the junkyard is this SC300 brake booster. I am going to be swapping my master cylinder out for an SC300 one, but doing so requires you use the SC booster as well. I ordered the master cylinder from Rockauto, since I wouldn't be confident running a master cylinder from the junkyard (that and I hate yellowed out brake reservoirs).

20210626_205222 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Well, I finally felt confident enough in the curing of the epoxy on the hood. So, I took the hood outside and sanded it down. Starting from 180, then moving on to 220, 400, 600, 800,1000, 1200, and 1500 on the epoxy itself got the thick epoxied surfaces down flat and even. Then, I did a final finish sanding on the entire hood. I wanted to go with 1500, but had run out, so the final finish sand is at 2000 grit.

20210627_145127 by Jose, on Flickr

You can see how flat the epoxied areas are now
20210627_145803 by Jose, on Flickr

20210627_163156 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Here's the wet hood when I put it out in the sun to dry
20210627_163203 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Here is the hood once dry

20210627_165005 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Well, I got the mesh glued on with some plastic bonder epoxy. Same stuff I used to glue the mesh on my Miata's hood.


I had the hood upside down and supported with 2x4s so it would sit off the surface of the work table.

20210629_184948 by Jose, on Flickr


The epoxy was mixed and spread all over the inner edge, followed by placing the mesh down and adding weights to keep it in place. I used some cuts of wood to distribute the load from the weights.

20210629_184954 by Jose, on Flickr


Some epoxy came through the other side and will need to be cleaned up, but overall, I am happy with the outcome

20210629_213015 by Jose, on Flickr


Almost time to clear coat this hood!

20210629_213111 by Jose, on Flickr

 

My SC master is finally here! Time to paint and refresh the booster, and then this sucker is going on the truck! The most complex part is going to be bending the lines, since the SC master has the lines on the opposite side.


It's a cool looking, dual cylinder arrangement. I expect this will handle all my 4 wheel disc braking needs lol.

20210630_130709 by Jose, on Flickr


20210630_130705 by Jose, on Flickr

 

I started freshening up a couple of things before putting them on the truck. As per usual, there is no way anything with rust is going on my truck. So, I sanded down the SC300 brake booster and then painted it with self-etching primer. I followed that up with a coat of Rust Reformer and am planning to finish it off with a urethane Black Sand Pearl and clear coat.
20210704_174431 by Jose, on Flickr

I also removed the silver trims from the IS300 steering wheels that I have. I wet sanded those down to about 600 grit and then did self etching primer, more sanding, and about three coats of VHT roll bar and chassis black. They look much better in the semi-gloss black than they did in the faded, factory silver. I also generally detest silver plastic. If you want something to look like metal, just use metal lol.
20210703_173419 by Jose, on Flickr

 

Here's a quick comparison on the difference in appearance:

Before:
20210618_165957 by Jose, on Flickr

After:
20210703_173412 by Jose, on Flickr

Now I just need to redo the leather on all of them. I have like 7 of these steering wheels in total, three Supra ones and four IS300 ones(steering wheel buttons). Re-wrapping steering wheels has apparently become another one of my weirdo hobbies lol. I just love the transformation once they are all freshly leathered out!