Anthony y El Burrito Blanco

The dent...

I bought the truck (again it was a farm truck so it probably got hit by some equipment) with this dent and it bugged me - it stood out more and more as I made improvements to the truck. I stopped by the auto body shop to ask how much it would be to paint it if I fixed it and the guy there told me how to fix it - drill a hole and stick a screw in there and yank with some pliers. I didn't use pliers, but some water heater strap that I pulled the screw with once it was in the hole. Here's the progress:








I don't know why I stopped taking pictures. I put a few more coats of white on it and left it for inspection the next day. I was bummed out to find that the bondo was a little high in the biggest fix. I think that I'm the only one that would notice it besides an autobody specialist (maybe that's being too optimistic lol). Anyway I held back from clearcoating it and I'll probably sand one more time and paint it again when I do another painting project on the truck and I have all my materials out again.

 

My friend Daniel and I went to Yosemite together. We had a good time out there. The first night we stayed in Mammoth and a bear woke me up at 3am by tipping over the trash can right under my open window - I woke up to the sound of the bear breathing next to my head - crazy!



Here's Daniel in Yosemite Valley.



Here's my truck in Yosemite Valley lol:



Here's some more shots from our trip.

Tenaya Lake


Daniel at Mono Lake


The main lodge at Mammoth where I used to work 11 years ago (man time flies lol).



Mt. Whitney the tallest mountain in the US outside of Alaska and my truck



An old clunker out in Owen's Valley near Lone Pine and the Manzanar Reward Gold Mine



And the truck at the In'N'Out after the trip in Palmdale. Daniel's a teacher in Germany and every year he travels to California on his summer break just for this - double double baby.



All in all it was a great trip.

 

Did an oil change today and drove a couple hundred miles around Orange County and LA - PCH all the way up to Deer Creek Road on a night run with Dan. Here we are at the Santa Monica Pier.



I'm pretty much his tour guide while he's here. It's cool with me - I get to have a good excuse to drive to all my favorite spots

Oh and I picked up a few things...





I got the springs and the uca's from a deal on craigslist that was too good to pass up. It turns out they were being sold by a cool guy named Jordan who used to work for DeMello off road. He hooked it up big time - $340 for the springs and uca's. I got the bumper off of a forum member here for a hundred less than a new one and it's in brand new condition pretty much.

 

Next time if you have a dent like that and you seem handy enough....try getting behind the dent...you probably have to remove the interior seat belt area and then push the dent out ...just like the paintless dent repair. You'll probably go too far, but it's better than drilling holes and then bondo so much... not sure if black primer was good either if your truck is white. I didn't see final product all done...but just a suggestion.

 

All good advice. I tried to get behind that dent, but there's an inner skin blocking the whole thing inside the cab The black was a guide coat for sanding which I still messed up a little :/ I'll keep working on the thing - it's good for now, but I have a hood I'll be painting and I'll do the whole she-bang at once. Thanks for the advice - if I hadn't tried those things I certainly should have - does that make sense? lol

 

Nice!

 

Thank you. Nice truck man! lol I'll be working on a 4x4 conversion someday when I get another vehicle to drive while it's in progress. DeMello off-road specializes in that, and I'm hoping to learn more about how to do it on my own as well, but I'm only 2wd in the meantime. 4x4 is a must have for solo exploring!

Hey one of my friends is Guamanian. Looked at your sunset photos - looks beautiful out there!

 

Oh I see...the black was to spot the high spots. What kind of paint did you use? Duplicolor? What about clear coat...you using 2K clear coat or just regular from spray cans? The 2K is more expensive and dangerous to breathe, but it supposed to be close to the automotive clear coat in terms of longevity

 

Yeah I used Duplicolor from Amazon. It was alright, but a little yellow. The body shop guy told me about a local automotive paint store that I'll probably try. I have a can of 2k clear waiting in my "workshop" (water heater closet lol). I have a respirator - I used to paint commercial and residential properties for a living so I feel pretty comfortable painting (doesn't mean I'm great at it though).

 

I was going to paint my bumper with with duplicolor for MGM color and then use 2K clear...but I rather use duplicolor clear....just not sure if it's hard enough to handle chips or UV. I'm not a good painter either, but I generally wet sand it smooth and then hit it with clear. Blending paint is a real pain. Wish I can find a place to paint my bumper for less than $200 with automotive paint.

 

Yeah the 2k clear I bought was like $35 so I'm waiting until I'm completely satisfied with my work to lay down the clear coat. I saw one kind of clear that looked pretty good on this video (which happens to be a bumper painting video btw.) He's not wearing a respirator though - that dust mask is doing nothing for the fumes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rGePa8SZaE

Here's the respirator I use - cheap and it gets the job done.

$38 3M Performance Paint Project Respirator OV/P95, Designed For Professionals, Reusable Respirator, Medium, 1-Pack

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004Z4EB/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8&qid=1440747159&sr=1&keywords=3m+respirator

He lists his materials in the description and I think the clear he's using is $20 or so.

I'm going to get a good amount of experience blending when I finish up this project since the panel goes all the way around the truck. I'm going to blend it about half way up the window I believe.

 

New front brakes.



Thanks to another forum member here - got the pads and rotors for $175 and watched this video to learn how to do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiMVzzasVCw

Here's a thread on tacomaworld with the video - the video was made by him.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-change-front-brakes-pads-and-rotors.353082/

I decided to paint my calipers - I used Duplicolor semi-gloss black engine paint. I just hosed them with brake clean and brushed them with a metal brush for a bit.



The new brakes!



A year ago I'd never believe I'd see my own vehicle like this!

I took the time to rotate my tires since I did the oil change yesterday.

Driving around the block I could feel a difference in the braking power. I'm glad I did this - next up is the brake flush and some interior stuff

One more thing about my mods today - I read about somebody saying he would use a cookie sheet to keep his tools easy to find as he worked - I tried it out and it helped me big time. A lot less time looking for tools I needed - I just moved that thing around with me as I worked. Worked great!

 

Thanks man! Where are you in LA?

 

I live near Pasadena.

 

Right on. I hear old town Pasadena is nice. I'll have to make it out there someday.

 

Yeah, it is pretty nice but it gets crowded. Especially the night life seen! It is overall fun though. Yea you should definitely make it out this way!

 

It's been awhile since I posted anything. For awhile I thought I wa going to sell my truck and life got really busy with what I'll refer to as "life happens" so I didn't think I'd be able to post anything else. Looks like that wasn't the case. I sold off most of my off-road upgrades but I still have some Icon 2.0 rear resis and 3 spring aal and some Icon UCA's. All I need are some coilovers and I'll be able to upgrade the suspension all around. I'm going to wait to get the recall leafs from Toyota and try to find a good deal on Icon 2.5 extended travel co's. I'll get some shims for the rear and a u-bolt flip kit and do it all at once.

Some changes have happened to my truck that I'm pretty happy about. I took all of the fender trim off to repaint and repainted the bumper. I kind of like the look without the trim on there. I bought a camper shell (good deal at $500). I got some carpet for the back and new headlights. I'm liking the look so far. Can't wait to take it out for some camping now that my truck is more ready for that kind of thing.

 

I went on a three day solo trip to Mojave National Preserve and turned my truck into an entry level overland vehicle:



Saw a lot of cool things like desert flowers





Some animals including a badger that I couldn't get a picture of, but is the coolest animal I have ever seen and a rosy boa.



Tons of lizards:



and even a toad by a spring at night:



I even found the final resting place of Boba Fett:



The scenery and sunsets were great:

Providence Mountain









There were a great amount of things to explore and next time I'd like to check out this abandoned structure I spotted from the top of Providence Mountain:



There was a lot of great rock climbing and bouldering



There's a lot to see out there and I highly recommend this area for exploring and bouldering and climbing.

The drive home:

 

Great progress!

 

Thank you! It's been an adventure for the year I've owned this truck - I've learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I like your truck - I read that you've had more than one Toyota pickup - this is my fourth Toyota in the last fifteen years and they've pretty much all been winners. Definitely look forward to seeing some more of your truck on Tacomaworld!