Canman’s build and misadventures

Ah, Makita. I quit using their stuff when I was grinding on my FJ40 and smelled something. It was the grinder in my hands actually on fire!! Kinda hilarious if it hadn’t caught my shirt on fire too. Into the bin.
I’m getting attached to Milwaukee, but damn if new stuff isn’t just stupid expensive.

Was just thinking, no matter what Toyota does it’s as much or more durable than anything else out there. So I guess plod along and clean it up. It will last in the end

 

Second piece about to be tacked in. Chased rust filling in the bottom home as is typical with rust repair. It’s always the rust you cannot see that is the killer.

 

I’ve had good luck with Makita. My grinder gave up the ghost a few months back after 20 yrs. Quality of new I feel just slightly less than what I had, but still should last a long time. I want a cordless ratchet, but heard bad things about the Makita one, so checked out Milwaukee a few weeks back when they had a huge “open house” at Home Depot. It was like $50 or $60 off, so just below CAN$300, but no batteries. When he showed my the battery it was tiny. Barely bigger than my Dremel battery. I asked if they had bigger ones. Yes, they came in a two-pack, but without the charger. The small battery came with the charger. I just said forget it. Stupid promotions, with some “packages” costing more than the sum of the individual items. Was not impressed.

 

I’ve heard of Cosmoline being used to protect weapons from corrosion. There is also Woolwax? from the UK IIRC. Our military used to use Krown. It helps mostly on interior stuff as it is water soluble and just a washes off on anything exposed to the elements. I have a can or two of Rust Check, and that will have to do for now.
Cut out the third piece, and of course it fell inside. Spent 5-10 minutes trying to fish it out, then got fed up, and got a small magnet taped to a tie-wrap. Came out right away. Beer and lunch is calling…

 

US uses cosmoline grease. I heard of a guy who got a russian AK47 packed in cosmoline too.
You mention CAN $. Where you at?

 

Third piece in. Been welding blind (no helmet). Can’t seen anything without floodlight in, and auto-dark on helmet turns on with light on. Just been stacking tack welds. Will clean up, and try some beads later. Now to get the sway bar out of the way so I have room to work on the rear of the hole.

 

Of course, there are more holes. Just going to try to plug weld them close. This is just crazy. That is some thick steel to corrode through like that.

 

Just outside of Ottawa. Fourth piece about to be tacked in.

 

Well, I went on a welding rampage chasing the rust. Went all the way around the engineer wet dream nobblin hump-o-steel. Didn’t help that I was listening to Apple’s 90s Greatest Hits, and Rage Against the Machine, Beastie Boys, and Nine Inch Nails was playing. Lol!
It’s a globular mess worthy of the best booger welds award, but that thing will be around for many years.
Now, do I let me OCD kick in, and start bucking down those globs so that the Glob Nobblin gods approve?

Got to pack it in for today. My eldest has invited me over for supper sans dining chairs (she just moved into a new place).

 

Keep plugging away at it, pun intended! Now I understand why it is.
Cosmoline is in your future.

 

If I can somehow “plug” up the 30 plus holes on the crossmember, and a few others on the frame rails, I’ll fill the damn thing with either engine oil or trans fluid, and let it sit in there for a while so the entire interior surfaces are coated with a protective layer. No way will spraying anything in there cover the interior surfaces adequately.
Speaking on this subject, I had the privilege of working with Mercedes-Benz when we purchased G-Wagons for the Canadian Military. I got to see the production line at the Magna-Steyr plant in Graz, Austria many times. I was blown away at the rust proofing processes they had in place for the G-Wagon. For the frame, they had a fixture that filled/pumped the frame full with a hot wax, and then this fixture moved the entire frame up and down to ensure the wax got into every crevice. Just mind blowing to see. For the body, it went into a special booth, where they had specific wands that were used for various parts of the body. Each wand was computer coded so they knew exactly how much time the operator used the wand for each specific part of the body. It was again just crazy. I asked them why? They told me it was because the operators would get lazy and either skip some areas entirely or not put enough coating on. In fact, the door to let the body out of the booth would not open, unless the sequence and corresponding time for each wand was done correctly. These are just a few things that almost nobody knows about when you purchase a G-Wagon.

 

Found the “missing” nut for the thermostat hsg. The sway bar and PS cooler mtg bolts are badly corroded. Will eventually replace them with new stuff from Toyota.
Going to be a cooker today and this week in general. It’s actually been quite cool the last couple of weeks. Hope I can wrap up the welding/grinding today, and just concentrate on cleaning, painting, and reassembly tomorrow.

 

Sixth and final piece ready to be welded in. Forgot to take pics of the fifth piece. Could probably have made the patch out of fewer pieces, but I’m a huge fan of Fitzee’s Fabrication on YT. His approach is to just break down patch panels into small pieces and then join them together. He says based on his experience this saves time overall. I’m still a huge fan of folks who can work magic on the English wheel, etc, but I think for this case, I’m on the right path.

 

Starting to take shape. Third pass of filling in voids. Not sure how I will be able to grind down the booger welds on the rear/sides of the gob nobblin hump. The one stud/flange for the aluminum bumper is in the way. Maybe my die grinder tips can get in there. Things are starting to heat up outside.
Beer time…

 

Took a lunch break for a couple of hrs. Been back at it just over an hour. Multiple grind/weld passes, but I think I’m maybe on my last one or two iterations. Damn weld spatter caught the corner of my eye. Should not be welding without a helmet or least goggles, but so difficult to get my fat head up in there, keep my helmet all the while trying to see what I’m doing.

 

Well fellas and fellettes, I’m calling it good enough. I’ll run some 80 grit over it, then 120, call it paint time. Will wire wheel the frames and crossmember first.

 

Just finished preparing the crossmember and frame. Those 3M Scotch-Brite Roloc discs are fantastic. There was literally a cloud of dust coming off the crossmember. This thing is still far from where is should be for proper paint prep, but it is what it is. Of course, it’s too hot and humid to paint. Garage floor is damp from the humidity. However, that being said, I’m really happy with how the patch turned out. No one (except those here) will never know it was patched.

 

Nice work! Not exactly English wheel required, I might have been a bit more in the bending fab stuff but go with what works.
Looks well done and should last for as long as you need. We have a crew flying out of Pembroke right now, they will be
suffering too I think. Lots of water, shade. I can't take that humidity, sucks the life out of me.

 

Thanks! Yeah, my comment was a little confusing. I’m meant making small pieces and stitching them together to make patch panels vs making one larger panel using an English wheel, etc as it relates to bodywork. I’m a huge fan of guys like Karl on “Make it Kustom”, Jordan from “Bennetts Customs” (both Canadian, but Jordan lives in Australia), Lazze from “Lazzemetalshaping”, etc. I have small one from PrincessAuto I plan on using for my speedster build. We’ll see how that goes. Lol!
The heavy duty stuff is done, but still lots to do today. Still have to finish sanding the two small brkts covered in JB Weld and paint them. I did get a coat of rust converter, and two coats of primer on last night, so just two-three coats of top coat left. I also cleaned up the remaining hardware last night, and got them coated with rust converter and a top coat. There are some metal braces in the front wheelwell lower shields that are starting to rust as well as the plastic bumper. I want to clean them up a bit and get some rust converter and paint on them as well. Want to degrease the fan, shroud, and coolant over flow bottle. There is some surface rust underneath the battery tray as well that needs some attention, then it is reassembly. Not sure if I can get all that done today. Will be even hotter today and tomorrow with highs of 32C without the humidex.

 

First top coat. Not masking anything. Lol!

 

Lower wheelwell guards and reinforcing braces. PO (mechanic) decided to drill holes into them and tiewrap them to the bumper rather than spending a few bucks on new hardware. This kinda $hit just baffles me. Ok, if you have some beater car, but on something like this which my daughter bought for CAN$14.5K not really. The guy was a f’king total monkey.

 

HaHa, I feel your pain from every piece of crap repair from previous owners I’ve come across
over the years. Makes me feel better when I find all that money in loose change they leave in the
seat tracks!
That does look nice now though. Very good work, beautiful looking repair in the end. Keep
Spraying!!

 

Thanks! There’s been a bunch of half a$$ repairs I think I mentioned previously. I guess I’ll be dropping by the dealer to order the missing clips etc.
Calling it quits for now. Getting toasty. Eldest wants me to go with her into town. She’s leaving for the Rockies for a week of back country horseback riding later this week. Brkts sanded and primed as well as the two braces. The one for the bumper is long, and the hand held media gun just goes through the stuff like there is no tomorrow. Think I’ll just sand/wire wheel that piece.

 

Started back it it early this morning. Was 33C yesterday and will be the same today. Humidity niw is at 78%. Entire garage floor has water beaded up on it.
Pressured washed the plastic bits earlier. Cannot get the bolts loose from the metal strip on the front bumper. Can’t apply heat either, so just more soaking with PB Blaster. I want to paint the aluminum bumper as a bunch of the coating came off while pressure washing it, but it is just too damn humid. That will have to wait for another day. Just catching up on some YT vids to refresh my memory on alt install/removal so I can start that this morning. Hope to have it all buttoned up today. Miss driving this thing.

 

Got the brace off the bumper. It was a battle of course. Used needle nose vice-grip pliers to hold the clip while loosening off the bolt. Still managed to break one. Not sure yet how I’ll get that one off. Has a bend in it, and a weird gouge in the aluminum bumper. For sure it (plastic bumper) has been painted once, and my daughter kissed the corner last year going through a drivethru (took her a while to admit she hit something). Lol!
Decided to pull the aluminum bumper brkts off and noticed this. Noice…
Looks like another patch, so forget getting this back together today. Into the parts washer for now…

 

Degreased the trans cooler shrouds, and drilled out one snapped bolt. The foam tape seals are full of undercoating oil, and came off. Will need to get new tape. Will also de-rust and paint the clips to hold the two shroud halves together. Lol! Deeper down the rabbit home we go. I really need to be restoring my LX450, and not this thing, but I plan on keeping the Tundra until I run it into the ground, so I need to address all this stuff now before it becomes too late.

 

Had to make a quick trip into the village to get some stuff, and got soaking wet just unloading the car. She’s just too hot out to do anything. Less than 10 yrs ago, I built large deck for my wife’s friend by myself in this kinda heat. Not anymore. Lol!

 

Just managed to degrease some items last night. Still need to clean the shroud. Surprised to see the overflow bottle is moulded into the shroud. De-rusted the plastic bumper steel brace, aluminum bumper brkt nuts, and trans cooler shroud metal clips. Rust converter applied on the clips on the brace and clips, and self-etching primer on the nuts.
Got to do a lithe job for my neighbour after lunch, then it will be repairing the rust on the bumper brkt.
While cleaning the fan blades, I tried spinning it. Seems stiff, but not all that familiar with these thermostatic clutches. Would seem it should be free wheeling - no?
Thankfully, not as hot today as yesterday with a high of only 31C. This should be the last day of heat wave.

 

You have mentioned rust converter a few times. I've tried several products and decided it's snake oil,
won't touch anything like it again. But maybe you have something I've not heard of?
I spray Cosmoline on exposed metal, it seems to penetrate over rust. But not
anything too extensive or sensitive. I will be spraying Beoshield into the rockers
as soon as I get it to protect that area.

 

I think the science is sound as far as the chemical reaction “neutralizing” the rust. Does it “stop” rust - no. Does it slow it down - I think so. The reality is that once there is rust, it is almost impossible to stop it from returning short of media blasting it, and quick and proper paint prep. I’ve done this successfully on many items. I media blasted the bottom/rear surfaces of the crossmember last year. It has held up well, but rust is leaching from the inside where it is impossible to remove that rust/scale. My goal is to slow the rust down as much as I can. I know it will return, but hoping what I’m doing will keep the Tundra going for another 5 yrs. Not too much to ask (I think). By then if will be at around 400K kms, and 22 yrs old.
I’m really thinking after that, it will be early 70s K5 Blazer. I’m so sick and tired of the complicated electronics, crowded engine bays, and today’s exorbitant costs to buy and maintain a vehicle.
My 08 MDX is a prime example. BT was broken when we bought it 5 yrs ago. No biggie. New one was around US$330. Said forget it. Got a cheap plug-in BT adapter for CAN$30. Next NAV system died, and along with it the ability to adjust time on the clock. So stupid. Next, rear windows stopped working (just a few weeks ago). Now rear console heat comes on automatically, and AC quit over the winter. So, the last couple days with it around 100F (with humidex), I can’t open rear windows, have heat coming out of centre console, and no AC.
We only planned on keeping the car 4 yrs, so not entirely disappointed, but you know what I mean. Car prices today are a total joke. My FIL purchased a GMC AT4 4x4 (crew cab) last year, and it was CAN$92K. I was surprised to see it had no rear heat/ac outlets for the rear passengers in the centre console. Lol! Damn, we paid $200K for our house in 1999.