Enter ToyoTruck

Super long post today, and I still didn't get the project all the way done in one post. I did get most of the way, though, and I'll wrap it up next time. For today, I'll hit some background first, and then get into the adventure with this new-to-us truck. Since this started on Christmas 2021 and today is the first of March 2022, clearly this has been quite a saga. At the rate this is progressing, it will be competed mid-Summer.

Background - the setup

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When C returned for winter break from University, he left his car ('09 Subie) on campus. He needed a car while he was home so he could get to work, but we have a significantly reduced the operable fleet (sold Flash, sold K'Lack). So, we borrowed-as-a-prelude-to-buy Boo's sister Rose's Toyota Tacoma X-Runner. I am referring it ToyoTruck for now, though the interweb folks often call these "taco's". I suspect it will get a better name when it presents iteself. Rose has an older Ford truck that is getting a new engine swapped in, so this Toyota was kind of extra anyway. Clearly, having extra cars around is a family thing for us, and with the rehab we plan on doing on this house, having a pickup readily available for supply runs will be valuable. Anyway, C arrived home a few days before Christmas, just in time for some radical winter weather. We got snow, and ice, and more snow, some sleet, and melting followed by freezing. It was a full-blown winter stew. We let C use Boo's '09 Audi A4 (all wheel drive, newer M&S tires, etc) while Boo drove ToyoTruck. ToyoTruck is rear-wheel drive with mostly-worn-down summer highway tires. That would have been fine if it weren't for the winter weather. With Boo's new schedule, she has to report by 7:AM, which means leaving well before dawn, and right about at the overnight low temperature. This lead to a Christmas morning (yes, she worked Christmas morning) sliding-on-the-ice scenario which ended with the truck smacking a pole. The passenger fender, the bumper cover, passenger headlight, passenger fog light, the leading corner of the hood and some assorted little bits all were affected by the very low speed impact. The damage seemed minimal enough that Boo continued on to work. It wasn't until the next day that we got to access the damage in the daylight.

How Does that Insurance Commercial Go Again?

after post-smack

In the daylight, it looked pretty twisted, but it is mostly surface damage. I took a bunch of pictures and we tried to get a claim going with our insurance company. Turns out that insurance goes with the car, not the driver, so we needed to use Rose's insurance. We learned this while we were getting bids (~$5k) on the work. This is where insurance got interesting: even though Rose told Allstate she wanted "full coverage" the agent pulled a massive boner and failed to include collision (pays for damage to your car). How that meets the definition of "full coverage", I don't know, but I swear this feels like one of their ads... where they say the competitor will leave you hanging with a tagline like "if you don't have Allstate...". It appears that the Allstate ad is actually self-describing. Maybe their ad should be more like "if you let our agents do it, you're gonna get screwed". So, to sum this up: we borrowed a truck, slid into a pole causing ~$5k worth of damage and there's no insurance to fix it. Happy Christmas.

Paulie: Bodyman

Fast Times Camaro

To resolve, I tried my best Spicoli imitation: "Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it." Of course, the next scene in that movie (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) has that car, unrepaired, but tagged with Ridgemont sucks / Lincoln rules spray-paint. Instead of that, I'm actually going to repair it. I took the itemized bid and ordered all of the parts the body shop said needed to be replaced from CarParts.com. This cost about $1300US delivered. The bid had the parts for around $2k, so we are already ahead in the game. I will simply remove and install the parts I received, and hope I discover nothing else is wrong. The labor for the body panel removal/replacement was $900US. So, if I can get the truck back into one piece, I will have saved over half the bid. At $900US, using my usual price for my labor ($50/hr for simple math), I break even at 18 hours. On its surface, I think I can get way under that. I had a great experience with CarParts.com, by the way. The bumper cover was wrapped in thick plastic wrap inside a huge box and the fender was made-in-Taiwan steel double-wrapped in custom cardboard protecting it plus packing material between the wrapped fender and the box sides. The packaging of the headlights was equally protective. Some of the shipping, however, was spotty. We can credit GLS for losing and then claiming delivery of almost half the order. Ultimately, they got the parts to me, 2 weeks after they said they were delivered. That final delivery was curious in that the box appeared without a text nor email update, though I had been set up for both. Sneakily done, GLS.

 

Finally, with all the parts I had ordered in my garage, I was ready to get started. I had finally gotten the 2016 Sprinter seats installed into Hapy (See Hapy Seating Part 2), so I could shuffle vehicles around. Hapy went back into the driveway and ToyoTruck moved under the canopy so I can work out of the rain.

Body Panel Removals

2 replacement bits in

I started by removing the front grill, fog lights and bumper cover. Then, I pulled the headlights and removed the fender, leaving the hood for last. The grill is held to the top of the radiator support with 3 Phillips screws across the top. Down below, the electrical plugs for the fog lights are simple tab-lock plugs. Since I am replacing the fog-lights with the bumper, I left the old lights in the old bumper. For reference, just press the tabs and they wiggle out. With the plugs out, the fog lights can push through the bumper (after pressing inwards on the plastic retaining tabs). The bumper cover is held on with plastic push-on tabs across the top as well as a few from underneath. These pop free with a slotted screwdriver. Since they are 15+ years old, they will often fail on removal. There are also a few 10mm screws as well, all from below. The ends of the bumper cover tie into the inner wheel well plastic, but eventually, once the last fastener is free, the bumper just wiggles free.

I next removed the under-headlight trim bits. There is a small plastic push-on thing, like the ones that held the bumper cover, on the inside that attaches the trim bit to the headlight, but the rest of it just clicks into place... or out of place. The headlights are held in place with long Phillips-head bolts from the top, and 2 more on the sides (one connects to the lower radiator support, the other through the side of the fender). The lights unplug, but if they are stubborn, the bulbs which are not the main beam twist out with a 90* twist. Then, the plug can be wrestled free. The last big thing to remove is the fender itself. There are obvious bolts from above, but there is one hidden in the door jam near the top and one from the outside just rear of the wheel well. Of course, before final removal, the inner wheel well needs to be removed, and the antenna needs to be dealt with.

 

super-glued tabs on the flare

 

The Inevitable Annoying Bits

The antenna and the inner wheel well skin are the worst part of this parts exchange. The antenna had become heavily oxidized and corroded, completely freezing the top nut. I ultimately broke-off the lower antenna mast so I could continue and ordered a top-to-bottom replacement, adding another $140US to the parts costs. Even on my garage floor, I was unable to separate the antenna bit from the bent fender.

The plastic inner wheel well is held in place by ribbed plastic clips along the inner edge and in a couple spots in the middle. Along the outer edge of the fender, the fender, the inner wheel well and the outer faring (flare) are held together with Phillips/10mm screws. When the truck hit the pole, the 3 top mount points along the outer faring / flare all broke. I did not realize that until I was removing things. Rather than order a replacement ($130US plus delivery), I collected the mounting ears and super-glued them back onto the flare as shown in the picture. Once the superglue had set up, the tabs did not wiggle. Since they broke off so cleanly, I could see their original pitch. So, I simply matched that and held the tabs for a 15 count as the glue set.

With the big parts out of the way, we can see where the little bits that Beaverton Auto Body suggested replacing. There is a small plastic bit that looks like a tiny fist with the hole in it that is Phillips-screwed to the fender. This holds the edge of the bumper in the right spot relative to the fender. There are 2 long thin brackets which support the top and bottom of the bumper cover (and lower leading edge of the fender) which were definitely tweaked. The small triangular bit that attaches to the passenger-side front (front is front) of the radiator support, extends forward to the other end of the long thin bracket, had a subtle twist to it. All of these attach with 10mm bolts, and you can see them installed in the picture above captioned "2 replacement bits in". They are the ones with big white labels.

Start Re-Assembly

windshield washer lines pre-removal

I started with the small bits: the triangular bracket first, and then the support bracket on the passenger side. I decided that the driver side bracket was untouched by the accident, so replacement was unnecessary. I swapped out the driver-side headlight next, re-using the original under-headlight trim bit since it was undamaged. Then, I tackled the fender. It is surprising how much faster install can be when you know where the fasteners go. I started with the 2 most difficult: the one on the bottom, heading straight in from the outside, and the one from inside the door. The bottom bolt is really only difficult because of all the extra lower body trim that appears on the XRunner needs to be loosened and held out of the way. I fear that I will need to completely remove all of the panels on that side because of all the dirt and sand I found in there when I took it apart. That dirt/sand may prevent a clean, tight install. Anyway, with the hard bolts in, I ran the bolts in along the top edge and then the front pair into the new bracket. I am not thrilled with the gap along the hood, but I will concern myself with that once the new hood goes on. It is possible that the hood got tweaked beyond just the small dent in the front corner.

After the fender, I installed the passenger-side headlight and the replacement under-trim. Other than cannibalize plastic fasteners from the bent and broken old body panels, this was as far as I could get at this point. I ordered a set of plastic snap-fasteners, but they had not arrived yet. Also, I had not planned for the antenna, so I could not completely button-up the fender and wheel well anyway. Yes, I could have stopped the post here...

The Hood

only disconnect needed

I was able to source everything, except the hood, from CarParts.com. For the hood, I turned to eBay, and got burned with a hood that arrived with a dent. My cursory inspection upon delivery did not detect that the passenger side had a couple of bashes in it under the cardboard wrap. I had checked the other 3 sides, so lesson learned here: completely unwrap the entire thing before you sign. I didn't know the pair of dents were there until I went to install it after installing the inner wheel skin down below, sadly. So, if I want a clean hood, I will order, pay, wait for and move-bits onto a second hood. FFS. Of course, with the supply chain issues around the world, there is a very small set of these hoods in the western US. In fact, according to the local Toyota dealer, there aren't any.

 

Obviously, the hood is held to the truck by 2 large hinges. Additionally, the windshield washer nozzles are in the hood. There are a few other things to transfer to the new hood, so I simply disconnected the washer hose and removed the bolts to free the hood. Then, I set the old hood next to the new hood in my garage. Piece by piece, with the puppy (Tuukka) watching, I moved the washer nozzles, bits of hose, the sealing rubber bits and the front rubber feet. Those feet are pretty interesting: they are solid rubber and thread in. You set the height of the closed hood by turning them clock or anti-clock wise. Very clever design.

 

There is a sealing strip that runs along the rear edge of the hood, held on by little plastic fasteners. I was able to free them without damaging them by using a door panel removal tool. I expected the washer nozzles and hose to the the hard part, with the scoop insert to be a breeze. It was the opposite, with the hose retainer plastic bits and the washer nozzles popping off with only a little difficulty, but remaining intact for reuse. These bits are held in place by little plastic barbs that need to be pinched in for removal. I used a slotted screwdriver, working one side and then the other until each one was free.

Hood Scoop Insert

The hood scoop insert, however, has seen better days. The mounting studs all backed out of the scoop, rather than allow the nuts to back off the stud. The 2 front studs would not separate from the old hood at all, and last, during install into the new hood, it cracked. This plastic is over 15 years old, and based on the damaged paint on the top of the vehicle and the sand I found in the wheel liner, I think we can conclude that this truck lived at the beach for a while, getting salt water on it while driving on the wet sand. I suspect it was parked outside mostly, as well, further accelerating the aging of the exterior. I will accordingly reset expectations for any other exterior bits I touch going forward.

I ordered a replacement hood scoop insert (another $140US for parts), and started considering doing a complete respray of this thing once the damage has been resolved. Of course, with the way I have to keep buying parts, that respray may need to wait a while. Meanwhile, I was in a holding pattern waiting for parts... and I was looking for a hood, again. Yes, I could have stopped the post here as well.

The Bumper

dry-fitting the bumper

The bumper cover / assembly is actually 6 distinct plastic bits: the main bumper cover, of course, a decorative center piece below the grill, 2 end pieces and 2 lower valences (split in the middle). Of these parts, we damaged 3: the main cover, the passenger-side valence and passenger-side end. All of these parts are held together with these blue wedge-like plastic clips. I was able to salvage all but one (which disappeared), which tells us just how slow moving the crash was. While I waited for parts, I re-assembled the bumper bits, excluding the decorative center. I had thought that I could paint the bumper as an assembly, but, I realized that I would need to take it all apart to install the decorative bit anyway, so I will be taking this all apart to shoot it. Of course, I put all this together mentally after I had put the bumper together physically. LOLs.

Still, by having the bumper bits together, I could dry-fit the front end together. Also, this reduced a big pile of parts in my small garage, and it helped me understand what bits I could sell-off, and which I still needed. For example, I discovered that there are little rubber strips between the main bumper cover and both the lower valences and the end bits. In the upper dry-fit picture, you can see the old valences on the ground below. A keen eye could see the rubber seals on top. I will be re-claiming those rubber bits before I dispose of the broken plastic parts. As you can also see. I have not removed the protective film from the lights yet; no need to tempt fate.

More Parts Arrive...

dry-fitting with the grille

After another week of waiting, things I ordered during the tear-down / re-assembly started to appear on my doorstep. So, I got back to it, starting with the antenna.

 

The antenna arrives with a stretch of cable that's about 1/2 a meter long with a pair of mounting clips already attached. This cable passes through the side wall and the fire wall up behind the glove box, and then runs up into the A pillar where it plugs into another cable. This seems like a strange design, but it's how it is. To access everything, the glove box needs to come out and the passenger grab handle needs to come out. There are a couple of plastic retaining clips that need to be popped (the OEM replacement antenna arrives with new clips) and then it is ready for removal. I attached a string to the end of the antenna cable and pulled it out through the side wall. I moved the string from the old cable to the new and pulled the string, bringing the cable along the original path.

 

The plastic tabs were in the right spots, and they popped in. The one in the rear of the picture below was a little difficult, but only because it is in a hard-to-get-to spot. I found by getting the front edge of the clip (front is front) first, allowed me to put pressure on the rear edge with a slotted screwdriver, snapping it home. Once the cable was in, the panels were installed in the order I removed them. The leading edge of the A-pillar trim inserts into a slot on the edge of the dash (seen in picture below) while the upper end has a tab that also fits into a slot: idiot-proof. The grab handle only fits into the A-pillar trim one way, and, because of the tabs, the mounting bolts align without effort. Inside the fender, the cable has a rubber grommet to seal the pass-thru hole. The top of the lower mast is then passed up into the hole in the fender and the lower end is bolted to a mounting tab with a 10mm bolt. After all the wrestling with German over-engineering, I really like this Japanese design. I feel like the Tacoma was built with owner maintenance in mind. I finished up the antenna on top of the fender with the outer rubber bit and nut and then threaded on the upper mast.

The Inner Wheel Well

installing antenna

All I had left was the inner wheel well, but I didn't explain the assembly of the rest of the bumper. As I mentioned earlier, I assembled the bumper, but I needed the bits to mount it. This was a straight-forward matter of using the plastic snap-clips where they belonged, and using the 10mm screws where they belonged. Since I failed to take quality pictures during tear-down, this was not as smooth as it could have been. Still, it all went together, leaving the passenger side wheel well. I purchased a replacement inner skin because I saw that the original had been damaged in the accident. The new liner was an exact match, and fitting it was not as terrible as installing on the old Jettas, but it was pretty close. These plastic liner things are the absolute worst. I did the outer edge last, simply because this edge also held the flare in place and I felt trying to juggle 3 things which were not in any way attached was at least one too many. The inner edge was straightforward: set the plastic skin where it is supposed to be and slam the plastic bit through the holes. The challenge for me was getting the square holes in the skin to consistently align with the square holes in the under-body.

With the skin now held in place by a handful of plastic bits, the outer edge was easier. I started at rear bottom and worked my way up. Again, having pictures would have been helpful so I could confidently set the skin / fender / flare stack correctly. Absent that, I just considered where water would go. So, I put the inner skin "outside" the fender along the rear edge for the first 3 fasteners (block water kick-up from the tires from getting inside fender) and at a cut-out transitioned it "inside" (so water drips from above don't run under the inner skin). At this point, I attempted to mount the fender flare. The super glue repair I described above failed almost immediately, so I shifted to the hood.... at which point I discovered the dents and my progress halted again.

 

I am going to halt this post here, and pick it up in another one. This has gotten very long, matching the saga, and the truck is still not in one piece. And, again, I'm waiting for parts.

Thanks for following along and more next time-