Supra LS-type restoration

So when I did the roof skin I had to remove the windshield and to do that the wipers and cowl trim panel have to come off. This is what horror I was greeted with!





First for access to the back side I had to remove the A/C box and blower assembly which is right behind this mess. After that break out the cutting tools and see what is left to work with. Stripped off the paint back to good metal and cut out the bad.



Fabricated some new metal and welded in a patch to the firewall. In this photo I still had to grind the welds down.



Then I had to fabricate a patch panel for the top of the cowl. Here it is ready to weld in.



Here we are with the patch all welded in smoothed out and a couple fresh coats of SPI red epoxy.



Before I welded in the upper patch the lower patch and the underside of the upper patch got coated in epoxy primer as well.

On we go. More rust to follow

Thanks Phil. I had to fabricate the patch. I have been learning by doing on a few projects over the years. The only really specialty tools I used are a shrinker/stretcher, basic metal break and of course a welder. That patch was a bit tricky due to the windshield supports and the mount for the cowl trim panel. You can see in the photo below that was taken mid fabrication how I had to weld two pieces together for the basic shape then cut flaps to form the windshield supports and weld in some small fillers. The trim support was made separate and welded on. I don't have a picture of that. Fortunately I had a picture to go from that I had taken back in 2007 when I repaired the area to the left of the current repair. Finding any donor parts is near impossible anymore as everyone is finding out.

Moving on to the next horror show!



Here I have removed part of the A-pillar, which was fine, to get to the metal underneath.



Marked out what needs to be replaced above the hinge and already removed the piece that was under the A-pillar.



Got one piece welded in and ground , working on shaping the other section



All welded up and ready for finishing



Epoxy primed, a little filler work, more epoxy primer and seam sealed ready for topcoat paint.
I also coated the inside of this whole area with epoxy primer before closing it back up and then coated the welded areas on the back sides working from the inside. This area has been a problem area for rust since the car was about 3 years old. Hopefully this will last!

Todays story of derustification.
Passenger side cowl/firewall area. Here is what was left after removing all the damage.




And the pieces that came out of that hole



First made the cowl floor replacement and welded that in




Then moved on the the firewall upper and lower patches



The outer cowl patch was the most challenging part to make



All welded in and done with metal work in this area.




Epoxy primed ready for seam sealer





Smoothed out and seam sealed ready for topcoat





I am thinking this was all caused by the factory not sealing the seam from the wiper cavity side. They ony sealed the firewall side which really never gets wet. Only the wiper cavity side gets wet ALL THE TIME! Water just wicks into the seam and sits there in the low spot at the outer edge. Needless to say that seam is sealed up now.

After finishing the passenger side cowl I thought I would go after the drivers side. I took off the fender and and got this. Oh boy more rust!



Same old drill, cut out the nasty and shape some new metal. This was the first attempt. Shape was wrong.



Second attempt came out better.



Here it is ready to weld in.



And all welded in ready for epoxy primer and a little body filler to make it pretty.

Upper cowl area on the drivers side is next.

Jumping to something a bit different i decided to look at the blower motor box that was sitting under the massive hole that I repaired on the passenger cowl. Bad news. Water was dripping in and soaked the foam on the air diverter doors leading to this.




I stripped off the foam and went to work fabricating and bead blasting.




I treated the bare metal and found some foam for the doors.



Now working like new and won't smell like old wet socks!

Back to the body issues. Drivers side cowl is next. Looking at the engine side of the firewall I think "not too bad".



Then I looked up in the footwell. Oh Crap!





More cutting out of rusty metal and here is what's left.





Made a new piece for the lower firewall



Then the cowl floor got a new section.







Then the upper firewall got patched.




Same as the passenger side the upper footwell was the most challenging part to make

The footwell under the clutch master cylinder took a beating from a few leaking cylinders over the years soaking the carpet padding with brake fluid. Swiss cheese!




Cut out the bad and replace.


Still some pinholes in my welds that need fixed(sharpie circles)

Had to patch around the kick panel mount



Metal work done here just need to prime and smooth

Moving on to some rust I knew about for a while on the drivers quarter in front of the wheel. Looks like it started at the munting hole for the rocker trim and expanded from there.



Once I cut out the bad section I was surprised that the metal underneath was in perfect shape. Probably due to the rustproofing that was put in the car by either the southeast Toyota distributor or the dealer before I took delivery of the car in January 1982. I wiped some of the rustproofing away and found clean factory primed surfaces.



Forming the patch panel here. A couple of breaks to make the body line and some shrinking on the edge to curve it. Had to apply some persuasion over a pipe to get the rocker part curved.



Almost done with the new part and comparing to the old rusty part. Still have to put the rocker trim mounting hole in.




All welded in. Have a couple of pinholes to weld up shown by the sharpie circles. Got the rocker trim hole in there.




Epoxy primed and filler work done ready for final prime.



All primed and ready to go for overall repaint.

Thanks for the compliments. I don't have any secrets just some learned skills that have come over the years and multiple projects. Some cars you can just buy a patch panel and start with that, but for our orphaned Supras that is just not gonna happen. Probably the most expensive tools I have acquired over the years are a good mig welder, a 36" medium quality metal break and a good Lancaster style shrinker/stretcher. I am thinking maybe $1500 to $1800 invested. Also i have a basic set of body hammers and dolly assortment. A good 5" or 6" vice anchored to a solid bench is a must have for any shop. Then there are the other shop tools like an air compressor capable of running the sanding/grinding tools. You got me thinking of all the different tools I use and I started adding it up in my head. I probably have a fair chunk of change invested in tools but not a lot of individually expensive tools.

So a after finishing the quarter patch I moved to the back of the car and disassembled the lights and bumper to prep that area for repaint. SURPRISE more rust!




This was totally hidden under the bumper.
So if you have been following the thread you know what comes next. Cut out the bad.



Replace with new. This piece was mostly simple bends with a little flap at the bottom welded in



For the outer patch I started with a chipboard template to give me a idea of what a flat piece of metal will want to do. You can see the bend lines and cut outs to get the metal to go around the corner.



And after a bunch of hammering and bending here is what I ended up with.




Here is the rear patch. Fairly simple part.



All welded in smoothed as much as I can. A little bit of filler required to finish off.



Epoxy primed, filled, sanded smooth and finish coat of epoxy primer



This patch was one of the more difficult patches to shape but I was not too concerned since it is totally under the bumper cover.

Moving on to the right rear quarter I found it was not quite as bad as the left, but still needed work. The lower seam is hard to see in the photo where it is perforated and bulging. I had replaced some of the inner panel in 2008 opting to use panel bond adhesive to install it since the outer was still solid and I did not want to weld up under the car. The upper part of the inner patch is doing fine but the lower seam failed and the outer panel rotted. The rear panel also rotted just like the left side.



I sliced the lower outer panel off using a thin cutoff wheel so that I could weld it back on after repairs to the flange.



I ran the salvaged part through the bead blast cabinet to thoroughly clean it and see what was left. Not too bad. The rustproofing that came on the car was pretty deep down in the drop off and protected the inside well. The rear panel will get new metal patch.



The inner panel needed some surgery.




After patching the flange on the outer I welded it back in and welded in the rear panel patch.




All primed and smoothed ready to go for paint.

Roof bodywork done and primed with last two coats of SPI red epoxy primer which will get a final blocking before paint. Color of this primer looks almost like the terracotta finish color!




Bottoms of the doors is next. Ugh!

Since I am done welding on the rear of the car I decided to put the fuel tank back in the car to get it out of the way. Buttoning things up back there I looked at my fuel filler splash shield. What a sorry piece of plastic. All the other plastic shields on the tank are mint. I have repaired it a couple times with metal riveted in but the plastic is just crumbling away.



Is it just mine or does everybody's look like this? The reason I ask is so I know whether to even bother to look for a good one or just make one out of metal.

Tackled the drivers door next. I had replaced the lower skin during the last resto in 2008. Rusting again!



Had to cut off some of the outer skin to gain access to the inner as it was rusting as well. You can now see what was left of the inner door.



Made some new metal patches for the inner door




Then made a new outer skin patch and tacked it in place.



Fully welded it in and promptly warped the crap out of it. That will teach me to slow down the welding and cool things off. Took a while to get that fixed!
Hammer and dolly with some shrinking disc use to get rid of the oil can.

Flange all folded over and finished.



Last time I used panel bond on the lower seam. That did not hold up. This time I am welding then flooding the seams with epoxy primer before seam sealer.

All done primed and seam sealed.




This was the better of the two doors. Passenger side is next.

Passenger door next. I think this will just clean up! Hah!




This door has rust extending much further back than the driver's side. Bigger patch panels. Oh well I have plenty of metal stock.




Made some inner door patches and welded them in




Outer skin patch fabricated and started fitting and welding



All welded in and ready for epoxy primer and some filler.



I was more careful welding this one and did not cause the warping I did on the driver door. Learn as you go!

Forgot the finished pictures!

Bodyworked and primed but not seam sealed yet.

Finally getting to make things pretty. Cut in the cowl and front of the door jambs with base/clear so that I can get the front fenders bolted back on and prep them for paint.






Once the paint was cured I went about putting the wire harness back through the cowl. The grommets were in bad shape so I scoured the internet for a good replacement since Toyota is of no help for these. I found some at Speartech that are almost exact. The only problem is installing them over the wire harness connectors since they have to be installed from the front of the harness. I tried stretching the grommet over the connectors but thought I would tear them so I depinned the wires from each connector and taped the metal terminals to the harness to cover any sharp edges and then lubed up the harness with Fantastik cleaner and slid them along. Snap lots of pictures of each connector as you go so the wires get back in the same location on each connector. Took a few hours and some cursing to get this done but it is possible. Harness got cleaned and a new grommet installed at the same time!

I ran into an issue getting more basecoat in PPG DBC for the Terracotta 3A7 paint code. Apparently PPG has removed the paint formula for this from their database that the jobbers use to mix from. They still have the code in the cheap line of base and can do a single stage. I don't like the cheap base and I am not going back to single stage paint. I still had the gallon can from the last restoration and it had the mixing formula under the label. I researched why they removed the formula and discovered that the DMD624 Violet toner has been discontinued. The local PPG store suggested that I bring in the old can and they would try and match it. They found that they still had all the necessary toners including the violet in their paint rack and could mix up another gallon for me. Yeah! So nearly $500 later I had my new gallon of base. I am posting the formula in the pictures for reference if anyone else runs into this problem. While the violet toner may be officially discontinued it is still around for now.