Farm auto body

Don P · October 03, 2022, 09:06:18 AM

My wife left to go shopping yesterday and returned 10 minutes later with a long face. She got her buck early.

I forgot to get a before, but he got the light, fender, grill and hood. Luckily the subframe isn't too bad. Lots of moving the truck around to pull from with a come-along and massaging it with a trim hammer and chunks of scrap steel for dollys. Not concourse ready but by the end of the day the new fender would hang on it.

So on a Sunday, where does one find a Honda fender. Under the pines of course, we have 3 of these, this one is the donor, notice the missing tranny. Happily the fender is not very rusty, very light in the trim holes which will come out, and the hood is fine, it only had a light doe bump :D. A new headlight assembly is on the way, the one on the old car was cracked and frosted. I hope I don't regret not buying a matching pair.

Off to sand and prep panels and buy paint. Which leads to my question. I want to hit both sides of the panels. Am I looking at a pint or a quart?

newoodguy78 · October 03, 2022, 09:14:25 AM

Trim hammer, 8or 10 pound variety? :D
Personally I'd get a quart. My luck I'd be about three squirts short with a pint.

Don P · October 03, 2022, 09:24:28 AM

It's beer cans, a 16 oz hammer was a heavy hitter with a little pull going on :D.
I fear that would be my luck with a pint. I know a quart is way over but some blue lawn furniture might be nice ;D

Tom King · October 03, 2022, 09:50:10 AM

I'd spray the inside of it with truck bed liner.

Southside · October 03, 2022, 09:51:33 AM

You used to own the Maaco shop in Petersburg didn't you Don? :D

Don P · October 03, 2022, 11:30:23 AM

$59.95, no ups, no extras :D.
It's only been like a month and my sanding blocks and squeegees are somewhere safe :

kantuckid · October 04, 2022, 08:54:29 AM

No liner in the fender, use an epoxy primer. Then if there's no inner liner maybe later while its clean from the paint job. I'd never use AB paints to paint the inside of a fenders other than edges-NOT at todays paint prices!!! Beside the epoxy primer is far more durable underneath to begin with.
If you have not bought a premium AB paint lately, you will choke. many mixers in smaller towns have got away from mixing and no longer keep the equipment. Most a bigger town thing now. That color just might be bought on Ebay or Amazon cheaper from the guys in California.

Don P · October 04, 2022, 09:12:58 AM

I got paint mixed in town yesterday. I decided to try acrylic enamel, mainly I "think" that's what I'll use on equipment.. Yup, I can make it orange peel too :D. I just started a sand and try again, better head in to work and make some sort of showing. I think the fender is good enough. Glad I got the quart and the underside of the hood might be white, poor folks have poor ways, that's how we roll ;D.
Her inner fender was damaged but the one off the donor is fine. Both bumpers have met a deer but I think the one on the donor is better.

firefighter ontheside · October 04, 2022, 09:27:16 AM

I'll call you if I have an accident with my "farm" truck. I got liability only insurance on it.

kantuckid · October 05, 2022, 07:20:52 AM

We had three great sons, twins and the oldest barely 2 years younger, all driving on liability insurance at our house. Our kids were not a problem whatsoever, as they were great, responsible drivers, the public, not so much, to say the least.
Part of my deep distrust, hatred, bad attitude towards insurance comes from that experience, throw in my wife & I's for the rest of what I'll admit is a purely negative regard for insurance companies and some, not all of their workers.
The stories are instructive for all the repairs I made that should have been on someone else's dime & time.
I'm currently trying to assist my SIL with a roof hail damage claim with an Allstate guy in TX having decided her claim is to be handled differently than his company's treatment for several adjoining homes in her subdivision they (supposedly) cover. Shes a single senior and feels very much thats she's getting the shaft based on neighborly shared info..
One thing about a deer hit, there's no human to lie about who did it.
I had a kid back 25 yrs ago who'd helped me some on projects. He managed to massage his fender and was afraid to go home with it damaged and comes to my house. It was a pu fender hit like Dons sort of, and I had my shop full so we hooked it too a tree with clamps and I had him back up until it was clearing the tire at lock to lock. Thats farm AB at it's pine tree best. That tree still has chain marks around the base in front of my shop.
No rain in sight, paint outdoors is an OK choice?

Don P · October 05, 2022, 07:40:22 AM

That's the plan :D. I sanded the hood when I got home yesterday. I need to hit it a little more then shoot a coat outside before I go in when the sun warms up a little more. There is no room inside and I can't see what I'm doing... or that is the latest excuse

.

Funny, in white I couldn't see it, but in blue this hood is hail damaged, which matches the rest of the blue car :

.

Don P · October 05, 2022, 08:13:35 PM

Oh well, so much for spraying outside in Fall. I shot the first pass this morning, waited 10 minutes and was about done on the second when a good breeze came through, and uh, fall was in the air :

. Ah well, its old and a similar shade of blue. The panels seem to be bolting up so far.

And then it happened. The donor and the blue car are 3 years apart. Tucked behind the fender cover is a plastic "air box" for lack of a better term. That's it in the bottom of the pic. It is a dead ended box that is T'ed in the fresh air intake. For whatever reason they changed it and the subframe slightly in those years. I'll have to stare at it and decide what to modify or whether to hunt. Do any of you know it's purpose? It is upstream of the engine air filter box.

The headlight assembly arrived today, not bad, I ordered it Sunday night.

bigblockyeti · October 05, 2022, 08:46:21 PM

If it's just a dead end box or chamber, it's for intake resonance attenuation and may also help to dampen the air stream pulses into the throttle body. This would help with power and torque but very, very little so if it were removed, it might be down .3hp and a teeny tiny bit noisier under just the right conditions.

Don P · October 05, 2022, 09:36:53 PM

Thanks! That's the big words I was thinking of ;D. I suspect the resonant attenuation is better at this end than the other :D. I think it'll be easier to make some steel brackets that hold everything body-wise that box had hooked to it. I can only imagine whatever bright young engineer changed that dang near useless box must have been real popular that week at the plant, why do they do that.

I just got the grill trims back on. The moment of truth will be getting the headlight back in it, that looked to be ground zero. I think the unit was about $70

A tailight on a new ranger, all those nice sensors and all. One piece unit, even just a cracked lens.. ~$1500

I think I want to go backwards in time car wise.

nativewolf · October 05, 2022, 09:54:54 PM

Wow, that's just theft it seems to me.

Neat project Don, thanks for sharing. Interesting you don't just do houses, logging equipment, farm equipment, sawmills, engineering...but you fix deer damage

Don P · October 05, 2022, 10:04:16 PM

I think I'll have to stick to dumb cars for some time. There's some time in it but only about $200 so far.

The dimmer the roads get, the more hats you wear

. Now if she hadn't been flustered at bagging her limit out of season we could have swapped between banging dents and butchering in the backyard :D.

Ljohnsaw · October 05, 2022, 11:18:01 PM

Quote from: Don P on October 05, 2022, 08:13:35 PMDo any of you know it's purpose? It is upstream of the engine air filter box.

Isn't that where the chipmunks are supposed to build their nests? ;) My A/C on my Tundra wasn't putting out well and the fan sounded funny. It was full of shredded cedar bark and a plastic bag. From sitting 3 or 4 days at my cabin project.

kantuckid · October 06, 2022, 08:01:32 AM

Quote from: Don P on October 05, 2022, 09:36:53 PM
Thanks! That's the big words I was thinking of ;D. I suspect the resonant attenuation is better at this end than the other :D. I think it'll be easier to make some steel brackets that hold everything body-wise that box had hooked to it. I can only imagine whatever bright young engineer changed that dang near useless box must have been real popular that week at the plant, why do they do that.

I just got the grill trims back on. The moment of truth will be getting the headlight back in it, that looked to be ground zero. I think the unit was about $70

A tailight on a new ranger, all those nice sensors and all. One piece unit, even just a cracked lens.. ~$1500

I think I want to go backwards in time car wise.

Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market or ebay. Ebays full of insurance takeoff parts with minor damage. HL's, taillights, bumper covers, etc. etc. etc.

kantuckid · October 06, 2022, 08:04:21 AM

Quote from: ljohnsaw on October 05, 2022, 11:18:01 PM
Quote from: Don P on October 05, 2022, 08:13:35 PMDo any of you know it's purpose? It is upstream of the engine air filter box.
Isn't that where the chipmunks are supposed to build their nests? ;) My A/C on my Tundra wasn't putting out well and the fan sounded funny. It was full of shredded cedar bark and a plastic bag. From sitting 3 or 4 days at my cabin project.

I owned 4 Tundras and it took them some years to decide to make the air intake (filter access via the glovebox) less accessible to critters. The cure for my first 3 Tundras was that you had to remember to close the outside air ventilation gizmo before you parked your truck each night or expect acorns and feces in your cabin filter intake.

Don P · October 06, 2022, 07:21:11 PM

All we lack is finishing. Another day or so of tedious bolts, new bulbs and hope the wires are ok, but it'll go back to work next week. After multiple attempts at squirreling the headlight in I finally watched a you tube and there was a bolt hiding, ahh, the seas parted and it dropped in. It is a bit behind where it should be but closer than I thought we would get the old buggy. I could take it apart and pull a little more , maybe next time :D. I think she has driven close to a million miles on those 3 cars.

Ljohnsaw · October 06, 2022, 10:39:09 PM

Quote from: kantuckid on October 06, 2022, 08:04:21 AM
Quote from: ljohnsaw on October 05, 2022, 11:18:01 PM
Quote from: Don P on October 05, 2022, 08:13:35 PMDo any of you know it's purpose? It is upstream of the engine air filter box.
Isn't that where the chipmunks are supposed to build their nests? ;) My A/C on my Tundra wasn't putting out well and the fan sounded funny. It was full of shredded cedar bark and a plastic bag. From sitting 3 or 4 days at my cabin project.
I owned 4 Tundras and it took them some years to decide to make the air intake (filter access via the glovebox) less accessible to critters. The cure for my first 3 Tundras was that you had to remember to close the outside air ventilation gizmo before you parked your truck each night or expect acorns and feces in your cabin filter intake.

So I watched some YouTube videos and had at it. Pulled the glove box out to get to the air filter but there was nothing back there! My truck is different. So I pulled off the wiper arms and took the "grill" that is at the bottom of the windshield off. Found three openings in the body work (for access to the wiper motor) and screwed on some heavy screening. I can't figure out where they were finding access because these three were already blocked by the plastic grill. There are no other holes through the firewall that I could find and I'm just assuming that these openings is where fresh air gets in to the system. :

thecfarm · October 07, 2022, 06:15:18 AM

Up and driving again!!!

GRANITEstateMP · October 07, 2022, 02:39:48 PM

ljohnsaw,

If I remember correctly, the Tundra's didn't get cabin (fresh air) filters til the redesign in 2007?

The techs would use window screen type wire mesh and make an external basket where air enters the engine air filter, and another at the base of the window for the fresh air. kantuckid is correct, closing off the fresh air damper to recirculate every night helps a ton too

Don P · October 07, 2022, 06:47:45 PM

I'll have to try the recirc air on this before shutting down. To get to the cabin air filter it takes a lot of dash and center pillar removal, there was some heavy duty thinking :

. She came home several years ago and said the fan sounded funny. I failed to mention to her why but he didn't keep up with the hamster wheel when she switched it to high :D.

Just went for the maiden voyage, down to close the high tunnel for the night.

kantuckid · October 08, 2022, 08:02:15 AM

Quote from: GRANITEstateMP on October 07, 2022, 02:39:48 PM
ljohnsaw,

If I remember correctly, the Tundra's didn't get cabin (fresh air) filters til the redesign in 2007?

The techs would use window screen type wire mesh and make an external basket where air enters the engine air filter, and another at the base of the window for the fresh air. kantuckid is correct, closing off the fresh air damper to recirculate every night helps a ton too

I bought a new 2000(1st year), 2003, 2005 and 2010 new Tundra and all had cabin air filters.The issue was that critters had access when the outside air switch was in the position to allow outside air AND critters. A air filter with chipmunk turds and rodent debris isn't real user friendly. My 2005 was the better of the lot overall. I never had an issue worth mentioning with Tundra, just made a switch to Ford and find it to be a keeper in this MSRP vehicle pricing world we live in. Mine will outlast me I think. Tires and batteries and brakes are my only costs other than lubrication.