First off, the Toyota truck runs great. The previous owner must have put a new muffler on it, it looks like one was welded on, plus, it’s quiet. The truck is so smooth, I doubt it was smoother when new. Everything in the cab works. door locks, dome light; and the heater, man does it work. On the lowest setting, I have to alternate between off and on, because constant on is too hot.
So, I’ve been driving it, but a few days I had this emergency mental note: CHECK DIFFERENTIAL OIL NOW! The differential cover looked as bad as everything else under the truck. Maybe it had an aftermarket undercoating applied, but whatever it is, it has a 100% fail rate. The entire underside of the truck looks like major flaking metal. Turns out that it’s not metal, but this coating, with rust underneath. I didn’t want the flaky stuff falling into the oil.
In the picture below, you can see a 4 inch angle grinder with a wire wheel attachment. As a note, you cannot be serious about DIY build and fix projects without one of these tools. Get one with a 5/8″ arbor; you’ll have an easier time getting accessories. The wire wheel attachment cleans some things like no other tool. I own a number of different tools, and that combination is way out front of other power tools in some situations. It’s faster than sandpaper, usually doesn’t scratch like sandpaper, and there’s realistically no other way to do things like old style rivet heads.
Below, you can see the differential cover after the wire wheel treatment. Should have taken a ‘before’ shot; I’ll do that on some other part. There’s a pile of metal pieces from a cubicle divider section that I disassembled. I wanted thin sheet metal with bends in it, man did I get my share. The divider thing is quite well made. Layer after layer of different kids of insulation. Sound barrier I guess. Anyway, if You don’t own a metal brake (large heavy shop tool for bending nice corners in sheet metal) you’ll start having an eye for scrap pieces with nice bends. In one of the pictures, I’ve laid one of the pieces next to the tailgate that I want to fix with it.
What’s interesting is that just a few days prior to disassembling the divider, I figured out a way to fix a very bad crease/dent on the 1951 Chevrolet truck body. It looks as though somebody was driving in reverse with the door open, and the door snagged on something, leaving a 3 inch deep dent the height of the door below the window. The dent was pushing against the door hinges, interfering with them. So I took the 4 inch angle grinder with a thin composite metal cutting blade; and cut up the length of the dent, right in the center. I pulled it out -some- with a dent puller and channel locks, but one side is still way down. I figured I needed a stout piece of steel with holes in it. I’ll lay it across the dent, and then use long self drilling screws to grab and pull the lower side of the dent up to the other side. The metal has stretched to the point that there’s a significant overlap, even after losing the cut kerf. Then I’ll wire weld next to the metal with holes, and move to new place. In with the other pieces of metal in the cubicle divider was the piece with holes that i needed. Looks a bit like God’s providence.
Here’s a picture of the resident Tom cat wanting his ears scratched. A Bible verse relevant to fixing the underside of the vehicle, not just the top?…maybe Psalm 51:6: “Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts…” “Thou” being God, who wants truth in our hearts.