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Toyota RAV4 GX "Jack" - Scrapped 20th August 2021 // Final Video To End 2021


St.Jude

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14 hours ago, Matty said:

Properly impressive how far your skills have come on I'm a short space of time. Also well impressed with the level of resolve. Keep going, you're over the hump now

Meant to include this in my last reply - I haven't even thought about how the skills have improved. I don't know why, my head is right in the moment of this and the fact that now I'm thinking of this evening and it's almost like the first day out of prison. A freedom of knowing I don't have to weld no more, not on this machine anyway! It's just nice jobs now like crawling on my back in the heat and painting everything red!

10 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

Really touching. And a huge well done for all your hard work! 

Not going to lie, when I came in on Saturday evening after finding that hole I was incredibly down, and Sunday was no better as I had just felt beaten even after welding the patch over it - which I need to saturate with waxoyl or A.N.Other cavity wax. Although the love didn't last long when I sat down to eat it and she said "you're not eating all that in one go, are you?". Well, I had planned to...

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You've done well with this, and I think patching the bad bit was the right thing to do at this point. It's strong, it will pass an MOT and it gives you breathing room from all the mucky jobs to actually get on and do other things / enjoy the car. Enjoy your freedom, and make sure to take a moment to appreciate just how much you've done. It's easy to overlook it!

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11 hours ago, juular said:

You've done well with this, and I think patching the bad bit was the right thing to do at this point. It's strong, it will pass an MOT and it gives you breathing room from all the mucky jobs to actually get on and do other things / enjoy the car. Enjoy your freedom, and make sure to take a moment to appreciate just how much you've done. It's easy to overlook it!

I am doing my best to think about what I've done but it's damn hard, that's how my head is wired though.

Anyway, first coat of red oxide is now on the car, on the arches (outer/inner), sills, and underneath. Except the rear subframe, I'm just going to prime and stone chip that.

I will say though that given the heat, it's nice to see my welding is now heat mapped...

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  • St.Jude changed the title to Toyota RAV4 GX "Jack" - Torn meniscus stops play, or at least slows it right down.

So, as you'll have noticed, I mentioned last week that my knee was sore. Over the week I had it bandaged up so that I couldn't really move it. It sort of got better towards the weekend, but then last night while I applied the second coat of red oxide to the RAV4 it started to hurt again, and on the Autoshite call it decided to shit itself again.

Just been to the doctors, and she's fairly adamant that I've torn the meniscus on my knee. I'm getting an X-Ray done just so I can get an MRI scan. I've done this before a few years ago, which wasn't at all great. 

As much as I was hoping to go out tonight and do a bit of filling on the arches - which may still happen - I need to rest it now and get used to the co-codamol and some fancy ibuprofen that's coming my way with the explicit warning of "it causes drowsiness so you need to be aware that you can be prosecuted if you're on this stuff and you fall asleep". No problem there Mrs.Lovely Doctor, I literally can't drive a fucking manual! I can put my foot down on the clutch, but I can't pull it off. 

My wife, as always, is over the moon with this development. 

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Last night I did nothing as I started to get used to the painkillers I'm on. 

I noticed with the weather is going to turn Saturday, and I still have the rear door off. It's off as there was a bit of the body in the corner of the door that was rotten, which has now been welded up etc. I just needed to fill it, and paint it, then re-attach the door. 

So on my lunch break, high off my tits on these lovely, lovely painkillers, I took out the filler I bought a few months ago. I'll be honest, I feel like the chap on the tin.

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Slapped it on, it went off fairly quickly as the instructions said to use half a tube of hardener for half a tin of filler. I didn't use that much so I got the mix a tad wrong.

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So that'll go off now good and proper, at which point this evening I'll sand it down a bit, put the primer on and use stone chip paint along here - just as it makes sense to paint this bit with rubberised paint given its the boot lip.

Depending how I feel later, I may start filling more of the arch to make the obvious panel warping I've created look a bit better.

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13 minutes ago, Matty said:

I've had a torn meniscus for over a year now. Haven't been running for over a year. Work is hard as fuck because it keeps locking up. Still waiting for an operation. Best of luck pal, have a feeling you may need it ☹️

Thanks! I did it once before 6 years ago, and luckily the physio solved it. I'm not so sure this time, but we'll see.

It did occur to me yesterday, as I put the feelers out to some mates if they'd be able to help me (if I needed them to) with things I can't do, that the first time the RAV4 gets driven properly - to it's MOT - I may not be the one driving it. Which is quite sad to think about.

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That Big Boy metal filler is great stuff. I slathered a load of it onto a rotted out silencer box because I couldn't be bothered fitting the replacement I've bought just yet, and was impressed by how hard it dries. It remains to be seen whether the MOT man is equally enamoured with it, but so far so good.

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5 hours ago, St.Jude said:

Thanks! I did it once before 6 years ago, and luckily the physio solved it. I'm not so sure this time, but we'll see.

It did occur to me yesterday, as I put the feelers out to some mates if they'd be able to help me (if I needed them to) with things I can't do, that the first time the RAV4 gets driven properly - to it's MOT - I may not be the one driving it. Which is quite sad to think about.

Is it not worth putting off for a little till your knees a bit better? I reckon it'd be a massive anticlimax for you if it's first outing isn't with you driving it

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20 minutes ago, Matty said:

Is it not worth putting off for a little till your knees a bit better? I reckon it'd be a massive anticlimax for you if it's first outing isn't with you driving it

Normally it would, but stuffs got to be done in the house (so the timing could not be better!!!)  so I don't mind the anti-climax really. It's just fucking typical of the luck really where I may not have first drive of it. But who knows what will happen in 2/3 weeks time? And I never took this as demoralising or anything like that, I'm made of tougher stuff than that 😂

_

Went out this evening and sanded down the filled in piece. Didn't really go all out to make this perfect. I'm saving that for the arches.

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Sprayed on two coats of primer, then one good coat of stone chip, and then one good coat of black gloss. I think it looks good, and should give that lip a good bit of protection. The tow bar is awaiting some hammerrite paint, which will go on when I get a brush.

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I didn't realise I used my last brush on the seam sealer, if I had another brush I'd have done the tow bar tonight. But the seam sealer is very odd stuff, but I slapped it on over the welding seams on the arches and sills. 

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At this point now it diverges. I will now slap on some underseal on the arches and sills. But only after I do the arches on the outside. I have dents where the panels have warped, I'm just going to fill them in. I could hammer it, but I just have memories of Father Ted and I'd rather be one of these wankers that just fills in the gaps with filler, than lose half a Rover 200 from using a hammer!

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Threw the rear door back on the car - forgetting to actually paint the primer on the door.

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Then I just did the age old bodge job of slapping the filler on the imperfections.

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I'll sand this down so it's flatter, then apply some Isopon P45(?) to fill out the inevitable divots I've got. Also found some dolphin glaze that I bought last year, so I'll use the three to make this a nice job. But I'm going to do it all on the driver's side first, so that I'm balancing out the shitness between the two sides.

It's a proper slog though on these painkillers, as I just want to sleep all the time because if it.

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22 hours ago, dave j said:

I find that the filler stage is the worst part of it all! 

I think it's great, the painting and filling of anything is very therapeutic to me. I am that odd ball who enjoys cutting in when painting the walls, and will spend hours doing it. Because I'm an idiot.

_

Today was a free day, as I was meant to be in Nottingham for a friend's memorial but given how my knee is I could never have gone. So I decided to reflect on a lot of stuff but filling the arch.

I applied the Isopon P.38 I had, and sprayed filler primer over it and started the whole sanding process.

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At which point I couldn't find my Dolphin Glaze stuff. So off to Halfrauds I go, to find it WITHOUT the hardener. They should come with it, they did before, and even on the pack it mentioned "including hardener". After much deliberation with the store manager, I got their big tube of hardener for free after I pointed out that they were all missing. The manager reckons he's never seen them on the packs, but given that it's always the thing you run out of first with filler, they've all been half inched on them and they don't even know!

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I've never used it, but it's very sloppy. You can't use it like you would do the normal filler. Closest I can describe it is that you treat this like melted chocolate on a cake.

After that, I put more filler primer on, and messed up. I should've sanded it back after this, but I didn't. I took a marker pen and pointed out the bits that were rough.

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I then applied some more dolphin glaze to these defective bits.

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So I sanded it back so it was smooth to the touch - as smooth as I could get it - and threw some primer on it.

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It's since dried, and I'll be honest, it doesn't look too bad. But then, this arch was never the worse one! But the dents aren't nearly as visible. Same with the sill, the sill looks like it's never been touched!

To top all of this off, I had my second jab today so I'm not 100% sure how I'll feel tomorrow.

I also need to work out where to get some stainless steel screws to fit the plastic trim back on to the car. I wrote down the size of the holes, just need to work out how they're sized.

And, on top of all this, I finally got to Screwfix to get my DeWank drill sorted out. They won't replace it, even though it's 6 months old, so it's off to be repaired. So help me God, their duty manager will get an ear full if it turns out they can't fix it and it gets replaced! Could've saved me a week of waiting! So I have to dig out my old, burnt out Titan drill which still works even though it's down on power as something's burnt out. But it's 4 years old, and has so far outlasted a drill that cost 3 times what it did!

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8 minutes ago, Ian_Fearn said:

What sort of final paint finish are you after? If you have a lot of wavy panels and lots of imperfections (that you give a shit about?) then spraying it with Raptor hides virtually everything and you can have it colour matched to your existing paint code.

 

I want to make it look as much as if I haven't been near it really. So the same gloss/lacquered finish that's there is what I want.

It doesn't need to be perfect, I'll end up with something that looks normal from 6ft away but you will see it's not perfect if you're up close. That's enough for me really, if the next owner wants it to be Bob on then they can get it done. But for me that's all I want.

The problem though I have with the Raptor stuff is the lack of air compressor and Shultz gun. I don't have the space for it either.

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Dolphin glaze is a type of stopper, Like a fine filler to even out scratches, small low spots etc. You want a smear of it after you’ve 99 percent clagged it. It’s good stuff, but shite as a filler for wonky bits.

Im still finishing off my Daihatsu arches, along with about 1000 hrs more welding hours! 
262C643B-4926-49FF-A9CC-96ED58C2952F.thumb.jpeg.0e2ad64772c3d9a7a624976c6a2b0971.jpegJesus, the Japanese are good at building rust buckets.

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14 hours ago, rickvw72 said:

Dolphin glaze is a type of stopper, Like a fine filler to even out scratches, small low spots etc. You want a smear of it after you’ve 99 percent clagged it. It’s good stuff, but shite as a filler for wonky bits.

Im still finishing off my Daihatsu arches, along with about 1000 hrs more welding hours! 
262C643B-4926-49FF-A9CC-96ED58C2952F.thumb.jpeg.0e2ad64772c3d9a7a624976c6a2b0971.jpegJesus, the Japanese are good at building rust buckets.

Yeah I treated it like the second way you suggested and it worked much better.

I'm totally knackered right now after the second jab (thankfully tiredness is the only reaction I've had), so I'm unlikely to do anything today. But I walked past it today and I've spotted two uneven bits on what I did yesterday, so no doubt tomorrow I'll just fill those bits and have done with it. 

I am catching myself admiring the shape though from the living room. It looks like I just spray painted grey primer on it, I never cut the wing off in the first place!

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  • St.Jude changed the title to Toyota RAV4 GX "Jack" - Phil 'in me cracks in.

I'm proper off my nuts with these tablets. 

Went out this afternoon and threw on the first bit of filler on the passenger side. Quite possibly the worst bit of filling I ever done did.

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Went out in the evening, put more filler on it. Took the orbital sander out to flatten it as my arm is deader than Lord Lucan so I thought it would be easier.

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It isn't. So I just got the block and sand paper and smoothed it back, to the point where it was smooth enough for the dolphin glaze.

Which I managed to fuck up.

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I don't need to smarten or smooth out the part of the bodywork that's in line with the plastic door trim, as it's all hidden by plastic trim anyway.

Didn't sand it down, as I felt a few drops of rain. Which promptly stopped. It's meant to be showers for the next two days, which I'm fine with.

I've been measuring the car up for grommets, only need 5 which are ordered, and for fuel lines. I need one for the vapour line, one for the return, and then there's the injection line which I've put a question up on the Ask A Shiter part of the site.

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So this line is the fuel injection line from the pump, and I think I've broken it. Because the rubber part of the line isn't part of the metal collar on the right of the nut, and there's a plastic tube attached to the collar and the rubber line which has collapsed. Is that OK? Is that meant to be right? Don't particularly want to fuck about with this when the tank is back in place.

The knee is getting so much better, so I hope to be able to operate the clutch on the 107 in order to get the fuel tank from storage to put some Vactan and stone chip on it. I also need to check the tank straps, I think one needs replacing but I'm not sure at the moment. 

We really aren't far away from MOT time, which is scary as I've a nagging feeling I've forgotten something. 

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  • St.Jude changed the title to Toyota RAV4 GX "Jack" - Painting. Mixed by Stevie Wonder.
5 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

Well I mean, it's a very good colour match if my car was silver.

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What a load of bollocks. 

Also, this Hammerrite underbody seal - am I meant to do two coats of this? As it doesn't seem to cover the primer all that well in places...

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Yea, if it's the brush on stuff I usually did two coats. Or a thick coat if I was feeling very lazy 

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RE meds, I'll let you have my Daily 400Mg of Tramadol......max dose twice a day...trying to get the doc to take me off them, but reckons the dosage of anything else will lead me to lose my Licence!!! Arthritis in Both knees, plus left hip as well as fooked disks and sciatic nerve damage..

Oh and i'm almost 55......

Nice welding BTW

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11 hours ago, Spurious said:

Yea, if it's the brush on stuff I usually did two coats. Or a thick coat if I was feeling very lazy 

Should've sent this last night but the battery died, so here we are.

Not too bad then! I'll set on the other side now.

I sanded the wing down again, and wanked shook the can for a long, long time. And this is all I could muster.

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Genuinely can't understand it. Until I looked at the can.

The daft bitch behind the counter was too busy moaning about people being vaccinated SHE PUT 6M5 IN HER MACHINE. I got Greyish Green, not Mica Green.

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It's my own fault. Even though I had it wrote down on paper, told her Mica Green (and she even confirmed Mica Green), it's my own fault for trusting people too much to do their job.

I'll let the underseal dry off tonight, and go at it again tomorrow.

Fuck sake. It was never going to be perfect, but at least be a little bit off. Not a whole colour off. And the most annoying thing about it all is that the only place near me that will mix paint.... Is this place. I might use her face to make sure it's the right paint this time.

10 hours ago, bezzabsa said:

RE meds, I'll let you have my Daily 400Mg of Tramadol......max dose twice a day...trying to get the doc to take me off them, but reckons the dosage of anything else will lead me to lose my Licence!!! Arthritis in Both knees, plus left hip as well as fooked disks and sciatic nerve damage..

Oh and i'm almost 55......

Nice welding BTW

Tramadol? Your transportation costs must be cheap given you're flying everywhere! I hope never to get to that point, I hate having to take pain killers of any description.

And thanks about the welding 👍

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So went to the lock up to pick up my fuel tank, and on the way back I thought - it's Friday, where's my drill? Haven't heard a dickie bird from Screwfix about it.

Popped in, ended up with the same fucking useless mouth breathing duty manager. It didn't get picked up until Tuesday (they were given it Saturday), and they haven't bothered to see where it is. Told them I'll be back Monday evening and the drill (either repaired or a replacement) will be there, or she needs to give me her name, Area manager details, and head office. Yes I am a Karen when it comes to relying on people to do their fucking job.

So I've got to dig out the knackered £50 drill this was meant to replace to wire brush the fuel tank. 

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Also, paint wise - this is how it started

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This is what is getting lacquered.

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Far better colour match which shows off my piss poor filling on the driver's side. The other side, where I made the outer panel myself, is so much better.

Tomorrow will be fun. A mix of painting, lacquering, trying to tart up a fuel tank, make a new petrol tank strap, etc etc.

I'm in two minds about doing the timing belt. It's non interference, so I'm thinking leave it. I've got the kit (minus the drive belts), so I could have at it.

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