Hilux Dove nose and flare removal

[Hoosierdady]

So I've decided to post up how Im doing a fender hack and nose job on this Hilux cab. First I have to cut the fender flares out, then "dove nose" the front end by just over a inch, cut the grille to match and then paint the body.:shock: I'm 99% sure I've got this down pat, but any ideas or questions are always welcomed "thumbsup".

I started out with this...

Once I removed all of the decals and taped off the windows I started cutting.

Fender flares have been removed at this point.

 

[C41xracer]

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[Onebdgti]

Looking good. How did you remove the flares?

 

[Hoosierdady]

Looking good. How did you remove the flares?

I cut them off with my Dremel and then smoothed them out roughly until I got the rest of the hood mods done.

Here you can see where I've got the passenger side glued and Ive got the drivers side pulled over to meet the hood.

The fender has been glued into place and Ive got her taped up and clamped to align the front end. You can also see how much of the nose has to be trimmed to make the grill fit correctly.

Front end has been cut and the glue has setup. Now its time to start sanding and smoothing everything out. Then Ill start working on getting the fenderwell on the drivers side like I want it.

Top view here. I will be shooting several coats on the hood and sanding in between to get it as smooth as possible. It kills me to think that this thing will be sliding on the rocks. Once thats done I plan on using my thin cutoff wheel to recreate my hood lines. The goal is to make this look as much like a factory finish as possible. So Im trying to keep the fenderlip and all of my hood/body lines throughout the process.

I got the sides and the rest of the cab sanded down and ready for paint as well. The extra mounting holes have been sanded down to clean up the look.

Ive got a two-tone tribal design planned for the sides and maybe up on the fender tops. Once shes smoothed out and Im happy with it, it'll get a good bath and set in the sun to fully dry and allow the glue to completely cure before I start my paint.

 

[Hoosierdady]

More progress. I got the body work done, now its time for paint and finish sanding. I coated the cab in white to make the red pop.

You can see where I've been working the seam on the hood down here. Im trying to get it factory smooth.

The cab back. I've got some waves in the lower portion of the drivers door still.

I narrowed the grill by over a inch. Im planning on using this screen for inserts to give the front end a more aggresive custom look to match the paint.

The graphics are going to be done in silver and black. Once this coat has dried overnight Ill be moving on to the Banner Red. "thumbsup"

 

[Hoosierdady]

I got the body sanded down, the red layed down and the grill done.

No more waves."thumbsup"

The fenders and hood are smooth now too.

Im using these masks. The only issue is that as of now I can only figure out how to do one color since I already shot it red. If I paint the inside of the graphic first, then pull off the other mask to paint the outline Ill get paint on the first color.

And finally, the grill.:mrgreen:

 

[Mr.Joshua]

Nice... the grille looks awesome! Great write up, and nice work.
Sucks you can't get the outline on the tribal design...easy on the inside of clear Lexan but not on the outside eh?

 

[Hoosierdady]

Nice... the grille looks awesome! Great write up, and nice work.
Sucks you can't get the outline on the tribal design...easy on the inside of clear Lexan but not on the outside eh?

Thanks. And yeah, the graphics are going to be a PITA. Im going to give it a try though. Im doing the inner portion in silver and Ill try my hand at freehanding the black outline:shock:. Hopefully I wont trash 16 hrs of work in the process.

 

[fourxfunk]

Looking great man! What kind of glue do you recommend? I've got a new hilux body and a cab back to install, any tips for a hard body newb?

 

[Onebdgti]

Looking good.

 

[Hoosierdady]

Looking great man! What kind of glue do you recommend? I've got a new hilux body and a cab back to install, any tips for a hard body newb?

I use Heavy duty super glue, ShooGoo and Tenax7. Threesix has a method where he uses pieces of rubber bands too, but the ShooGoo works great as a substitute IMO. The only tip I can give is to measure twice, measure again, make damn sure and then cut. Take your time. Dont over heat the fenders when you're bending the sides in. Remember, you can always heat it up a little more. Dont get crazy with the heat. The main one is to just slow down, and take your time. Especially in the paint process. I just messed up the whole paint job with these graphics and had to start over. Crap happens but if you plan on building it once, just make sure you slow down and wait in between coats for the paint to cure. Wet sanding is best for smoothing the fenders and hood down. The glue and plastic tend to get hot if you work the same area with your sander very long.

Looking good.

Thanks. This is my first time doing a Hilux. I think its turning out pretty good too.

The silver and black bled down into the gaps for the doors and made a mess out of the paint. ad to start over.

Im trying to lay the white down as the main base color for the graphics, I think I have them figured out at this point.

 

[Hoosierdady]

So I got the graphics done. Im doing ghost Inca graphics with white inserts...maybe.:roll: I miss lexan.

Wish I could leave it white.

Here she is. I still have to weed out the vinyl, but at this point its almost done.

 

[Hoosierdady]

 

[701 Technique]

Damn that looks good"thumbsup"

 

[Hoosierdady]

thanks. Im ging to outline the white with black to finish off the paint.

 

[Hoosierdady]

I got the graphics outlined, the grill installed and a few other details done. Here's how its looking.:mrgreen:

I added the fuel cap, detailed the door handles and finished the lock too.

And heres the front. Once its dried Ill work on filling the gap that you can see in between the hood and grill.

Well, what do you think so far?

 

[tinycrites]

Nice work, can't wait to see it mounted.

 

[metallocide]

Looks "thumbsup"

 

[Mr.Joshua]

Looks really nice man! Paint and body work came out sweet.

I was kinda bummed to see the windows blacked out though;-)

 

[701 Technique]

The seams are flawless! Looks great"thumbsup"