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Custom Paint - Trucks - 2006 Toyota Tacoma PickupClick on any of the images to open a larger version. Here is the work in progress:The Tocoma from Hell, as it is known. This truck was responsible for the end of Long Island Customs. Well that and a partner who was no partner (and should never be allowed inside a shop), and employees who would rather sit and drink coffee than do their work every day, then complain when it was hard to come up with money to pay them, since they didn't do any work all week to make any money. As you can see, this truck was a complete train wreck. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of how it looked before someone jumped the gun and tore it apart without waiting for a single part to be delivered. It made the job that much harder when it came time for reassembly, when most of the attachment parts were thrown away. Anyway, back to the damage NOT done by stupid people who should not be working in a body shop. Every single panel on the entire truck was damaged. The entire nose was destroyed, both doors on the passenger side were crushed, as was the floor and the roof, the rear bumper was damaged beyond repair (from a rollover, that is odd), the entire bed and even the tailgate was bent, the engine was seized and you should have seen the interior. There was so much sand in places, I'm guessing this truck weighed an extra 100 lbs because of it. This was one job I regretted taking in for many reasons. The customer bought this truck from Arizona and had it shipped to NY without ever hearing it run or seeing exactly how bad the damage was. Very, very bad mistake... Very bad...
As you can see here, the entire front sub-structure was replaced with brand new Toyota parts. Everything was completely within specs when it was done. If it weren't for the fresh paint, it would seem as if this truck was never damaged. I did this work myself.
Once the structural work was done, the bodywork began... As you can see here, there was not a panel left untouched. If it wasn't changed, it was repaired. The owner also decided on a custom hood, which presented other problems. He didn't order all of the necessary parts to make this hood work (the owner ordered ALL of the parts for this job. I guess he thought I was making too much money on it already, what a joke). The grille was also sent broken, so I had to fix that before it could be installed. It was also the wrong one. The original grille was chrome. This one was painted, so it got painted again.... The airbrushed skulls on the bed sides were done to replace airbrushed emblems that the owner wanted, then decided he didn't want after they were done. Originally, he wanted the TRD stickers put back on. I talked him out of that though (why advertise that you own a TURD?). He also wanted all of the emblems put back on, something that I don't agree with, for personal reasons, but that's another story for another time. After agreeing to the "no emblems" idea, and after the truck was picked up and all unused parts were already discarded, the owner suddenly wanted the emblems back again. This is just one small example of what I went through with this job, which is just one reason why it was the last job done at that shop.
I don't know why I let them talk me into these cheap plastic fender flares in place of the factory flares that not only looked better, but fit better as well. Not to mention, only 1 flare needed to be replaced, instead of all 4 which had to be done since these did not look anything like the stock flares. Chalk that one up to allowing others to decide things they shouldn't be allowed to decide. That will never happen again. Stupidity on my part. I blame my illness, which was surely affecting my judgment at this point.
We (the vehicle owner and myself) went through 3 or 4 different paint ideas before it was finally painted, then I did what is seen here (another in the long saga of "no, do this" events with this truck from Hell). It was my suggestion to paint the flares so they didn't look so much like the cheap crap that they are. The flames were also my idea, but the lower body panels were not. I had done a nice cracked cement look that was previously agreed upon after the fourth or fifth time the owner changed his mind about what he wanted down there. After initially agreeing to the job, he then once again changed his mind and decided he didn't like it. He was the only one. Everyone else loved it... He wanted it painted the same color as the rest of the truck, then changed his mind once again and couldn't come up with anything he wanted instead of what I had already sanded off (after I removed it, he suddenly decided he liked it after all. Bt then it was too late, I wasn't doing it a second time). Since we used all of the paint that was bought for this truck already, and since money was already very tight on this project (long story only partially explained here, I ended up losing a ton of money on this job) I decided to use some paint I had left over from another job to paint the lower body panels. It looks nowhere near as cool as the cracked cement that was airbrushed on there before, but at least the job was done and I got to see this truck leave, finally....
The saga, unfortunately didn't end there. Some time during the repair process, my so-called partner set this truck on fire while welding the floor pan. He thought it was funny, but tried to hide the fact that he destroyed the wiring harness and the dash. I tried to fix the harness, but was not successful as too much damage was done. The truck had already left the shop, but there were electrical problems that showed up once it was driven any distance. It went to a mechanic shop where they found the burnt harness and some other components that also were burned at another time. My partner tried to blame the rollover, but we had driven this truck in and out of the shop for weeks while it was being repaired. These components would not have been burned in a rollover, and the truck was unable to be driven ANY distance at all in this condition, so again, he lied. The mechanic shop replaced the harness and some dashboard components, at a cost of $1500.00+ and I thought I was done. A week after this truck left the shop, the owner called with more problems. I had already refunded him half of the price of the job, and paid for his harness, and had no intention of going any further, especially since his job bankrupted my company and left me personally broke as well. The moral to this story is, don't trust anyone to do a job you are better off doing yourself. To see the finished truck, click the button: Metal Work Pages:Site Navigation:Social Media Center:Like this page on Facebook:
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