hey guys i got this 75 hilux and its in bad shape. the hood is rusted through and the whole rain gutter on the cab is rust infected. The part of the cab that mounts the fenders to the body are completely gone so the fenders done attach at the bottom. so what i want to know is am i better off jus replacin the cab if i can find one or should i try and salvage this one.remarkably the bed and the front fenders are in ok shape jus some dents and stuff. any help will be good jus wanna try and put this back together and drive it for another 30 years. lol thanks again guys
That's a tough question since we all don't know how much you have into this thing already. We don't know what your financial situation is. We don't know if you're a welder or a determined do-it-yourselfer, or have a neighbor (like me) that does body, fender, and paint work for "backyard prices". Since you're out of NorCal where smog is an issue, unless you meant Northern California - beyond Sacto, being that it's a 75' (assuming it has a clean and current title) is already quite a find, and an incentive to be a "keeper". But, again, too many unknowns to really answer your question. You gotta ask yourself, honestly, where do you ultimately want to end up with this truck? Trailer queen? Daily Driver? Parts Hauler? Any of the 3 could be done for the next 30 years, but needless to say, each one would require a different degree of time and money.
Should be a nice truck when you get her finished. I've taken on some rust projects before. I bought a 72 Dodge Dart Swinger and drove it home from Pennsylvania to the west coast. It was a neat car but I had to keep cutting deeper and deeper to try to get the rust out. Once you do any welding on the panels, unless you can treat the back side of the welds, new rust seems to start. I'm sure there are others here that have had better results than me.
By July, I will have started cutting and treating the rust out of my datsun. He is the full photo archive on the net. Most of it it just 1 to 2mm sheet, I am using some that was scrap sheet. Welding this stuff is hard and tedious work as most times the welder will burn holes. Thus, making more work. If you PM me with an indiviual photo I can tell you how to go about fixing but its alot easier as these other blokes said (indirectly) that we really need pictures to give you some sort of a hand. URL: Datsun Build Archive Cheers,
these trucks pop up pretty cheap.. i'd probably replace the cab. or if ya fix it you can replace the lower cab where the fenders mount with some 18 gauge sheetmetal, and install nut zerts to hold the fender. the rain gutter can also be repaired with some 18 gauge, but will take more time since it is visible
If you can get a better cab to start with, then definitely look at that as an option. Anything is fixable, but the better cab you start with the less work/effort/money is involved. I am starting with a very rusty cab, but don't really have an option as there are very few RN1x utes left here.
building my trekker (79-83 area) .. I rebuilt my cab . it was in real sad shape , and I wish I could have found another cab , but there just wernt any avaliable , expecially , as it had the factory `moon`roof and I really wanted that . It was a total rebuild , but I know now I made the right choice . .
Lose the drip rails all together as they are already rusting and it sounds like the inner fenders there on the cab are already partially cut out to tuck some big wheels.
