Van Revival: The Facelift

A month ago I had our 1994 Toyota Hiace Commuter get a much needed body repair and repainting. It really looked its age with all the rust, dents and dings, and faded paint it sported. The rear hatch had the worst of it with bubbled paint and holes from rust lining the bottom of the rear window and skirt of the sorry looking hatch. At times opening it will result in pieces of rusted metal bits falling off. It was embarrassing to say the least. Around the van, there really wasn't much to notice other than the really faded paint that is more noticeable due to the two-tone paint it had... midnight blue on top and silver below it. Cleaning the van (however infrequently I did it) felt like a fruitless task since even when clean, it still looked dilapidated.

Hermy, the tinsmith worked on the rusted parts of the van's body, replaced them with similar gauged sheets of metal, reinforced joints and treated all worked on parts with rust prevention chemicals. The painter Arnold, worked on the parts that didn't need any tinsmith work right away. So the prescribed schedule of one and a half months was chopped to just 5 weeks. I visited the shop at least once a week to keep up with the progress and was really impressed with the work they put into the van. Arnold was quite particular with details and his output shows his dedication to his profession. He made sure I wanted to revert to the monotone paint of the original. The bumpers however would have to be painted as the original parts were plain plastic and have already cooked for years under the sun. Everything was painted with 4 coats of color and three coats of clear.

After several trips to and from the paint shop, I chronicled the progress with pictures for posterity and it was quite amazing how the van has transformed from an ugly hulk into quite one fine looking ride. The paint was like wet oil the way it shined and reflected its surroundings. Saying it was "like new" was an understatement as the shine shamed even the new cars it was near to. I also had the mag wheels cleaned and repainted back to its original color.