Raptor's Rebuild Thread
 

Well, here it is. Fourth time is a charm, eh? :lol:

About two weeks ago I was involved in an accident. A teenager pulled an illegal u-turn in front of my truck. By the time we made contact, he was almost turned around, so my right front made contact with his rear end. It was a 2001 Rav4 (little one), and I mashed it up pretty good. He admitted fault as well as my witness. He was given a citation for reckless driving/failure to yield.

A few days later, my insurance appraised the vehicle. It took some time (due to my 98 to 2003 front end swap) but eventually I got a check for $2850. Instead of dumping almost three thousand dollars into a truck that's almost 14 years old, I'm going to allot myself $900 for the rebuild, and the rest to pay off my credit card and pocket the rest for rent/phone/gas/etc. I will be killing several birds with one stone here as a few months back I had a new A/C compressor installed. A month after that, I installed a new radiator which I accidentally punched a hole in the condenser, so now my $600 I spent on A/C was knocked out. So the condenser is getting replaced, as will a whole new exhaust. I am getting Magnaflow high-flow catalytic converters (found out my drivers side one is bad) and I've been thinking about ordering a Flo-Pro muffler and just have a whole new exhaust system. And now, here are the pictures (like you didn't skip all this and look at them first anyways).

Overview of the damage:

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture011.jpg

Close up:

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture012.jpg

What's left of my STX/Harley fog light:

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture013.jpg

Hood damage:

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture014.jpg

Header panel damage:

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture015.jpg

Valance and my one good fog light removed:

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture018.jpg

Grille and surround removed. The actual Lightning insert is fine (whew). Coincidentally the two pieces that would be the most valuable to replace (STX valance and Lightning grille) are the only two that weren't damaged :angel:

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture019.jpg

I can now open my passenger door again!

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture021.jpg

Some unknown part that goes to the vacuum system. (If you know what this is, please let me know!)

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture022.jpg

Like I said, truck is getting several birds with one stone. Lots of vacuum going to be replaced.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture023.jpg

Some vacuum box behind the battery.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture024.jpg

Body panels. All getting trashed sans the grille insert and valance.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Picture027.jpg

Now the shopping begins. So far I'm looking at a header panel (~$75), grille surround (~$50), fender (~$100) and bumper w/ brackets ($75). I will also be ordering new blacked-Lightning headlights, with the blacked-out corners, with a clear reflector, and going with a switchback LED. My HID kit is nice, but the beam pattern and lack of high-beam finally made me go back to Sylvanias. So that is getting taken out and Sylvania Silverstars put in. The fog light is the SVT style, for about $75 for one, and the bracket from Tasca, for $35.

I will be taking the valance along with the panels to a body shop for proper prep and paint. The valance will be getting touched up and repaired, as will the hood. Everything else will be new. As for my fender badge, I can't decide if I want to swap it over or go with the new 09 badges. I might give them the rear bumper as well and have them paint that so I can get rid of the chrome all throughout the truck. I will also be getting a shorty antenna. So far that's it, I'm about to do a little shopping first. Stay tuned.

you should do a badge delete while your painting stuff alex

x2

Sucks about the accident but I look forward to seeing the progress!

wow that IS a good idea. I'll see how much more that would cost.

I agree with the shaved badges, it shouldn't be much more, just go ahead and remove the other fender and take them the tailgate too.

As for the headlights, you should do the projector retrofit that thomas_w did. would be really nice, and you can still probably afford it with some of the left over moola.

So you've decided to keep the truck! Cool...good luck with the rebuild...I'll be watching :lurk:

Alex, the "box" is the vacuum reservoir, it can be deleted. I think its mostly there for your vac controlled climate control/blend door. The small round vac res, IDK? Both those lines were black, not sure.

sorta looks like fun actually lol

wow i feel your pain that EXACT thing happened to me last year after school i hit a chevy truck goin about 25. We both got tickets, he got one for illegal U-turn and i got one for failure to control speed. Good luck with the rebuild

What? Failure to control speed? I'd boot that cop square in the ass, making up **** and scribbling it on a ticket. Kinda like this guy who wrecked his car, rolled it. Reckless driving, driving too fast for conditions, and driving with wheels off road way.

Ok I'll buy the first two, but officer my wheels NEVER touch the road way, neither do yours.

:lurk:

Awesome! I love to see guys do this kind of thing themselves. Save money and earn man-points!

Remember when you take the old cats off, take them to a metal recycler, get some $$ for them to put more $$ in your pocket for the rebuild.

How much can you get for an old set of cats?

I was paid $15 a piece for mine, I know the mechanic turned around and scrapped them, it's probably somewhere around $25-30 a piece.