Old member returning

mda185

Member
Hi all. I have been a member of alltrac.net since the early days but stopped participating more than 10 years ago for a variety of reasons. I still have my 92 Alltrac but it needs a lot of cosmetic work. Engine still runs well and tranny is also good. I bought it from a Toyota master mechanic in NJ 20 years ago and he installed a new short block and completely rebuilt the transmission at 100K miles. Previous owner trashed the drivetrain and he bought it cheap and fixed it up. Currently it has 197k miles but still drives really well. I replaced all the suspension bushings about 10 years ago with Whiteline poly bushings and installed Koni front shocks and GAB rear shocks. I also got the Whiteline lowering springs. The springs and the suspension arms are very rusty but look like they can be cleaned up and painted. It also has a full stainless exhaust and Aussie Exhaust downpipe. I hit a large buck years ago and never had the body repaired. Front fender is severely dented and rear quarter panel is slightly dented. He ran into me from the side and spun around hitting both the fender and the rear quarter panel I have a new Toyota OEM fender purchased 10 years ago. Paint is very faded and clear coat is mostly gone. It has been a long time since I had a car painted and I want to get this done right. Any ideas on what I should expect to pay for body repair and full respray in central NJ? I am finding that 90% of the body shops around here don't want to touch it. They make their money doing insurance work and told me I have to find a restoration shop.

I noticed a lot of the posts in the sub forums here don't have many new posts. Are folks aging out of taking care of their Alltracs or just taking long breaks like i did?
 

Tippo

Well-known member
mda185":2pq3iojf said:
Hi all. I have been a member of alltrac.net since the early days but stopped participating more than 10 years ago for a variety of reasons. I still have my 92 Alltrac but it needs a lot of cosmetic work. Engine still runs well and tranny is also good. I bought it from a Toyota master mechanic in NJ 20 years ago and he installed a new short block and completely rebuilt the transmission at 100K miles. Previous owner trashed the drivetrain and he bought it cheap and fixed it up. Currently it has 197k miles but still drives really well. I replaced all the suspension bushings about 10 years ago with Whiteline poly bushings and installed Koni front shocks and GAB rear shocks. I also got the Whiteline lowering springs. The springs and the suspension arms are very rusty but look like they can be cleaned up and painted. It also has a full stainless exhaust and Aussie Exhaust downpipe. I hit a large buck years ago and never had the body repaired. Front fender is severely dented and rear quarter panel is slightly dented. He ran into me from the side and spun around hitting both the fender and the rear quarter panel I have a new Toyota OEM fender purchased 10 years ago. Paint is very faded and clear coat is mostly gone. It has been a long time since I had a car painted and I want to get this done right. Any ideas on what I should expect to pay for body repair and full respray in central NJ? I am finding that 90% of the body shops around here don't want to touch it. They make their money doing insurance work and told me I have to find a restoration shop.

I noticed a lot of the posts in the sub forums here don't have many new posts. Are folks aging out of taking care of their Alltracs or just taking long breaks like i did?

Man, sucks about hitting that deer. Good to see another older member back as well! As for body shops, I'm sure there are plenty, but you have to find the small ones. I found one from a friend on FB and he owned his own shop in his garage. Did AMAZING work, so that is the way I went. Expensive though. Anyways, I took a hiatus for a while but I sold my car that took so long to dream. Nearly a decade later I was back and in action. Once you get that body work done, we should meet up. Plan on next year at bear mountain or a track day up here in new england / upstate.
 

mda185

Member
Back in the day, there was a group of guys that broke away from alltrac.net and formed their own forum. I remember there was a guy whose forum name was Saffo from Australia that was part of that group and very well respected. Saffo's real name was Ivan. Another member named Noah was part of that group too. Does anyone know if their forum still exists? I joined it but lost my login info long time ago. Their membership had a lot of guys with good technical knowledge about our cars. They were some of the best and they got tired of some really stupid posts from members that were disruptive and aggressive towards other members without adding useful knowledge to the discussions.
 

underscore

Well-known member
Welcome back! A bunch of people shifted away from here after some issues with the previous site owner. Some went more to Celicatech, which is now gone, I'm not sure what other forums people went to though. Yet more have shifted to places like Facebook and Instagram which is a shame because those are terrible platforms for sharing information.
 
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