If you want a show quality truck, you can do the work yourself or buy it already show quality.
Buying and fixing can often be more expensive but theres too many variables to give you a hard dollar amount of how much it will cost. If you want to have everything perfect, the money keeps flying. If you got a good parts source, you can keep the spending down.
Youre gonna be hard pressed to find a "deal" on one of these toys. That window has just about closed.

talk the price down as much as you can and expect to spend more to restore to original quality.

If I was spending this kind of money on a truck, Id get a tacoma but to each their own.

 

The problem is that Toyota quit making most of these parts and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of aftermarket parts available. I actually enjoy working on old vehicles, I just don’t know where is best to source parts

 

Not sure if things have changed since I sold my 83, but it's really "just" emissions equipment, body panels and interior parts you can't buy new. You can still have the engines rebuilt, the cooling system, transmission and transfer case etc. I got to know my local Toyota parts guy really well while I had that truck...

 

I cant blame ya, I like em too.
your best bet is scanning CL every couple weeks. Find the other people nearby who hoard old toyotas. Everywhere Ive lived, theres been some old guy whos been building these things since the 80s with a yard full of parts.

 

Also, there is a fair amount of aftermarket support available. Prices could be better but im cheap.
if your trying to keep it period correct, thats a little out of my zone but you can get body panels and dashboards and whatever else if you look.
all the mechanical stuff is definately out there.

 

I don't know if it's played out at this point, but over on the Marlin Crawler forum there was a long, long email chain going in the classified section. A member there (and here) had a connection to an all-Toyota junkyard. I got all sorts of stuff through that, including a nice shift knob

 

"Chicken Tax"? Yes I am aware of some strange import rules to the US of A, but "beds cheaply made in the USA". Hmm, you're sure on that? Here north of the border, as far as I know the beds were made in Japan and the trucks were shipped complete. The beds were rust proofed as an option, which was highly recommended at time of sale. Can you provide more details on the beds true origins?

Gas tank skid plate? Not up here. Amazing the small differences between a Canadian truck and a US one! You'd think they'd be the same!

Back to the original post...

The broken plastic bits, well its the headlight trim, bumper trim and all those missing interior bits

There may have been previous body work on the box, its rusting in all the 'right' spots

Lots of little drippy leaks

It certainly is restorable, and no need to repeat what I (and others) have said about its value and condition.

As far as value in restored condition, mine went from $14000 to $22000 in three years according to the insurance company. They say the market for this era truck may be the next 'hot' market.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. Hopefully I will be going to look at it soon

 

The story goes: due to trade tariffs or something along those lines, the pickup beds were made in the US and put on the trucks once they got shipped over. Just like with my Tacoma, which was the first year made in the US, and has a frame rust issue...

The issue with the beds was as much the design as the lack of rust proofing, though. That middle seam is going to collect water and gunk no matter what.

To be honest, though, this was something I read on the internet over the years...we know about the Tacoma frame rust issue. I can't say for sure on the beds...

 

When you say it may have had body work , it’s rusting in all the right places what do you mean?

 

Oh yeah, I'm REAL sure of what I stated on the pickup beds. Even the stripes on the beds were inferior to the stripes on the cabs installed in Japan. As I mentioned, a Google search helps one to understand the U.S. "Chicken Tax" tariffs imposed on import small trucks and other things. It was a response to a tax imposed on U.S. chicken exported to Europe, but as frequently happens in U.S. politics, lots of other unrelated things were added to the bill before it was passed, including a major tariff on complete imported small trucks..

Here's a link to a description of the tariff on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
It does a MUCH better job of explaining what happened way back in 1964. Please read the entire article, as what was applied to small trucks is buried in there. Actually, it's a good read.

I do not know/remember who built the beds for Toyota in the U.S., but they were installed at the port of entry on "incomplete" trucks (frame, cab, running gear) brought in from Japan. As the Wikipedia article states, this tariff is still in effect, which is one reason that "import" pickups, (Toyota, Nissan, etc.) are now made in North America. It's also the reason VW stopped exporting "trucks" to the U.S.

While rust-proofing may have been an option in Canada, it was a "dealer installed" option here, and not many buyers opted for it--obviously. And yes, I agree that the pinched seam was a collection point for mud & chemicals that promoted rust. While the bed design may have been OK if built in Japan, the beds built here in the U.S. were a disaster. One reason early Toyota pickups got a reputation of being rust buckets.

While these 1st gen Toyota 4x4s are increasing in value, it's not a seller's market--yet. I didn't break even when I sold my '83, but I got reasonably close. I had well over $12K invested in the truck, but I was getting offers of $5K-7K when I had my ad on Autotrader and Craig's List. It took many months to find a buyer who appreciated the truck.

 

I deleted the links after I sold my '83, but yes, there is a large Toyota truck junkyard out in southern California. It had dozens, maybe hundreds of early trucks, but you had to call or email them with what you needed and they would then give you a price if they had it. I didn't bother buying anything from them.

I live in western Colorado, and there wasn't any 1st gen Toyota pickups in any of the junkyards within 100 miles. In fact, there were virtually no Toyota trucks at all, and the couple I did find were gutted.

 

All the usual spots for the box to rust are showing signs of rust...corners of the tailgate, under the top lip of the box and those pesky seams. The upper corners of the box appear to have been 'bondo-ed' and are starting to rust again.

So this 'chicken tax' may explain a lot of small differences in Canadian and US trucks. For instance the lack of any smog controls on the 4x4, no 5 speed till 1982 and only on SR5's, reclining/folding seats here but apparently not in the US and stubble differences in the box. Oh and the boxes did fall off the trucks here too, but we assumed it was just due to the multi piece construction and matching snow flake for salt crystal in the winter.

Was the paint quality the same? Were they assembled in the US with parts from Japan?

Further on bizarre and specifically unrelated, Tacoma's were not sold here until 1997 and were somewhat different from US models and differently equipped even though they were built in the same place.

 

I had no idea there were so many differences between Canadian and U.S. trucks back in the day. Fascinating actually. My '83 was originally sold in California, and had the full compliment of smog controls--about 75-100 pounds of added junk, including a smog pump. When I de-smogged the engine and added a Weber carb and LCE header, the engine ran noticeably better. Best thing I did to the engine.

the paint on my truck was original, and much thinner than the paint on the cab. The underside of the bed lip was almost unpainted, and there was lots of surface rust to deal with in that area. The smallest paint chips resulted in a rust spot. the cab's paint was much thicker, and chips didn't rust as badly--likely due to a primer--apparently which was not used on the bed.

 

My 81 4x4 long bed was cab to bed assembled in Long Beach, Ca. It never left California until I moved to Texas in 93. It was CA. smogged truck, which I removed and installed a Weber carb.

I found out that the plant in Japan was using a water based primer on the cabs in that year which accounted for poor color coat retention, thus rust. The bed was painted at the CA. assembly plant and it was primed and painted the same color as the cab. And it doesn't have the normal rust you see on the beds. I think they upgraded their paint/primer formulation around 83 or so.

 

The last post is from 2017, which isn't a good sign, but forum classifieds like this one will be even better than craigslist.

 

Hey Groundpounder! What finally happened here? Did you bother to go look at this truck? If so, what did you decide to do? This is like reading a book that has a missing last chapter.

 

I was wondering the same thing because that is also how my brain works...must....finish...story....
But I just figured he did not purchase since we haven't seen pictures from an excited new Toyota truck owner.

 

I am about to go look at it. The owner is out until first week of March and I have had my weekends full as well. Wife’s birthday weekend, Valentine’s Day, etc.
I’m still keeping my eyes open but I’m going to go look at this one, hopefully the weekend of March 6th

if anyone else runs across a nicer one let me know.

 

This one just popped up on eBay. I’m still scanning Craigslist ads

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F312953707834