My recently aquired '88 4runner has a decal next to the spec plate on the drivers door pillar:

Anybody seen such as this before??

I am curious as to what the mods were.

This 'Runner has no spec plate on the firewall, but the rivits are there. The plate has been gone a long time, as there is no oxidation or dirt shadow.

Maybe coincidence, or maybe something to do with the mods??? Anybody know anything??

 

JT4-RN62

Thats a 4Runner alright

The "mods" made at the Port of Baltimore were almost assuredly the insertion of a rear "bench" set (or possibly an OEM split rear seat)

During the 1980s trucks were under one tariff, and "cars" (aka 4 seats) were a more expensive tariff.
So it was common for the 4Runners to be imported as a "truck" (aka 2 seats) and "converted" to a SUV in the USA - avoiding the tariff.

Another story I heard was that trucks were shipped to the USA with the bed "jacked up" on 2" plastic spacers.
The bed was then "bolted down" in the USA and thus the truck was "assembled" in the USA...

Later, then changed the tariff as SUV were becoming popular. The TWO door 1990+ 4Runner is a rare beast in the USA because they actually cost MORE thant he 4 door version due to tariff

 

Makes sense.

It has a split rear seat.

 

In the mid 90s, I was someplace (auto body shop?) that had a "port" bench seat. I had a DLX 2 seat-er and NO rear seat.
I took a look at the bench seat, but it was so fugly, that I passed on it (even tho it was cheap).

Later in the early 2000s, I got access to a 4Runner that was being given to one of those donation places.
The owner, a friend of my dads, let me strip the parts I wanted off of it.
I got the rear "interior" (aka rear seats and belts and door cards).
Those are now in my 4Runner.

On a side bar note, I think the Ford Transit Connect "mini vans" things are imported into this country WITH seats, even the no rear window commercial ones.
Then the seats are REMOVED and shipped back to the factory (which I think is in Turkey?). So the seats are like the cheeziest things that they could get away with becuase, they were never intended to be used as seats.

 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125357990638429655

 

ah - the loophole closed in 89 - thats why the 1990 2 door 4Runner is so rare - they are more expensive than the 4 door!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

 

Funny no one has ever come forward to say they worked at a port assembly or their dad did. It would be fun to question them on Toyota history.

I have the Baltimore Port sticker too. My '89 was manufactured in October '88. I don't have a firewall tag either and there are rivets in the holes. I have secretly worried that might be a bad thing. I've replaced the back seat belts with shoulder belts from a '92 truck. The belts I had did not have a reel. They look like this and they do not match the front ones at all:



My truck is a DLX and the rear split bench matches the vinyl goodness on the front buckets. It really is high quality sturdy vinyl. I thought I was the only nerd who pondered these things.

 

oh wow - I never saw a vinyl split rear seat...

I actually have an unconverted DLX (tho now I have installed an SR5 cloth rear seat)

 

Mine has a split Grey vinyl back seat, and the non-matching rear belts too.

 

I always thought of them as common. My '88 had them and my '89 has them. This is what they look like but it's someone else's picture.

 

Those "Pocket" rear "door" cards are somewhat rare.
The ones I pulled, if I recall, didnt have the pocket