It took me months to find the right one at the right price, but I finally got one! The market for these good running 4 cylinder toyotas around here is vicious. Here is how it looked when I bought it. The PO had spray painted the entire thing flat camo tan. And I mean the ENTIRE thing, chrome, rubber, seals, handles, locks, overspray on all glass and lights. Ugh...


After hours of scraping and gallons of lacquer thinner, there is what it looks like now. Turns out the stock red paint is in pretty good shape. Just normal nicks and scratches you would expect for a 25 year old truck.


For $1400 I am pretty happy.

I still have a long list of things to work on, but the important stuff, ie running gear, all works great.

Can someone help me on how to remove this piece of trim? I dont want to break it, but it needs paint.

 

nice find! good lookin truck

 

She's a beauty! I live here in Sacramento as well, these rigs are hard to come by here, at least she's mechanically sound. I bought mine in Oregon before I moved down here, everyone likes her though and stops to compliment me. It feels good to take an old truck like these and give them life again.

 

Removing the exterior "vent" behind the doors requires removing the interior trim.

And, you could prob polish out most of the scratches in the paint if you wanted.

 

Nice! but dang must of had a sale at the dollar store for flat tan, even the bed and behind the bed!!! looks like it was a nice red wonder what screw went loose in the previous owners head to spray it? Meh whatever looks like your truck is way happier now anyway.

 

it certainly looks far better red, that wasnt a bad price either!

 

Thanks for the compliments. He told me the paint was shot is why he did it. My best guess is he painted it because of the blue fender. But that certainly doesnt warrant that abortion of a paint job! It would have been a lot easier to just paint one fender.

 

Looks great! What are your plans?

 

when i saw the first pic the only thing that kept going through my head was "duracoated by me, Nutnfancy" hahah.

nice truck man. did the wheels look that good under the black paint?

 

Yeah thats how the wheels were under the black.

As far as plans for it, just to get all the little things buttoned up and have a reliable sled hauler. I bought it so I didnt have to tow a snowmobile trailer with my V8 runner. Gas mileage, chaining up in the snow, 55mph speed limits, yada yada. I am going to need some better tires at some point, but these will get me thru this miserable no-snow winter we are having.

I have to admit, after a long day of sledding, I do miss the comfort of the runner. Not to mention the 4runner feels like a rocket compared to the 86. But I can go up the mountain and back on half a tank now. I never even came close to that before.

Here it is with my sled in the back. $12,000 sled in the back of a $1400 truck. I love it!

 

Very clean truck you got there. Does the frame and all that look good? Around here $1400 is about the going price for even one that is in kinda rough shape.

 

That's awesome

 

Looks like you're off to a great start with it.

 

Yeah, the truck looks like it was never wheeled. No scrapes on undercarriage anywhere. Frame and running gear are all solid. The interior is the rough part. No carpet, cracked to hell dash. But the seats are nice and the stereo works...now.

 

I FINALLY finished scraping spray paint off. Then gave it a good wash and wax. I still cant believe the PO painted over this thing. Looks damn good to me!


In the last week I changed motor oil, diff fluid, t-case fluid and tranny fluid. Yesterday I put some new spark plugs in and got the speedometer working again. It will be nice to have a way to see what kind of mileage I am getting now. I changed out the starter contacts, and found a bunch of missing trim pieces. I also got the front speakers working and found another 6x9 box to fit behind the seats. I am quite happy with how it sits now, I feel like I am close to done wrenching on this thing...for a while. I just want to do some sound deadening and find a carpet kit. I still need to fix an exhaust leak, which is directly under the drivers seat. Oh...and fix the fan clutch. Maybe I am not that close to done wrenching...

 

Good lookin truck, sounds like the price was right too. I picked up my '88 for $400 w/cracked head. I've put a few $$$ into it in the 5 years i've had it but it's been a great truck. And the wrenching never ends... i've done the head, timing, water pump, then it was the clutch slave cyl. then it was the alternator, then it was the radiator, then leaf springs, then tires, then a clutch/tranny, then, brakes, then a stereo, seems like i'm always working on this thing but it's worth every penny and every hour i've got into it.

 

that blue fender is from a 2wd truck

 

Man, you ain't kidding about finding the right truck at the right price in this area.....everybody wants an arm and a leg for beat-up ones!