Here's a heartwarming project for you all for which I thought I would start an actual build thread. My grandfather bought this truck used back in the 90s; this was one of the trucks in which I learned to drive a manual transmission, driving back and forth to the North Idaho Fair where Grandpa owned the elephant ear booth. He bought it at Parker Toyota in Coeur d'Alene, ID:

It's been passed around through my family ever since, most recently to my older brother in 2014. Unfortunately, he drove it for only a bit before losing interest and parking it behind my parents' shed where it ended up sitting until this year when I bought it off him.

Since I'm in Illinois and the truck was in Washington, I had it towed to my parents' mechanic:


He jumped it and confirmed it would start and run, and the next time I flew back I dropped in a new battery and drove it up the hill to my parents' house:


It's in really good shape; the interior was nearly perfect aside from being full of my brother's crap:


New tires. I decided to upsize slightly to 235/75R-15 for more choices, and went with General Grabber ATX:


Before I left I dropped it back off at the shop for an alignment and new front axle; I ended up having them replace the lower control arms, ball joints, and front brakes as well. I flew back in June and changed all the fluids, adjusted the valves, plugs, wires, filters, all the usual stuff plus replaced the banged-up front valance and cracked taillight housings. Unfortunately, when I pulled the valve cover I saw that the timing chain guide was broken off; running short on time, I dropped it back off at the mechanic. He replaced the chain and guides, welded up the huge crack in the exhaust manifold, and put in a new fan clutch. Then I flew back out in July, loaded up the bed with boxes of my late mother's things (it's been a really ˟˟˟˟ty year overall), and set off for Illinois.

Outside my grandparents' last house in Coeur d'Alene:

Despite hauling all this crap across the mountains, it averaged 25.1 mpg (I'm an admin at Ecomodder and religiously track fuel economy in all my cars. The truck's fuel log is here):

The shifter seat bushing failed in South Dakota; luckily I had new ones in the glovebox that I hadn't put on before I left and should have. Pulled the shifter and the original bushing had disintegrated, but it shifts like new now.

Now that it's back in my garage here, I can start to work on it myself. First up, new dampers to replace these:


I think these are the 30-year-old originals; I had to cut off the top nuts on the fronts because everything was rusted together. The passenger side damper was so bad it didn't rebound at all, just stayed down when pushed in:



I replaced them with KYB Monomax:


I've also replaced all the lights with LED, using Philips Ultinon, including headlights. I've used cheap LED bulbs in the past and they usually don't last very long. I also replaced the front turn signal lenses with clear:

I tried red LED dash lights first but didn't like them so switched to white:


Next up is replacing the bent rear bumper and then addressing the rust holes in the rear fender.

 

This morning's project was to finish the damper replacement. Old ones in the rear were just as shot as the front, again one side had no rebound at all:


Monomax back here as well:


I've missed the ease of working on a truck; I left it on the ground and slid right under to replace these.

 

Isn't that nice? I can slide right under my 4Runners. Not a chance on my pickup.
It's strange. When I bought the pickup in 88, I fit under it just fine. Over the years, either the truck got lower, or my stomach got thicker. Hmmmm...

Personally, I feel the truck got lower. Just my opinion, though. It's my Little Truck, though. My tush and the seat have come to fit one another perfectly. It was my DD, and the drive to work alone was 1 hour, so 2 hours a day. No wonder we fit one another so well. It's got 325,000 miles, and every time it rolled over another 100,000, I'd pull over, and do the "Happy Toyota Dance" around it. Made 3 different Highway Patrol officers laugh, at least.
Now I'm retired, I don't pile the miles on like before. It's still too low to work on, though. Silly truck.

That truck of yours looks good. The ribs don't look half bad, either. Definitely a nice reward after some hard wrenching.

Have fun!
​​​​​​​Pat☺

 

Thanks! I'm really glad to have it; every time I get in I think of Grandpa and summers in Idaho. I'm going to keep it mostly stock except for minor updates like the lights, and after I get the fenders repaired I might put decals on the sides like it originally had.

​​​​​​​165,000 miles on original engine; I hope this lasts as long as yours!

 

Got the rear bumper off finally. I had to take it to the mechanic across the street to torch the bolts since everything was rusted together. Half hour or so and it was off and back home:


New bumper on:


We'll see how long it stays pretty.

 

Spray the inside of the bumper and brackets with Fluid Film once a year.

If you are concerned with rust on the rest of the truck, spray Fluid Film on the undercarriage and inside the frame.

 

Yep, my plan is to Fluid Film everything underneath, and as soon as the salt comes out this truck is staying inside.

I took it camping this weekend:



I'm liking the clear turn signals more and more; they really update the look but are subtle.

 

I pulled apart the lower dash this week to do some wiring (I'm adding a display for TPS voltage and PIAA offroad lights), as well as removed the seatbelts and their rusty brackets and ordered new ones. The driver's side buckle has always been backward so the belt is twisted when it's buckled, and looking at it I don't see how that could have been messed up except from the factory.

So it will be nice to finally have a seatbelt buckle that points the correct way.

Figured I might as well take the seat out too and get everything cleaned up:

And decided to add some cushioning and support to the seat. I bought a foam mattress pad and started cutting it up and stuffing it into the back of the seat:

Then cut some corrugated plastic board to stiffen it up and make the seatback more supportive:




Underneath I found that two of the wires under the driver's side had broken:

I repaired those as best I could by running new wires, then added foam and coroplast to support the seat bottoms:


Ready to go back in the truck, and feels much more like a modern car seat, with better lumbar and back support especially: