I know I've been on this site for a while now, but I'm trying to become more active on here. So I figure you guys would enjoy the story of how I got our '86 4Runner.

I have a friend who works at a local Subaru shop who knew I was interested in buying an fuel injected 80's Toyota 4WD. I get a call saying that he has the truck for me. Apparently one of the saleman at his shop used to work at the Toyota dealership, and one of his customers had kept his contact info. So this little old lady was selling her '86 4Runner, but she wasn't advertising it anywhere. So I heard about it though the phone chain, and I assumed it was too good to be true. So I show up to her house with my wife (I was going to buy it for me, unless she wanted it).


The lady said this truck had been sitting in this ladies back yard the last 5 years since it was her husbands and he died around that time. He used it for hunting, and there were a few missing interior parts missing (rear carpet and a few pieces of the dash/center console). Cracked windshield, no battery, and minimal rust. The tires weren't dry rotted at all, and they had less than 1k miles on them. Body/engine had 237k miles on it. Original driveline except it had "3 or 4 clutches installed".

Now the best part. She was moving from Denver to Illinois the next day. We were the only one's to even look at it. I asked her how much. She said $400. I pulled out the $200 I had in my pocket for a deposit, and hauled @$$ to the bank for the rest.

The truck needed a few little things such as a full tune up, a complete exhaust, a windshield, and a few minor interior pieces, but for less than $1k we now have a '86 Runner


Oh, BTW my wife fell in love with it when she realized that the rear top was removable. Man that thing is a PITA to remove when your wife is a weakling . So far she has put 10k miles on it with minimal problems.

The day after we got it (It looks better now. Fog light removed, installed rear helper springs, removed running boards, etc )

 

Dude that is a steal of a deal. Too bad you lost it to the wife

 

Yeah, I know. But in the next few years she is going to buy a new(er?) Tacoma. Then it's mine

 

Grannys are cool!