I heard that 1st Gen Runners were actually titled/registered as pickups because Toyota wanted to get around some taxes or regulations. So what does it say on your title/registration? For example, my pickup registration just says "1991 TOY TRK." The title has four categories:

YEAR
MAKE
MODEL
BODY TYPE

For my truck, year and make are filled in, model is blank, and body type is listed as "TRK." On the title for my Corolla, model is listed as "COR" and body type is listed as "4 DR." I'm curious if 4Runner titles look the same as mine.

Why does this matter? I'm thinking about doing this with my truck:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/toyot...post-pics.html

Some guys do walk throughs just for easy access to the rear cargo area and some basically turn their trucks into 4Runners by throwing a bench seat in the back. The catch is that The Peoples Republik of New Jersey doesn't allow such modifications (putting seats in the back of a pickup) unless the vehicle came from the factory that way. So what I'm hoping is that if I were to get pulled over I could just say "Oh it's an old 4Runner" if asked about the seats. Obviously I would make it look as close to factory as possible.

 

The AZ title for my '87 Runner says: Model RN62S '2DSW'

Two Door Stationwagon.

The Az title for my '95 Runner is: Model V39 '4DSW'.

Four Door Stationwagon.

I have seen pickup titles that were marked cab and chassis.

They were so imported to avoid some kind of duty, or tax, then had the bed added after import.

 

Year: 1987
Make: TOYT
Style: UT
Model: 4RN
Oregon title

 

Here across The river in Pa

My 4Runners are station wagons as well

 

I'll have to check my title here in Maryland.

A while ago I read some interesting information, that I will misquote and screw up now because I can't remember it exactly...but this is what I understand:

Toyota imported the Pick-up without a bed attached so they could avoid the tariff for an assembled vehicle. When trucks arrived at the port, the bed was later added.

The 4Runners were shipped as trucks with no rear seat to avoid different taxes as a 4 seater. Seats were added as an option to avoid the tax. this all changed in 86', so only the 84-85 models would have been registered as trucks.

Seat delete: