What have I done?

Never owned a Toyota up until I purchased the black '87 about a month ago. I'm maybe 20% of the way through restoring it and I already had to go and get this bad boy. These things are addictive man.






1986 SR5 4x4, 5speed, one owner, 129k miles, full service records back to the Reagan administration. Appears fully optioned but I'm not knowledgeable enough to say just yet. The rust isn't great but it looks good underneath and the quarter panel isn't so advanced it can't be handled. And the front fenders are easy enough to replace.

This one wasn't ridiculously cheap but I think it was a fair deal and definitely less than some of the Gen1s out there are asking. The truck needs a lot of little things. The engine has a propensity to die when it gets up to temp, A/C is broken (and is original R12), new brake rotors are needed, radio doesn't work and then obviously the rust. But I ran the numbers and am fairly confident it should work out.

And one thing I have to note is I peeled up the floormats to take a look at the original color of the carpet... whoah. It's this gorgeous aquamarine. The blue interior is super cool. I wish I could have seen this puppy when PO purchased it back in 86. I'm not sure how I'm going to replicate that color for the carpet but I'm going to give it my level best effort.

 

Looking forward to the pics of the progress

 

Looks like a great restoration project ahead. Look forward to the updates and pics. Welcome!

 

Damn, that is awesome. Get after it, and best of luck. Such a rad rig.

 

Thanks @Kyblack76 . I'm really stoked. I actually had trouble getting to sleep the night before purchase because I was worried about whether the seller would take my offer haha. She's at the shop that's going to do the welding rn, I'm heading there to talk dollars in cents in a few minutes. I'll take some more pictures when I'm there.

@Dabigono , I'll most definitely update. Planning on fully documenting everything here. I'm probably going to wait until after the Black one is listed before getting into Blue in earnest so most likely will be a month before pics on this one start rolling in. On the black one, I'm currently working on prep for paint. Sand, sand, sand and sand some more. But once my new starter gets in I'll by bringing her to my upholstery guy and that will be on hold until the interior is finished so maybe I'll be able to get some mechanical work on Blue done during that stage.

 

Super cool. Do you have a youtube channle to watch this? I adore the older rigs. Super cool. Please post pics of the revamp. Id love to see it.

 

I don't yet but I'm contemplating setting one up.

 

More photos please!!!

 

There was a nice original (minty) '87 4Runner that recently sold on an auction site for 37,000....

 

Super cool project and also keen to see some progress pics. Also keen to know what that car in the second pic where you show the folder with service records is. Looks sweet but I can't place it. Based on the shifter, gauge package and the shape of the vents, my best guess is a Bentley.

 

Hey @PhillySilver yeah, that's my '05 Arnage. I'd been pining for one for quite a while and three years ago decided life is too short. Not too many out here in Denver so I flew to Florida to look at a handful and bought the cleanest example I could find... exactly at the peak of the market lol. Other than the precipitous drop in value it's been a great car. I was told to budget $5k/year in repairs and maintenance. I think I spent something like $2,500 getting her sorted initially, but since then other than regular fluid changes I haven't had to do anything.

 

Almost forgot, question for the group.

I'll put some more pictures up but currently the blue truck has a hefty front bumper and winch that PO put in in 1986 so it's period correct. I do not believe it is a dealer add on though. I split on whether to put on an original bumper or just clean up the existing one.

 

Are you going for a show car? If not, I wouldn't worry about period correctness too much.

 

@Sin4R Yeah, I mean I kind of am going for show car. Sort of.

My first dance with restoration was my W126 Mercedes which was my second car that I sold and bought back. I farmed out a lot on that one and I'm like 40k deep into it. BUT, if you get inside that car it absolutely feels like it just came off the showroom floor in 1983. I broke my back to cover every conceivable detail. What I'm trying to do here is get as close to that outcome as possible while sticking to a budget that will allow me to make a reasonable profit. I'm hoping that the quality of my work will show through during the auction.

Really, what I'm going for is "what does the typical bidder on BaT want to see?" Poring through all the closed auctions what I'm seeing is people prize 1) low miles (nothing to be done there) 2) originality 3) quality. So the bumper question sort of speaks to #2.

 

I believe some pictures were requested. I've got my work cut out for me on this one. She has a lot of small issues. A/C, D/S window, rear window switch, radio dead, clutch + all the standard refresh stuff and obviously the rust. Kind of banking on a higher sale price thanks to higher spec, better history and full service records. We'll see how it goes.



The bumper I was talking about. r/bringatrailer is saying replace it. I may replace it but include it with the sale.





Quick note on the rust. Didn't want to get underneath due to recent rain but while the quarter panel has advanced rust the frame and wheel wells seem to be solid. Basically the whole quarter panel is going to be replaced





That blue interior is sexy. Very 80s. The history and mileage were the big reasons for pulling the trigger but the color combo didn't hurt!



Here's one of my favorite parts. The original color of the carpet that you can see under the floormats. It's like this gorgeous aquamarine. I'm not sure where I can find a color like this but I'm going to try my damn hardest to make it happen. I think the stains in this carpet may come out. So potentially I could use a carpet dye.

 

If you are going for showroom, this truck is not a good starting point. I recommend looking for a garage queen from California, as paint and body work is a lot more expensive than any kind of premium you might pay upfront.

This truck is reasonable to get to a daily driver condition, but it will be really expensive past that point.

 

Well, couple of things to that point. I've gone down the road of trying to make a rough vehicle showroom so I'm excruciatingly aware of what an expensive PIA that is. Never done.

What I'm going for here is as close to showroom as I can get within the confines of a budget that will allow me to turn a reasonable profit. I'm going to do as much as I can hitting the most important stuff first and then when I run out of budget I'll call it a day and disclose the remaining issues. But from my number crunching that should be like 80% of my first restoration which equals a pretty darn nice truck.

It's entirely possible I'm wrong about this. But my buddy is doing it pretty consistently with old trucks. And giving old vehicles a new lease on life is honestly just kind of something that just speaks to me.