10 originals in one ad. 

I just can’t take it anymore. Here is another sale from the same person that listed the red/white truck on Ebay a while back. Even though the seller ID’s have changed they are both from Edmond, Oklahoma and have the same phone number listed. The listing bears the same format as before:

 RN37014484
This is a 1980 Toyota 4×4 Pickup ALL ORIGINAL with only 74,600 Original miles!! I am relisting this truck one more time, so i have lowered the reserve price. Truck still has its original redish orange paint whch shines up nice and looks great for its age. The truck has the original 20r motor which looks and runs good.There is NO RUST on this truck, it has a couple bubbles on the rear quarters but nothing showing through. The tires have alot of tread left and the wheels look really nice. The bed of this truck is also solid with no rust. The interior could use a little work just because the truck has been in california all its life so it got a little sun damage. This truck is a nice all original truck, has never been re-painted, no rust, and only has approximately 74k original miles.

So where to begin… It is a nice 1980 Deluxe 4×4 truck. I did see this listed on Craigslist for much less than the sellers reserve price. However it is not all original as the listing repeatedly claims and there are multiple inaccuracies. First it may or may not have been repainted, however it has a 1981 or later tailgate(center latch) on a 1980(side latches) box which means the tailgate is not original. It is mising the Toyota lettering and 4wheel drive decal and has some damage. Also from the rear the bumper is custom made. The wheels, tires, and nerf bars are obviously aftermarket. The 4×4 decals on the doors come from a department store. And the black painted fender flares are not the way a 1980 Toyota would have been; looks more like an S10.

 Inside the interior has a seat cover and a dash cover; one might assume to cover damage. The aftermarket gauges under the center vent are certainly not original. And to be correct in 1980 a Deluxe truck would have come with a vinyl floor mat instead of carpet. Not sure how that got there. The listing shows the truck as having a sunroof(not available until 1981), air conditioning(no it doesn’t), and a cassette player(none installed in the map pocket); 3 strikes against original. In fact I don’t see speakers in the doors so the radio/cassette must be aftermarket. Now the big claim- only  74,600 Original miles. Really? Hard to disprove with no Carfax available before 1981 and only 6 digits on the odometer. But look at the brake pedal; so much wear that the rubber is gone and the metal is shined up like a mirror. And the steering wheel shows as much wear. 174,600 miles? Maybe. You be the judge.

It’s a decent truck but really not worth the hype and asking price.

Dual transfer cases with 511:1 ratio.

Its been a little over a year since I bought the Mojave in southern California. That trip last year was the longest distance I had traveled to buy a Toyota. To date I have found trucks to buy in California, Washington, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and Virginia. While the 1981 4×4 shortbox was equally as far away as California, it was the only one that I did not drive home as the motor was seized. I have had good luck with my long distance purchases- never broke down once on the way home with any Toyota.

So this year has been flying by and it seemed as if I might have to wait until next year to get in my Toyota fix. But as luck would have it- I found a 1982 SR5 4×4 shortbox for sale in northern California. After some negotiation I decided to go for it.

I managed to search for a flight by using Cheaptickets.comand found a very good price. The timing worked out well as I was able to leave work in the late afternoon, get on a plane and be in Detroit just in time to catch a flight to Salt Lake City Utah by 5:00 pm. This was a 3 1/2 hour flight which left just enough time to catch the next flight to Arcata, California by 9 pm. I finally arrived in California at 10:00 pm after 11 hours of flight time and 2 short layovers. Because Arcata is such a small town a direct flight would not have been possible and would have cost three times as much. So the two short layovers were a good compromise.

Since I had made the drive home from California last year I thought I had a good plan. While I had driven straight through from Los Angeles to Michigan in two days before, I decided that wasn’t a very good plan. I ended up staying the night in California Friday night chatting about the truck and other Toyota topics until about 1 am. The next morning the discussion quickly turned to Toyota trucks again, but after a couple of hours I had to hit the road- as much as I would have loved to stay longer.

A route was determined and I knew that I-80 was the best direct route from California to Chicago, but there’s no easy way to get to I-80 from northern California. Nonetheless it was decided I could drive south on 101 until Highway 20 which would take me to I-80 just before Reno, Nevada. As it turned out it took all day just to get to Reno, so even though I was already behind I decided to stay the night in Reno. Staying away from the casinos that night I was able to get an early start at about 7:30 and was on the road again. My goal was to get to Cheyene, Wyoming on Sunday, but again I came up short. I was not able to find a decent price on a room Sunday night, so I slept a couple of hours and hit the road again. I ended up passing Cheyene around 5 am Monday morning and continued driving into Nebraska. Then later Monday afternoon into Iowa. My next goal was to get through the Chicago area before dark, but again I didn’t make it in time. I ended up South of Chicago around 9 pm and driving in that area is just plain craziness. I finally managed to find I-94 and headed north into Michigan. And then home about 1:30 am. All in all it was a long long drive. But luckily the truck did not break down and the only accident I saw was West bound. I was also happily surprised that the truck got better than 20 mpg for each tank of gas on the trip. There was a definite trend with gas prices as high as $3.47 on the west coast to $2.57 average across the border of Michigan.

So what did I get for all of that trouble. A medium blue 1982 SR5 4×4 shortbox in nearly rust free original condition. The SR5 package included tachometer, trip meter, oil and voltmeter gauges, two color blue interior with bucket seats, carpeted floor and woodgrain dash. This truck still had the original Toyota stereo am-fm radio and optional cassette player. It also had the original SR5 white spoke wheels with black center caps and lugnuts. The spare is the original white spoke rim with a H78-15 Dunlop Snow Cruiser tire. The body had it share of dents and scrapes over the 171,000 miles of service, but the owner had take care to preserve the body with touch paint where needed. The engine bay was clean and the motor ran well. The 5 speed L52 transmission had a bit of a growl in some gears, but performed well.

So I am happy to be the new owner of this Toyota. But I also had the chance to see this great country of ours. There were many awesome sights along the way; both from the air and on the ground. I really enjoyed meeting the seller and our conversations about Toyotas. Northern California is a beautiful place to visit and the pictures and memories of the trip will live on with me at least as long as I own this truck.