Old school Toyotas...Who's got em?

As long as it stated in the family

 

I sold my 88 about 13 years ago, and I regret it!

 

Looks like the truck I learned to drive stick in!

 

June 20th, 2017:

1991 Toyota Previa LE RWD, spotted in the parking lot of at the "Double Eagle Golf Course at Snipes Farm" in Morrisville, Pennsylvania (they have a cruise night every other Tuesday from May to September; That's why I was at a golf course about 40 minutes from my house). This van has factory dual A/C. Early Previa models were known for having lackluster air-conditioning systems, and surprisingly dual A/C was not standard. Actually, according to what I've read online, front A/C was an exta-cost option too! Obviously, nobody was going to want a huge rolling greenhouse like a Toyota Previa without ANY A/C. As such, I have never seen a Previa in person or online that had NO A/C AT ALL. I have seen a couple older Previas that didn't have rear A/C, notably a 1991 model on eBay that was the same dark red color as this one located in Santa Clara County, California (I've lived there, and I can tell you that central air in even the most expensive homes is virtually unheard of; A/C is needed in cars for the occasional heat wave, but even my aunt and uncle's 1994 Grand Caravan that they bought new in Monterey did not have rear A/C; Basically, you just don't need as much cooling power in NorCal as you do in other parts of the country; Though I'd still NEVER get a vehicle with 3 or more rows of seats that didn't have rear air).

Anyway, according to CARFAX, this seems to have originally been a California van (passed what I presume was it's first smog test in October 1993, with less than 50K miles on the odometer). It would also appear to have been one of the first Previas in the country, as it was shipped to the original dealer in October 1990 (no info on when or where it was purchased, but the aforementioned smog test took place at an inspection station in Palmdale).

In 1995, it was registered in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

In 1998, it was registered in Staten Island, New York. It appears to have remained in Staten Island until at least June 21, 2014, then the trail goes cold for literally 3 years.

The next bit of info on the CARFAX report is from June 20th, 2017 (the day these pictures were taken). That record shows a vehicle purchase, a title update, and a new owner all on June 20th (Note the temp tag).

Here it is:


Note my Tacoma hiding in the background:

 

My 86' 4Runner

 

Thats a good looking truck! I want to lift mine a little and bigger tires, so, standard question.....What size are those?

 

I have no idea what size the tires or wheels are. What I can tell you is that those wheels are actually from a 1974 AMC Hornet and my uncle owned a hubcap and wheel business at the time, so literally had a box of those sticky centercap emblems. He had these same wheels on a black 1987 Toyota pickup he owned, and he also put them on a red 1986 Toyota pickup that he bought from an insurance auction as a wreck in the late 1980s, repaired, and gave to his dad as a gift. He did such a great job with the Toyota emblems that I thought they were legit Toyota wheels!

My uncles truck is (was, actually; he recently sold it) a 1991 Toyota 2WD with the legendary 2.4L and 5-speed "handshaker." It was originally red and had absolutely no creature comforts except a heater (Pretty sure that a heater has not been an extra-cost option on a passenger vehicle in this country since the 1960s). The only option the truck had was an AM/FM radio. It didn't have power steering, power brakes, or air-conditioning. It didn't even have full instrumentation (no tach, just a speedometer, a fuel gauge, and a bunch of warning lights). It of course did not have intermittent wipers.

My uncle bought it in 2011 or 2012, from the original owner in the Allentown, PA area, with only about 70K original miles! The truck was mint. He immediately replaced the factory radio with an AM/FM CD player and installed new speakers, and he also added the "Toyotafied" AMC Hornet wheels. He also installed a black canvas collapsible cap/topper that doubled as a tonneau cover. The truck looked pretty sweet as is, but it was enough for my uncle.

The biggest problem was that my uncle's new wife would not ride in that truck in the summer, since it did not have A/C (I have quite the "extended family" due to a couple divorces and remarriages over the years; Far as I'm concerned, it just means more birthday and Christmas presents for me!); Before he moved permanently to Myrtle Beach, my uncle rarely used the A/C in any of his vehicles when he was by himself. When he was on a summer vacation with his wife and kids, he used the A/C. When he had me or any other friend or relative with him and they wanted the A/C on, he would gladly turn it on. But my uncle could care less that this truck did not have A/C. His 1990 Caravan 5-speed didn't have A/C either. However, the Caravan, while "pimped out" in it's own right with a custom stereo worth more than the van itself, in addition to custom paint and custom wheels, was a dedicated work vehicle. My uncle used the Toyota as his daily driver and to appease his 2nd wife decided to install A/C so she would ride in it. This ended up being quite easy. Obviously a 1991 vehicle of any make would have used R-12, but since the truck did not originally have air, there was no system to retrofit. He went to a junkyard and located a wrecked 1994 Toyota extended cab pickup with the same engine. The 1994 was identical to my uncle's 1991 in all but one way...

Being a 1994, it had come from the factory with R134a. My uncle simply removed the entire A/C system from the 1994 truck, installed it in the 1991 himself, and had a friend who was a mechanic charge the system and check it for leaks. In August 2014, my uncle taught me to drive stick in this truck in his neighborhood in Myrtle Beach. Needless to say, it was brutally hot with high humidity and I immediately turned the A/C on and I can tell you that it was in fact blowing cold. It was not on long enough to reach the optimum level of coldness, however. My uncle considers listening to the engine, especially when the vehicle lacks a tachometer, an important part of "getting a feel for the vehicle" while learning to drive stick. As such, he insisted that the windows be rolled down and the A/C be turned off before he even backed out of the driveway...

You might also notice that my uncle's little orange truck has vent windows in the door. My uncle loves these because of how well they allow air to cross through the cabin at highway speeds, and you could even say he prefers them to A/C. The 1994 donor truck was black, and also an extended cab, but the doors still fit perfectly. The owner of the junkyard accepted the mint condition red doors from my uncle's 1991 as a straight-up trade for the doors from the 1994 donor truck. If I remember correctly, my uncle drove the 1991 to the junkyard and removed the doors from both trucks. He then put the black doors on his truck and drove it home. Needless to say, the truck looked quite ghetto before it got the "Harley Orange" paint. Unfortunately, a couple of North Carolina State Troopers also thought the truck looked quite "ghetto".

My uncle never added power steering, power brakes, intermittent wipers, or a limited-slip rear differential, though he could have easily done so. Despite the lack of power steering and power brakes, the truck was incredibly easy to drive even at low speeds, and it's overall performance in routine driving was great. My uncle recently decided to sell the truck and replaced it with a newer Ford Ranger (which got the same "Harley Orange" treatment). I made my Uncle an offer of about $2,500 plus the cost of a plane ticket back to SC if he drove it up to Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, by the time I found out my uncle was selling the Toyota and made an offer, someone had already offered $3,500 and put a deposit down to hold the truck. Even more unfortunate is the fact that the Ranger has an automatic transmission. My uncle told me I could borrow his truck to get around anytime I came back down to visit, and now his one and only truck has only two pedals.



It's a shame, because I was really looking forward to this...


So, that's the story on the 1991 Toyota truck...

 

That is an awesome story! Those rims are awesome. It's a shame you didn't end up with it. My dad bought this truck in 1998, I fell in love with it the first time I drove it and I have been trying to buy it off him ever since. It only took 19 years for him to give in.

 

August 5th, 2017:

I spotted this at the 2017 Carlisle Truck Nationals. It's a Toyota Hilux, in surprisingly good unrestored condition!

 

My 85

 

August 4th, 2017:

2017 Carlisle Truck Nationals

Believe it or not, the green truck parked underneath the lifted Chevy began life as a 1990 Toyota pickup!

 

August 5th, 2017:

Carlisle Truck Nationals

More pictures of the same slammed 1990 Toyota pickup...

 

Same truck seen to the right in the other photo...

August 4th, 2017:


August 5th, 2017:

 

August 5th, 2017:

2017 Carlisle Truck Nationals

 

August 5th, 2017:

2017 Carlisle Truck Nationals

1992 Toyota Deluxe Long Bed 2WD pickup:

 

August 5th, 2017:

2017 Carlisle Truck Nationals

 

August 5th, 2017:

2017 Carlisle Truck Nationals

 

I got this white 1988 pickup earlier this year, fixed some stuff to make it dependable. Then decided to put bed liner on the whole truck to fill in some dents, an rust area's. Now I have painted it tan, still have some touch up to finish on it. Need to do something with the wheels next.

 

I was walking my boss's dog when I encountered a 20-something guy feeding the meter where this was parked...



I said hello and told him that my mom had a similar car in the exact same color combo (though hers was a fully loaded LE V6; this one is a base model with a 4-banger and 5-speed stick). My mom's was a 1990, and this one is a 1989. He went on to tell me that the car had been in his family since it was brand new and his parents gave it to him when he got his driver's license.

He told me that he did not know how to drive stick but once he learned how, he loved it, and absolutely loves the car. This is a base model Camry with literally only a couple options. It has factory A/C and an AM/FM cassette, and that's pretty much it...

The car has crank windows, manual locks, and no ABS (not available on 4-cyl. models except All-Trac models with automatic transmission, even in 1990; I have a 1990 Camry brochure that my dad saved all these years; unsure of 1991, which is the last year for this generation). It does have intermittent wipers; not variable-speed intermittent wipers like what I finally had installed in my 2nd gen last December, mind you; but it still has a bona fide "INT" function. I'm 99% sure the basic "non-variable" intermittent control was standard on all Camry models of this generation (1987-1991).

This car also has aftermarket cruise control (which the owner thought was original). This Camry did come from the factory with A/C, but the guy said it doesn't blow cold. It probably just needs to be retrofitted to R134a, have the necessary parts replaced, and get a charge.

The car currently does not have an up-to-date safety inspection sticker because his mechanic is waiting on a hard-to-find part (all he could tell me was that it had something to do with the left front tire). However, the car has always passed the early safety inspection and emissions test with flying colors for as long as he's owned it.

The fact that my parents bought one of these brand new when I was just over a year old (summer 1990) and owned it until right after I finished 3rd grade (June 1998) has made my opinion very biased, but this generation of the Camry is my favorite!