Hello in Escondido, CA

Hello Everyone,

I've been lurking around this and a few other Toyota type forums for some time now as my search for a truck progresses. Initially I was set to purchase a friend's '96 4wd extracab 4cyl 5spd. But as it were, at the last minute they chose to keep it. Even though they expressed to me that it basically hasn't been touched in 3yrs and they need to get rid of it.
Oh well, that's life. So now I am committed to buying one. In 1982 my father bought an '83 4wd SR5 from Toyota Escondido. Drove it for a number of years before selling it to his buddy to get back into a fullsize. Fast forward 10yrs, he bought an identical truck to his original '83 for my brother when he turned 16. It was the same year, color, decals, chrome package and all, just his original truck had blue interior and our's was brown. When my brother graduated the truck was passed to me. A year later it was stolen from high school. A few years later my brother-in-law started working for Toyota Escondido, and is still there today.
Now just finding out not too long ago that my buddy didn't want to sell his truck, I was on the hunt. I wanted a '95-'97 (I think they look the best) 4wd extracab. Anyways, a friend refers me to a body shop to get my crewcab F350 worked on, as I drop off my truck I see a '96 4wd extracab sitting in his lot. Don't think much of it other than seeing it there. Today I stopped in to see the progress on my F350 and decided to ask the shop owner about it. He says it's his and he'll be selling it soon. My ears perked up and I looked it over. He said he bought it off a customer of his that said it needed a motor. He then put a junkyard motor in it and has been driving it. It has some wear but it is really clean. When I asked him the mileage on the truck I was shocked when he said "almost 300k"!
So I told him I was interested. He told me he had planned to fix the dents and sun baked paint as soon as he finished my F350. He said he'd do the body work and paint for cost if I wanted the truck. When I pick up my Ford at the end of the week we are going to work out the details. We settled on it being about $3k, but won't know until it's finished.
I still can't believe how clean it is for nearly 300k miles! I got underneath it and the frame looked extremely solid, it has a set of threaded body coilovers on it, couldn't tell the make though. The rear leaf springs looked clapped out. Door handle on passenger side is busted and so is the tailgate handle and inside driver door handle, but he said he'd be taking care of those. The motor has 130k on it and not much is known about it. But before I pull the trigger on it my brother-in-law will be going over it top to bottom.
So I'll be on this site quite a bit looking for information and tips. The plan for this truck is two sided. One to be a daily driver and the other to be a expeditionary vehicle. I have to toe the line carefully not to disturb the economical side of it for daily use. No big lifts (dang F350 is already on 35's!), no big tires, no fart can exhaust, or any other nonsense. It will receive new springs, shocks, bushings, anything else that is loose under the truck and whatever my brother-in-law points out (score 1 for oem parts at cost!!). Since I'm a fat guy a slight height adjustment will be needed, so it might go up with some OME products. Ultimately I'd like to see a set of plate winch bumpers, a bed rack with a rooftop tent and some lighting. It should be fun! Hopefully I can put a cover on the crewcab and use it only to tow the trailer to the desert or racetrack.

 

Welcome to TW!