Introduction of self

I'm a new member here and have been a Toyota owner since I'd purchased my first vehicle in 1985, which with the help of my dad and his love of Toyota I bought a Toyota Celica GT 5 speed. I liked the car very much but as a teenager at 16 and living in a small town in the panhandle of Florida which was pretty much dirt roads and a lot of back woods driving I really wanted a pick up. My Uncle owned a wrecker service and mechanic shop in town and my dad and I had gone up on our usual weekend visit to see his brother, my Uncle and I'll never forget that day really cause across the tow yard was my dream truck, a 1983 Toyota 4x4 puck up, sitting on the biggest, tallest mud tires I'd ever seen. It needed a little body work and TLC and the motor was blown but I immediately asked what was being done with it and how my Uncle got the truck. He just said to me, "son, the truck is mine and I don't know if you really would want to get involved in it cause it needs a lot of work" My response was exactly what he'd expected!!! My Uncle and Dad both just laughed because of the excitement they heard in my voice and the way my eyes just lit up!! My dad just said that we'd talk about it and figure something out, I just didn't need to bother or worry about it right then. Well, I bugged dad to death about it for 2 weeks and went to the shop everyday after school just to be sure it was still there. Another week had passed and Dad came in on a Saturday morning very early and woke me up saying to me, "get up son!! You've got work to do and a lot of it" I laid there thinking what is he talking about? Needless to say that every Saturday and everyday of the week that I didn't have to work after school I was at that shop working on my future vehicle. The very first thing that I was told to do under my dad's and uncles supervision and guidance was to pull the motor out to rebuild it, and of course they were right beside me helping and showing me how to rebuild my first motor. After the motor was pulled and transmission the truck was towed to a paint and body shop where all the body work was fixed and made the truck look show room ready. It took like 6 weeks all together to finish and the last week that we had to do our finish up touches I had extra days and hours added at work and wasn't able to go and work on the truck. Well, Saturday came and as usual I'd got up and went to the shop just as I had been all along the past 6 weeks expecting another long, greasy, dirty day! But, as I started getting to where I could see my uncle's shop I could see this charcoal grey, beautiful 4x4 pickup parked in front of the shop bay doors with this big sign in the windshield which said, "FOR SALE" MY jaw hit the floor and I was flipping out!!!! I was thinking that because of all the work I had been putting into this truck that it had been given to me, well, I was surely wrong about that! Yes the truck was finished and looked like it had came off the show room floor from the Toyota dealership and on that FOR SALE sign was a dollar sign and 4 numbers beside it which was $4000.00!! My eyes were bugging out of my head, cause in 1986 you could go to a dealership and buy a brand new truck for around $11000.00 or more but this truck in 1986 with the huge mud tires which wasn't stock neither was the lift kit, all together you would've spent $1000.00on tires and then the lift kit and labor for a mechanic around $3000.00, so $16,000 is what you would've spent back then, well, at that time I was 16 almost 17. Minimum wage then was $3.35 an hour. I had some money saved but it sure wasn't $4 grand. Just about a year prior to that I had just purchased my car which cost me $1500.00 plus tag, title and insurance of course I was added to my parents insurance which cost me $50 a month but I spent almost $2000.00 on my first car. Anyhow, I only had $2700.00 in my savings and my uncle didn't do payments! He used to say he wasn't a bank and he didn't do loans. Well, after my little stint of sniffling and holding back the tears my uncle says, " Son I know you want this truck real bad and after all the hard work you put into it and showed me and your dad your dedication and hard work and passion that you have for this truck, it's yours for $3000.00" I was thinking now where am I gonna get the other $300 and then another $250 for tag and title and then to add to that my insurance was going to increase another $50 a month. Well, good ole pops steps up and says, "I don't mind being a bank with a little interest son" I jumped so high with joy and screamed with excitement and happiness. I couldn't believe it! I had my dream truck and for starters I appreciated that truck so much and took care of it, and kept the maintenance up and all but as for those huge tires before to Long I downsized mainly because of the gas mileage it got lugging all that weight which was about 7 to 8 miles per gallon and they only put 12 gallon tanks on the Toyota SR5 PICKUP'S back then, so you do the math. Anyhow, Today I'm a 48 year old with the same passion for my Toyota today and will only purchase Toyota, the main reason is because of there dependability even though I do believe they could better there fuel economy on the trucks just as they have on the card. Than you for allowing me to share my story and a little of myself and I'm hear on this website because of an issue I'm having with my instrument panel lights and parking lights after I installed a new Sony aftermarket CD STEREO into my 1994 Toyota pick up and I've checked all fuses, bulbs and have checked the wiring 3 times and can't find anything that could cause this issue, maybe someone has some answers

 

Welcome to TW.

 

Welcome!
Post your problem in the TW “Forum Garage” audio threads for potentially more attention.

 

Welcome to the TW, great story.

 

Introduction accepted

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TW!