Toyota Stalking, er...um, SPOTTING with Charlie™ (Cars, vans, SUVs, Lexus, Scion, and brochures)!

Originally a thread called Lexus-powered Chevy Malibu!...

In the last year and a half, I've seen a Chevy II wagon with a 2JZ, a 1968 Chevy C10 with a 2JZ, a 1994 Isuzu pickup with a 1JZ, and two 1930s pickups with 1980s Toyota pickup running gears! This is a new one, however; I saw at it at a cars & coffee on Saturday and at first, I thought it was just another pro street Malibu that was under construction. Then, I noticed that the motor didn't look like a Chevy small block, and then I noticed the Lexus emblem...

I have no idea what year it is, as the owner wasn't around, and what's really strange is that it's registered in Alabama (I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA). The JDM Toyota Soarer that I saw at this same event earlier this year was registered in Texas, but the owner had just moved to Pennsylvania from Texas because his wife got a new job here. I ran the plate through Carfax and got no hits, which leads me to believe that the car is older than 1981...


July 2nd, 2022:

Warrington, Pennsylvania

 

@ColoradoTJ

I know you're planning on swapping the engine from your Lexus IS into your Jeep trail rig, so I figured you'd get a kick out of this...

 

The car is far from perfect, but it doesn't seem to have any visible rust, so I'm guessing it was in fact originally from Alabama (Again, note the license plate) or somewhere in the South...

 

If this car is from Alabama or somewhere down South, it's surprising because this is a factory non-A/C car; You can easily figure this out by the lack of outboard vents in the dash, and the basic HVAC controls that don't have an A/C function. The car also appears to have the original AM radio...

 

If you look closely at the dashboard, you will see that a black dash pad appears to be have been wedged over the original blue dash pad; I have no idea why this was done...

 

The gearshift and center console appear to have come from a Lexus as well...

 

The seats are from a Buick Grand National...

 

It's a Frankenstein interior!

 

As basic as this car was, whoever bought it new opted to spend the extra money for an automatic transmission; I'm guessing that this car had either the standard V6 or the smallest available V8...

 

Another engine shot...

 

So the IS gets to stay intact?

 

Does the A/C work?

 

It's an 81/82 G body, absolute trash platform but cheap as can be an I approve of the converted 2J-GE in it

 

I've got a guy on Tundras.com saying it's a 1978-1979?

 

It could be, still a G body, the G stands for garbage

 

Don't bash the Grand National!