I live on the edge of the suburbs. When I say that, I mean it is a 3 minute drive to a farm, and a 6 minute drive to the one where I buy my produce in the summer. His house was another 30 minutes out. It turns out he lives 1,000 feet up the mountain. The trip included 4 miles of dirt road. We came up on a painted wood sign that read "WHITE KNUCKLE!" and it was followed by a right turn with a drop and then a hair pin that climbed back up. This was the scene when we reached the ridge.
I didn't take any pics of his property out of respect but he had a wonderful setup including an old barn that was completely renovated inside. It had a wood shop and a nice bar.
The truck I went to look at was a 1992 Toyota Truck. This was before the Tacoma name, similar to the Hardbody / Frontier. It turns out he purchased it in 1996. So for the last 20 years it's had one owner, and the guy before that only had it for 4. He decided to replace it with a brand new F250 because he got sick of repairs. He spent the entire time I was there complaining that the F250 was not as good as the Toyota. He parked the Toyota and let the plates expire. It's very hard to sell a car here with expired plates because they have to pass smog before going on the road. I have the time, and for the price I was willing to swap engines if I must. I was so confident I was going to buy it I went to motor vehicles and purchased a temp reg to drive it home. Well, it turns out this is the truck.
It's a 1992 4x4 3.0 V6 5 spd with 157k miles on it. I have a stack of receipts that go back for decades. I have every emissions inspection for the truck since 1996. The timing belt, water pump, were done at the dealer at 120k miles. It has full synthetic everything in it. The tires that are on the truck with less than 5,000 miles on them cost $961. I took the cap and the factory bed liner off and found this.
In the 6 months it sat it started growing moss.
It was filthy. I'm not sure when the last time it got washed before it was parked.
So we broke out the pressure washer and got to work.
It cleaned up really nice. On the drive home... I felt nothing. The front end is tight, the suspension is good, the alignment is straight, the heater works, the clutch is tight, the brakes are wonderful. The only thing I had to do was put a battery in it, clean it, and change a few bulbs. I'm very pleased.
