What have I done?

Never owned a Toyota up until I purchased the black '87 about a month ago. I'm maybe 20% of the way through restoring it and I already had to go and get this bad boy. These things are addictive man.






1986 SR5 4x4, 5speed, one owner, 129k miles, full service records back to the Reagan administration. Appears fully optioned but I'm not knowledgeable enough to say just yet. The rust isn't great but it looks good underneath and the quarter panel isn't so advanced it can't be handled. And the front fenders are easy enough to replace.

This one wasn't ridiculously cheap but I think it was a fair deal and definitely less than some of the Gen1s out there are asking. The truck needs a lot of little things. The engine has a propensity to die when it gets up to temp, A/C is broken (and is original R12), new brake rotors are needed, radio doesn't work and then obviously the rust. But I ran the numbers and am fairly confident it should work out.

And one thing I have to note is I peeled up the floormats to take a look at the original color of the carpet... whoah. It's this gorgeous aquamarine. The blue interior is super cool. I wish I could have seen this puppy when PO purchased it back in 86. I'm not sure how I'm going to replicate that color for the carpet but I'm going to give it my level best effort.

 

Looking forward to the pics of the progress

 

Looks like a great restoration project ahead. Look forward to the updates and pics. Welcome!

 

Damn, that is awesome. Get after it, and best of luck. Such a rad rig.

 

Thanks @Kyblack76 . I'm really stoked. I actually had trouble getting to sleep the night before purchase because I was worried about whether the seller would take my offer haha. She's at the shop that's going to do the welding rn, I'm heading there to talk dollars in cents in a few minutes. I'll take some more pictures when I'm there.

@Dabigono , I'll most definitely update. Planning on fully documenting everything here. I'm probably going to wait until after the Black one is listed before getting into Blue in earnest so most likely will be a month before pics on this one start rolling in. On the black one, I'm currently working on prep for paint. Sand, sand, sand and sand some more. But once my new starter gets in I'll by bringing her to my upholstery guy and that will be on hold until the interior is finished so maybe I'll be able to get some mechanical work on Blue done during that stage.

 

Super cool. Do you have a youtube channle to watch this? I adore the older rigs. Super cool. Please post pics of the revamp. Id love to see it.

 

I don't yet but I'm contemplating setting one up.

 

More photos please!!!

 

There was a nice original (minty) '87 4Runner that recently sold on an auction site for 37,000....

 

Super cool project and also keen to see some progress pics. Also keen to know what that car in the second pic where you show the folder with service records is. Looks sweet but I can't place it. Based on the shifter, gauge package and the shape of the vents, my best guess is a Bentley.

 

Hey @PhillySilver yeah, that's my '05 Arnage. I'd been pining for one for quite a while and three years ago decided life is too short. Not too many out here in Denver so I flew to Florida to look at a handful and bought the cleanest example I could find... exactly at the peak of the market lol. Other than the precipitous drop in value it's been a great car. I was told to budget $5k/year in repairs and maintenance. I think I spent something like $2,500 getting her sorted initially, but since then other than regular fluid changes I haven't had to do anything.

 

Almost forgot, question for the group.

I'll put some more pictures up but currently the blue truck has a hefty front bumper and winch that PO put in in 1986 so it's period correct. I do not believe it is a dealer add on though. I split on whether to put on an original bumper or just clean up the existing one.

 

Are you going for a show car? If not, I wouldn't worry about period correctness too much.

 

@Sin4R Yeah, I mean I kind of am going for show car. Sort of.

My first dance with restoration was my W126 Mercedes which was my second car that I sold and bought back. I farmed out a lot on that one and I'm like 40k deep into it. BUT, if you get inside that car it absolutely feels like it just came off the showroom floor in 1983. I broke my back to cover every conceivable detail. What I'm trying to do here is get as close to that outcome as possible while sticking to a budget that will allow me to make a reasonable profit. I'm hoping that the quality of my work will show through during the auction.

Really, what I'm going for is "what does the typical bidder on BaT want to see?" Poring through all the closed auctions what I'm seeing is people prize 1) low miles (nothing to be done there) 2) originality 3) quality. So the bumper question sort of speaks to #2.

 

I believe some pictures were requested. I've got my work cut out for me on this one. She has a lot of small issues. A/C, D/S window, rear window switch, radio dead, clutch + all the standard refresh stuff and obviously the rust. Kind of banking on a higher sale price thanks to higher spec, better history and full service records. We'll see how it goes.



The bumper I was talking about. r/bringatrailer is saying replace it. I may replace it but include it with the sale.





Quick note on the rust. Didn't want to get underneath due to recent rain but while the quarter panel has advanced rust the frame and wheel wells seem to be solid. Basically the whole quarter panel is going to be replaced





That blue interior is sexy. Very 80s. The history and mileage were the big reasons for pulling the trigger but the color combo didn't hurt!



Here's one of my favorite parts. The original color of the carpet that you can see under the floormats. It's like this gorgeous aquamarine. I'm not sure where I can find a color like this but I'm going to try my damn hardest to make it happen. I think the stains in this carpet may come out. So potentially I could use a carpet dye.

 

If you are going for showroom, this truck is not a good starting point. I recommend looking for a garage queen from California, as paint and body work is a lot more expensive than any kind of premium you might pay upfront.

This truck is reasonable to get to a daily driver condition, but it will be really expensive past that point.

 

Well, couple of things to that point. I've gone down the road of trying to make a rough vehicle showroom so I'm excruciatingly aware of what an expensive PIA that is. Never done.

What I'm going for here is as close to showroom as I can get within the confines of a budget that will allow me to turn a reasonable profit. I'm going to do as much as I can hitting the most important stuff first and then when I run out of budget I'll call it a day and disclose the remaining issues. But from my number crunching that should be like 80% of my first restoration which equals a pretty darn nice truck.

It's entirely possible I'm wrong about this. But my buddy is doing it pretty consistently with old trucks. And giving old vehicles a new lease on life is honestly just kind of something that just speaks to me.

 

Don't count on making a profit.

These are the only ways to make money on restoring cars:

1. You do it for someone else, where others pay the bills.
2. You do all the work, A to Z yourself.
3. You are curbsider, where you hide issues instead of fixing them.

While it is largely depends on the starting point and the car, it does not generally make financial sense for a truck that would at most sell for 30-40K.

I strongly recommend you focus mostly on making it drivable daily. Making it offroader with patina and maybe someone will buy it at break-even price.

 

@Sin4R , thanks for your input, I appreciate your concern. I've both run the numbers and appreciate that some things in life involve risk. This is relatively low overhead which equates to low risk. And while not doing all of the work myself, I am doing the vast majority of it.

A friend of mine (my paint sherpa) did something similar with an almost identical Gen1 4Runner that had more mileage on it and sold it through a local consignment shop. He does this consistently and recently told me it's doing well enough that he could quit his day job if he wanted to. If the auction websites do not offer me a reserve within at least $1,000 of what he got through consignment I'll go through consignment as well. So I know about what this is going to cost and about what I can get on the sale.

I'm approaching this from a slightly different angle from my friend. He does the big stuff and gets them out the door, I'm sweating all the small details and doing stuff that's not strictly necessary (unseen surface rust, using genuine Toyota parts, refreshing the interior, etc) in the hopes that a more comprehensive effort equals a higher sale price. So to say I'm not concerned would be a lie, but I am modestly confident in the venture.

TBH, the thing that's killing me at the moment is tools and shop supplies. Those will be amortized over multiple cars if I keep doing this but if for some reason I decide to do these two and be done then I'm kind of banking on the big items retaining a decent chunk of their value upon resale.

So that's where I'm at with it. Appreciate your concern, we shall see how it pans out.

 

Well, I'm not entirely ready to give up yet but the costs on this one seem to be ballooning. I'm contemplating doing a paint correction, good detail, curing the primary mechanical issues and then sending her on her way. Otherwise I'm kind of banking on a 20k-ish sale price which from what I've seen isn't entirely unrealistic but is a bit of a gamble.

 

...^^^... Much wisdom here .. Grasshopper ... your risk is very high, unless you do most of the work yourself and/or get crazy cheap or free labor. OEM Parts, at cost are expensive too.

 

@SOSHeloPilot I'm doing most of the work myself and the risk is still high on this one.

 

I've decided to test the waters on cutting my losses and prep her for a quick sale. First step was a paint correction and I have to say she cleaned up really nice! Next, paint that bumper then fix up and paint the topper. Finally I'll be putting in a new clutch.



At the same time I've located a good shell I can get metal off of for cheap, picking that up on Wednesday. So if I decide to go the full restoration route I still can

 

The $20,000+ range has practically no sharp, perforated rusted surfaces anywhere, interiors free from rips, cracks, missing stuff, and mechanically sound throughout. And they tend to have few, if any, homemade "custom" modifications.

 

I'm aware of the undertaking and heightened risk on this one. That's why I'm hedging my bets. I honestly wouldn't bother putting anything up for auction unless it was a perfectly crisp vehicle.

I've read through the comments section on every N60 4Runner auction that's closed on BaT over the last year and a half. I don't intend to bust my hump for a month or better only to get raked over the coals in the comments and not see a return. The goal here is to bring these trucks back, find them a good home have some fun tinkering and make a modest return doing it.

 

Well it would appear I've solved the engine stalling issue for around $50. Ignition coil + ECT sensor and I can't get her to stall now!

Really enjoying working on these Toyotas. Everything so far has been pretty straightforward and logical. And the trucks seem like they're designed to be worked on. In my Arnage or my wife's W140, so many things on those complex luxo boats is a dark art. Idk if any of you guys have become acquainted with the ASR light on old Mercedes'... but don't. Like ten different things it could be, you really need SDS to diagnose it and ain't none of it cheap.