Another 80 thread: Project Little Green Sprout

[89s rule]

I have been wanting to get a new vehicle for our family.

Well I saw an 80 on eBay. With 31K original miles! I had been watching it for most of the week, but figured it would go higher than I wanted to spend. An hour after checking the auction again and talking with the owner on the phone I bid and won it! Great, not I have to drive 9hrs and get it back here.

I thought that Little Green Sprout fit since its a baby by LC standards (31K miles), its green, and I want it to stay a somewhat small build.

Trip to get it was interesting we ended up picking it up on Monday the 30th. We left out Sunday around 2pm (After seeing craptacular @ Zaxby's, small world.) We hit a bunch of rain in Montgomery.

Ended up staying in Pensacola, FL Sunday night. Headed out around 9. Got over to Slidell, LA around 11.

The guy who owned it was the GM of Toyota of Slidell. He owned it for about 2 years and they needed to sale b/c of some legal issues with thier house. The original owner was in his 80s and owned 11 or 12 vehicles. Guy told me he bought a new vehicle every time he thought about cheating on his wife.
This 80 was his boat vehicle and stayed hooked up most of the time to his boat. Unfortunately this has caused some sun damage.
- Clear coat on hood and roof, crack in the dash, worn leather in the front, etc.
We looked it over and then took it for a spin. Then headed into get the paper work finished. I asked the owner why didnt he just put it on the lot to sale it. He said that he wanted to get $10.9K for it and he knew he needed a larger audience, so he put it on eBay. He said his wife lowered the reserve without him knowing. SO I got it for $3K less than he wanted.
I took the pictures above and this one before we pulled out.

We headed to New Orleans since we were only 20 min for othere and my friend had never been. We also wanted to get some good food. After asking around on the LA Mud boards and the owner and we ended up going to Port of Call. They all said they had the best burgers in NO, and they were great!!

Another random NO shot:

On the way back home

We had a blow out in my friends Civic and got it changed rather quickly, although it didnt have much air in it, thank goodness he had some fixaflat to get enough into it to stop at the next exit. We were only 20 miles outside of Montgomery so after filling up the spare we made it to a Sears in time for them to put on a new tire. The Sears was in a mall so we walked around the mall and got some food. (They had a ice skating rink in the mall.) We left there around 9 and then filled up one last time in LaGrange.

Pulled into Hwy 24 exit outside of Anderson, SC and had a license check. After assuring them we had no weed or open containers. Explaining the LA temp tag, etc we were on our way. Ended up pullin in around 3am. Man was I tired, but it went well.

I averaged around 15.5 mpg while running 80mph most of the trip.


Plans:
Hoping to stay more Expedition style with this build. More family friendly and dont really want to do more than some local NC trails our club runs, since thats the kind of stuff I enjoy.

In the garage:
850/863 OME Heavies - Front spacers if needed.
Lowrance Baja 540c
Norcold 40L


Still need/planning:
Paint Hood/Roof
ARB front
OME or Bilstein shocks
New tires 255/85 or 285/75's
New Head unit (CD doesnt work)
Power inverter (mounted in 1/4 panel or under front seat)
Dual Batteries
Tuff Duck front seatcovers and floor liners front middle & rear?


So like everyone else who has found all of these low mileage 80's lately. I know its not perfect, but for what I wanted and needed I think I got a great deal. Now to slowly build, and hope I can sell my 62.

 

[calfj60]

looks like a great find and a cool story to go along with it...enjoy the green I know I do.. always had light colored vehciles before..something different

 

[SpillmanCruiser]

Nice find. Now I'm pissed I didn't see that one so close to home I don't recall you saying what year it is.--my bad a 93 in your sig.

 

[Sanchez]

Awsome find man!

Congrats!

 

[Ting]

Congrat and does it have locker?

 

[89s rule]

Congrat and does it have locker?

No lockers...for this amount of mileage and this price I couldn't argue. I'm not planning on wheeling this one near as much as my 62. This will be more for family trips, mild trails/Forest service roads, and camping, etc. Now if I run ito a set of locked axles for cheap, that might be another story, but getting an ARB and a few other things are top priority.

I need to get some more pictures up, will do in the next week, hopefully sooner.

 

[pint]

Nice find! Good luck with the build.

 

[Atticus]

Since it needs to be repainted anyway, get rid of that crap green and paint it olive drab or something similar.


And you're right; Alabama IS beautiful.

 

[cruiserdan]

Since it needs to be repainted anyway, get rid of that crap green

 

[Ivan80]

Since it needs to be repainted anyway, get rid of that crap green and paint it olive drab or something similar.

I see broken parts in Atticus' future.

 

[cruiserdan]

He's not afraid of me.....

 

[89s rule]

Since it needs to be repainted anyway, get rid of that crap green and paint it olive drab or something similar.


And you're right; Alabama IS beautiful.

Really? Paint a 30K mile original LC Olive Drab? Sorry not going to happen. Hood and roof will be repainted, possibly remove the stock rack, but a little worried about headliner, etc. Want to do it right if I am going to have it done. I plan to keep this forever, but want most everything to be bolt on, at least for now. I figure I am ahead on value for once in a vehicle, might as well not mess it up. Its just too nice.

Besides I like the olive green. And who else has a project lil sprout?

 

[Atticus]

Really? Paint a 30K mile original LC Olive Drab? Sorry not going to happen. Hood and roof will be repainted, possibly remove the stock rack, but a little worried about headliner, etc. Want to do it right if I am going to have it done. I plan to keep this forever, but want most everything to be bolt on, at least for now. I figure I am ahead on value for once in a vehicle, might as well not mess it up. Its just too nice.

Besides I like the olive green. And who else has a project lil sprout?

De gustibus non est disputandum. BUT, if you are doing this as an investment, then:















best of luck with that.

Besides, even though the truck has few original miles, it does have a lot of years, which means that, after you paint the hood and the roof, it won't really match the rest of the truck. So, this situation really calls for a complete and thorough repaint and clear coat. Ask Cruiserdan about it; I imagine that he would agree. Sooooooooooooooooooo.........since you're going to have the paint the whole thing anyway, you might as well paint it something cool. Like Olive Drab.

 

[sseaman]

sweet find

 

[cruiserdan]

Besides, even though the truck has few original miles, it does have a lot of years, which means that, after you paint the hood and the roof, it won't really match the rest of the truck. So, this situation really calls for a complete and thorough repaint and clear coat. Ask Cruiserdan about it; I imagine that he would agree. Sooooooooooooooooooo.........since you're going to have the paint the whole thing anyway, you might as well paint it something cool. Like Olive Drab.

Jay has a very valid point. 6M1 is a difficult color to spot paint and in addition Toyota's refinsh protocol is to paint un-broken panels in their entirety and blend the adjacent panels. That means paining the roof will also require that both quarter panels be painted (since there is no seam between them and the roof) and the upper tail gate gets blended. Painting the hood means blending the cowl and both fenders.

That leaves the doors and the lower tailgate. You might as well paint the whole truck.

 

[wob]

the whole thing anyway, you might as well paint it something cool. Like Olive Drab.

I'm thinking desert dune is in the future for my white 80.

 

[89s rule]

Jay has a very valid point. 6M1 is a difficult color to spot paint and in addition Toyota's refinsh protocol is to paint un-broken panels in their entirety and blend the adjacent panels. That means paining the roof will also require that both quarter panels be painted (since there is no seam between them and the roof) and the upper tail gate gets blended. Painting the hood means blending the cowl and both fenders.

That leaves the doors and the lower tailgate. You might as well paint the whole truck.

If you dont mind me asking, how much did that cost Dan?

We will see when the time comes. Its not an investment, I know better than that, but its definately not getting painted any drab color. Its an 80, which I bought because of the comfort and ability and the miles.

I will get it checked out in reguards to the paint being matched, but I dont plan on having the entire vehicle painted, unless its not that much more $. I kinda like the green metallic as dark green is my 2nd fav color. (Fav is orange, and no its not getting painted orange.) If I got the whole thing painted, I am not sure I would want to wheel it for fear of scratchin it up. I just want it to look better without the faded out hood. I would like it to look like a 32K mile truck, instead of the 15 YO truck that it is.

If anyone wants a truck to paint olive drab and wheel then buy my 62.

If I had to pick a color for an 80 and it didnt matter I would probably go with moonglow grey/silver? I think its called, or the sage green 40th. Those are sweet colors.

Now someone sell me their ARB.

 

[mobi-arc]

Paint the roof white.....blending issue solved.

 

[cruiserdan]

A job like that will vary depending on how much of it you do yourself. If you hand it off completely assembled and the shop de-trims it as far as I took it down and puts it back togther it will run in the neighborhood of ~6,000 bucks. If you de-trim most of it yourself and put it back togther after it's painted you can chop quite a bit of the expense out. There is probably ~25 hours labor time to de-trim and reassemble, times whatever the shop hourly rate is.

 

[89s rule]

A job like that will vary depending on how much of it you do yourself. If you hand it off completely assembled and the shop de-trims it as far as I took it down and puts it back togther it will run in the neighborhood of ~6,000 bucks. If you de-trim most of it yourself and put it back togther after it's painted you can chop quite a bit of the expense out. There is probably ~25 hours labor time to de-trim and reassemble, times whatever the shop hourly rate is.

Wow, I think I will paint an antiglare strip on the hood fo rthat kind of $. I will get quotes hopefully in the next few months. Then go from there. I was figuring I could get the hood and roof painted for $500 or so. It doesnt have to be perfect, but I dont want MAACO either. We have a few leads around our club, so I will see what I might be able to work out. Thanks for the advice on the paint.

White roof isnt going to work, its a 80 not a 40 series. Seen it and not a fan at all, just plain awkward.

People Line-X the roof to cover up the holes for the roofrack and what other reason? Wouldnt that make it harder to clean?

$6K sure could buy alot of PM items, mods and gas.