Giving an old Toyota a new life is wildly rewarding. I know, I know. Most of you already knew this, but as much fun as fixing up our Cruiser has been, saving this Pickup has been oddly more satisfying. It couldn't replace our Cruiser, by any stretch, but it's scratching an itch I didn't even know I had. Time for some back story!
My folks live up in Idaho, and at the bottom of their hill sat a little Pickup, that has been rotting away since the husband passed away back in 2012. Before that, it's life was mostly spent being a farm truck, and I can remember seeing George drive it up and down our hill, most of my childhood, on his way to do chores. I've always said how cool it would be to get it and fix it up, but it's always stopped there at wishful thinking. Halfway through reading a build thread by the venerable @wngrog, I was like F it. I'm going to get that little truck, and save it. I called my dad, and put him on the hunt to talk to the wife, and express our interest in it. He finally ran into her at the only grocery store in their small town, and asked her if she'd ever consider selling it. She never said no, but invited him to come check it out some time. One week later, this is what he sends me:
I quickly responded, "Dad, I need that truck."
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and we were dragging it up the hill behind my dad's Tundra. Thank goodness for the rodent repellents, as the inside wasn't disgusting. Gross, but not disgusting. Once to my parent's house, we changed the oil, which was a nice dark shade of green, pulled the plugs, dropped some oil into each cylinder, and pulled the gas line between the fuel pump and the carb. We ran a tube from the pump to an empty jug, and fingers crossed, attempted to turn it over, still with the plugs out.
Starter spun just fine, and after a few cranks, gas started coming out of the pump. It was clear, but just smelt like bad gas. We put the plugs back in, and dropped some fresh gas in the carb to see if it would fire. Fingers crossed again, I hit the starter. Almost immediately, it fired right up and ran! At least, until the gas we dropped in the carb ran out. Huge, dumb grins on our face, we dropped more in. Fired up again, not missing a beat. This whole time, the pump was pushing the bad gas out, into our little jug. Still clear, just stinky. But not rancid, I should mention. I've definitely smelt worse. At this point, my dad was like, let's fill the tank, with fresh gas, and run it! There was hardly any in there anyways, so we added about 6 gallons of ethanol free into the tank, and gave it a whirl. I climbed back in, and after a couple of cranks it fired up and ran. No miss, smooth as can be. It idles high, at about 1200, but we weren't about to start fidgeting with a carb that was happy enough to run. We topped off the coolant, let it idle until it got to operating temp, and piled in to drive around the block. I don't know what hurt more, my back from the tired suspension, or my face from the dumb grin that was still on it.
My folks live up in Idaho, and at the bottom of their hill sat a little Pickup, that has been rotting away since the husband passed away back in 2012. Before that, it's life was mostly spent being a farm truck, and I can remember seeing George drive it up and down our hill, most of my childhood, on his way to do chores. I've always said how cool it would be to get it and fix it up, but it's always stopped there at wishful thinking. Halfway through reading a build thread by the venerable @wngrog, I was like F it. I'm going to get that little truck, and save it. I called my dad, and put him on the hunt to talk to the wife, and express our interest in it. He finally ran into her at the only grocery store in their small town, and asked her if she'd ever consider selling it. She never said no, but invited him to come check it out some time. One week later, this is what he sends me:
I quickly responded, "Dad, I need that truck."
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and we were dragging it up the hill behind my dad's Tundra. Thank goodness for the rodent repellents, as the inside wasn't disgusting. Gross, but not disgusting. Once to my parent's house, we changed the oil, which was a nice dark shade of green, pulled the plugs, dropped some oil into each cylinder, and pulled the gas line between the fuel pump and the carb. We ran a tube from the pump to an empty jug, and fingers crossed, attempted to turn it over, still with the plugs out.
Starter spun just fine, and after a few cranks, gas started coming out of the pump. It was clear, but just smelt like bad gas. We put the plugs back in, and dropped some fresh gas in the carb to see if it would fire. Fingers crossed again, I hit the starter. Almost immediately, it fired right up and ran! At least, until the gas we dropped in the carb ran out. Huge, dumb grins on our face, we dropped more in. Fired up again, not missing a beat. This whole time, the pump was pushing the bad gas out, into our little jug. Still clear, just stinky. But not rancid, I should mention. I've definitely smelt worse. At this point, my dad was like, let's fill the tank, with fresh gas, and run it! There was hardly any in there anyways, so we added about 6 gallons of ethanol free into the tank, and gave it a whirl. I climbed back in, and after a couple of cranks it fired up and ran. No miss, smooth as can be. It idles high, at about 1200, but we weren't about to start fidgeting with a carb that was happy enough to run. We topped off the coolant, let it idle until it got to operating temp, and piled in to drive around the block. I don't know what hurt more, my back from the tired suspension, or my face from the dumb grin that was still on it.
I don't really have a super good picture of them.
