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advice on buying a toyota truck

I'm looking at a 1987 4x4 Xcab Toyota, 290,000kms, needs a head gasket and some exhaust work. Buddy will let it go for $1000. The body's in good shape, a little rust in the wheel wells but overall damn good for the age and where I am (lots of salt in the winters). My question is, given that I can buy the truck for a grand, and my estimates for replacing head gasket and timing belt as well as putting on a new pipe/muffler come out to around another grand, is this truck worth it for $2000 canadian?

Is there anything specific I should look for when I go give it a real close look tomorrow afternoon? I'm thinking if my mechanic can get the engine going for around the $1000 mark I may as well buy it. I'd do the work myself but I've no garage to work in and it's starting to snow here :/

Thanks for any advice,

Isaac

Reply to
isaac
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Really check out the rust around the wheel wells. This vintage is known for bad undercoating on the truck bed. The first one that I had, the rust that showed up on the outside was actually coming all the way through the metal from the underside. In the end, I could poke my finger through the metal in a few places...

Cappy

Reply to
Cappy

Check how bad the frame rust is. I had one that you could squeeze the frame between your fingers and feel it give.

Reply to
Butzmark

You're thinking body and engine. Good comments about rust. What about the drive train? How many u-joints? shocks? Brakes? Heater? Radiator? If you put $4000 in it, you'll still have a rusty old truck. Not terrible, it just depends on you and what you want to drive. what could you buy for $5000 needing a bit less work?

Reply to
Alex

Good points, all of them. After talking to a few mechanics I've come to the conclusion that if it was really only going to be a head gasket needed then the guy would do it himself and sell it for twice as much. I called him on it and his reply was "well I was always going to put in a new motor."

Seems like something I should avoid :)

The search continues...

Cheers everyone,

Isaac

Reply to
isaac

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