advice on buying a toyota truck

Dec 05, 2005 4 Replies
I

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



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C

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

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B

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

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A

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?

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I

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

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