I have done plenty of entries on my Evolutions and all the modifications and events that they have had, but my daily driver is a 1992 Toyota Pickup truck that I’ve owned for ten years. This truck has provided me with regular transportation and the ability to go to a home and garden center and load up with just about anything. It has even carried a half a ton of gravel that was spread under my deck. It gets about 26 miles per gallon around town and has received a lot of TLC from me in terms of maintenance.
I have replaced the ball joints and tie rod ends. The front brakes have been done at least three times and the rear drums once. The master cylinder has been replaced a couple of times and the brake system is flushed every year. Along with regular oil changes I have put on two sets of shocks on the truck. The first were Tokico and just a couple of months ago they were replaced by a set of Bilsteins.
The original vinyl seat was cracked and sagging so for a little over $400 I had the seat recovered and built up again. The steering wheel was replaced by a Grant GT.
This truck was built in December of 1991 and sold to its first owner in New Orleans shortly there after. It was the absolute base model truck with no options except for air conditioning.
That means no power steering, which is a shock to those that I let borrow it.
The original gauge cluster just had a speedometer so I switched it out for a used cluster that had a tachometer and real gauges, not just idiot lights. I had to run a wire to the coil for the tach and replace the oil pressure switch with an oil pressure sensor.
There was no right hand mirror on the passenger side so I found one to match the drivers side. The inside rear view mirror wasn’t a day/night so I picked up one from a salvage yard.
The rear window was replaced by one with a slider so that it would have flow through ventilation.
The exhaust system has been replaced twice.
Due to the loads I was carrying at times I put in a set of helper springs to assist the rear leaf springs.
The radio and speakers are a set that I bought for $100 from Crutchfield.
The second owner was my sister who was looking to trade in the truck back in 2000, but couldn’t get much for it so I traded her a used laptop computer for it and both of us were happy.
Now the original paint has faded and I have bitten the bullet and decided to have the truck repainted.
It will cost a lot more than the truck is worth, but a lot cheaper than buying a replacement. I am having the work done by a place in Raleigh called B-Macs that normally does frame-off restorations.
Not that I’m have the truck restored, no, I just want a good job done and these are the guys to do it.
Here are some “before” photos. I’ll let you know how it comes out.
Front view with the faded original paint
The rear view - it will be getting a new tailgate, but no bumper
JIM'S GARAGE 
That’s great Jim! I’m sure she will look great and you’re right, no reason to replace her!
And you forgot that you re-wired the headlights too 😉
I did not see in the post about the work you have done with the engine. I was really impressed with the increased performance that you were able to add to the p/u with the swap.
Quite right Jay. A couple of years ago the original 22-RE engine was getting weak and pushing oil past the rings. I found a good rebuilt long block and installed it with Mark’s help. The result was a bunch of power that had faded over the years and miles getting back in the truck.
My hat is off to you, sir, for giving your truck all this love!
That’s a great story. I work with a man who has almost 300,000 on his Nissan. The original V-6 has never been opened and still runs great. Myself, I have a ’96 Sonoma bought used at 85,000 miles for $3400. I have driven it for the past 7.5 years and have treated it badly at times. It saved my life one night which is a story unto itself. The truck still runs great despite it having a head gasket which has slow leaked outward from the time I bought it. It also has no A/C now but it runs great. The original 2.2 is still strong as ever. I have replaced it with a buddy deal on a ’97 Sierra with a 4.3 V-6 5 speed manual tranny and thank goodness the A/C works in it! Here in Texas having no A/C is a challenge in the middle of the summer. Needless to say, the dexcool/bad gasket of GM is a problem with them all, even the “new” Sierra and my wife’s Alero.
Jim,
Are you going to have the door handles shaved? French the plate into the tailgate? Flames with pinstrips? Add Dubs and it would be totally done.
Probably as likely as your putting 22″ chrome wheels on your E46.
Something about maintaining something and not replacing it is very satisfying.
I bought my 99 Dakota new on December 16th of 1998. So I’ve almost had it 12 years, and it is the most overly maintained vehicle I’ve owned. Sadly, thanks to my Can AM Spyder, the Dakota only got 1000 miles put on last year, and I’m afraid that with it sitting for two weeks at a time with no use that it is introducing some maintenance issues as well. While I’d love some of the new trucks in my driveway, I do not have the heart to replace this one. I’ll likely own it another five years or better at this rate. At least the 99’s still had the old 5.9 block shaved down to 3.9 and I can work on it fairly easily myself.