1980 Toyota Hilux Longbed 4x4

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TenaciousTJ

Explorer
Just picked this up today. It's a 1980 longbed with power steering, tilt wheel, custom paint, alpine deck, LineX'd bed, stainless headers, weber carb, 20R motor, 4sp transmission, and power Grand Cherokee leather seats. It's a great truck and I plan to keep it in better condition than my last 3 Toyota trucks. I have a fully kitted JK Rubicon and M416 for long distance travels, so this will serve daily driver duties and short trips up to the nearby snow or day trip kind of stuff. Really only looking to do a mild lift, 33s or 35s, bumpers, sliders, winch, and CB radio in addition to replacing some interior parts. If you have any 79-83 hilux parts you're looking to sell, let me know!

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T

TenaciousTJ

Explorer
By the way, I've been out of the Toyota game for a really really long time. So if you have a good sources for the gen1 truck parts, please post them. Need lots of little interior odds and ends, and bumpers.


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J

JWP58

Guest
Very awesome pickup. Dont care for the color but it looks clean...
 
T

tanglefoot

ExPoseur
It's beautious! I think that respray color really works!

They look so good and drive so well on stock-size tires and those wheels are a perfect match--you can always just sand and respray them. I find it hard to watch people modify classic examples like this. Stock is hawt!
 
Martinjmpr

Martinjmpr

Wiffleball Batter
Gorgeous!

Paint is obviously new - one thing about those older Toyota trucks, the beds rust like all get out. The story I've heard on the rusty beds is this: Some time back in the 1960's, a punitive tarriff was put on all trucks imported from Japan (and other countries but I'm not sure which ones.) It's called the "Chicken tax" (I guess because it was in retaliation for some kind of tarriff that these countries put on chicken imported from the US? I don't know and I'm too lazy to google it. ;) )

Anyway, the trick is that the tax was only applied if the truck was imported in fully assembled condition, so what Toyota would do is import a cab/chassis to the US and then put a US-made bed on it. This also explains, BTW, why the beds on our trucks look different from the ones sold in other countries.

The rub is that the galvanizing on the US-made beds was of lesser quality, and they are very prone to rusting. Even here in dry CO, it's very common to see a 94 - earlier Toyota truck that is pristine from the front bumper to the back of the cab and a rusty horror story from the bed on back.

I have a question about that truck, BTW. Was the power steering added on later? Reason I ask is that having a 4 speed tranny it's probably not an SR5 model (I think all the SR5's got 5 speeds) and I know my 85 Toyota 4x4 pickup did NOT have power steering.
 
C-Fish

C-Fish

Adventurer
Nice truck, brings back memories...My first NEW vehicle was a yellow 1981 Longbed 4x4 SR5 model.

I added a shell, tube bumper, 33's and a leaf pack to the front to level it. :smiley_drive:

Only downside to the truck was lack of power on the steep grades up to Payson or Flagstaff.
 
T

TenaciousTJ

Explorer
It's my understanding the power steering is the way the truck rolled off the assembly line. The bed is in great condition from what I can tell.


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