-snip-
but as my old pickup is not getting any younger
Great pictures and welcome.
I have a similar vintage truck as yours, but I'm a few years older (35 right now). I will admit that if you can afford to flog a newer truck, it's nice not having to spend your week nights after work fixing all the little dinky stuff for the weekends. Eventually all trucks break down and so it's a matter of money and time in the end, if you have enough money then you probably don't have the time. I must have screwed up somewhere because I don't have enough of either. ;-) Nice thing about the 3rd gen 4WD Hilux is that Toyota made them well enough and there's a million of them around, so parts and experience are not hard to come by.