FenderBender Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 Ok so I bought this truck because I needed alot of locking space for my tools when I was working as a carpenter. Now its the daily driver I despise. I figured one person in a thousand might see this truck and want the whole story. I have parts of it, no proof it's true it is all anecdotal evidence from the annals of the internet. It all started with the Hilux we all know and love. Now in the mid 80s the rest of the world had real deal crew cab Hilux trucks, the US did not. The two stories I heard were as follows: 1: Due to the luxury car tax of the time importing a four door crew cab would have made a cheap rugged pickup oddly expensive. 2: Toyota sales execs were not sure there was a market for crew cab trucks in the US. Now in 2019 we laugh because new trucks are all 4 door SUVS with half a bed slapped on. Either way Toyota wanted a pilot program. So they did 200 of these weirdos a year for three years. How'd they do it? They stretched the frame 30 inches with some box channel. Then they sent em to a fiberglass coach-works company out of Santa Monica where a deck was laid down and a half-@$$'d roll-bar bolted in. What did this do to the great Toyota drive train? Wrecked it. The single short driveshaft with nice slip spline action got replaced by a two piece with a carrier bearing. I'm not kidding the driveshaft is like 4 feet long. What did it do to its barley acceptable acceleration? Wrecked it. "My turd rainbow" has the miserable head gasket detonating 3.0 3VZE. it does not respond well to extra weight. What did it do to the rugged rigid frame? - ehh I'm too depressed to keep going. Why is it called a "turd rainbow"? because most of them were tan with a nasty brown lighting bolt or rainbow stripe. At least mine came in cool colors. Thanks all for hearing me rant about it. -There is a reason I own a Comanche now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatslug87 Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 Wow, it's crazy Toyota actually made that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankTheDog Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 Eww! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 I want to remind everyone of that one off extended cab Comanche proto that exists somewhere. (Edit) I can't seem to find it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87MJTIM Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 A friend has a Toyota camper van. Looks similar to a Class C camper built on a Toyota pickup frame. I also saw a similar camper at a campground storage lot recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NHMJXJ Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 Yeah, the bed cap didn't improve the line much either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertRat1991 Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 Got interior pics? Curious about the rear leg room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 There's guys on IHateMud and Pirate4x4 that would probably trade you their life savings for that thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 I had a good look at it. Rad truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenderBender Posted June 6, 2019 Author Share Posted June 6, 2019 I do have some interior pictures none with the original bench seat. I ditched it and threw 600W of stereo in it. I ditched the bench because even being somewhat lean and 18 at the time my friends nor I could get back there without an effort. Once you were back there it was like 90's Subaru cramped not bad not good either. So the original bench sat right where my Husky is You can see I left the little arm rest pads on the outrigger for the rollbar. I'll have to check to see abut the pirate 4x4 guys. There is one of these up on craigslist right now in the Denver metro. It's not moving. Mine was up for a bit, I priced it way too high, (something I'm prone to doing). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenderBender Posted June 6, 2019 Author Share Posted June 6, 2019 6 hours ago, NHMJXJ said: Yeah, the bed cap didn't improve the line much either. No it did not... Whats worse is when you jab the throttle it causes the cap to hit the fiberglass growth and makes a horrible rattle. ON the plus side you can fit a bunch of drywall in there and keep it mostly dry in the winter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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