There’s no doubt old pickup trucks are bullish commodities in the old car hobby.
That’s why you’re seeing more and more of them at car shows—so many of them truck guys should lobby to call them car (and truck) shows.
Import trucks are part of this trend because Gen X and younger generations grew up with smaller trucks as part of their culture.
Jerry Sutherland
William Vida owns this 1988 Toyota pickup and one of his favorite games at car shows is “Name That Truck”. He said many people struggle with that question because there are no obvious badges on the truck that tell you it’s a Toyota.
William bought this truck “by accident” after his wife showed him the ad for the Toyota. He said he looked at it and said, “That’s hilarious—I’m going to buy it”. She didn’t take him seriously until William brought the classic import home.
You should always have goals for projects and William had a simple one—get it ready for a major local car show. There was a list to get it ready and most of them were mechanical. William said he likes “patina cars”, so he wasn’t worried about the paint on his newly purchased Toyota truck. William also said he, “Appreciates guys who can do a complete restoration”, but that wasn’t in his plans.
He started by placing the bench seat back in the cab of the truck. William thought it was more appropriate because he wanted to keep some of the factory look with this truck despite its obvious custom appearance.
William also sprayed the dash in bed liner to give it a custom crinkled look, and it worked out great. It made the cracked dash look 100% better.
The front end was another big concern to William. He wanted to make sure this truck was perfectly safe, so he went over everything from seals to replacing parts to make this truck a reliable driver.
The professionally-done custom removable roof is another big feature of this 1988 Toyota. The previous owner did it and it works, but William prefers the open top experience, so that’s how he runs it—in nice weather.
There’s a factory 22R Toyota engine under the hood, and that’s all William needs. He explained how he, “doesn’t need speed in this one”, because he has plenty of it in other vehicles he owns. This truck is his fun vehicle—not his track vehicle.
William also appreciated how the last guy, “left this truck alone”, so he’s not running into bizarre, non-factory nightmares. Anyone who’s done a project will respect that statement.
This 1988 Toyota truck is a lesson in cost efficiency because William didn’t pay a lot for it, and he hasn’t spent much to get to this point. He’s not counting the three-week thrash to make it show-worthy but there’s a bigger lesson in this truck as William explained.
“I wanted to show young people you can do it on a budget, so they’d get into the hobby”.
William Vida
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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