Hey all. So I've loved the 89-95 Toyota 4x4, extended cab, since I first noticed them in the mid-late 90s. Talked to a couple people who owned them over the years and just thought they sounded great.

I bought my first one in 2000 - a '91, but right from the start things weren't right. I knew the clutch was going out, but let the seller convince me otherwise. A month later, I replaced the clutch. A month after that were the shocks. Three months later, the crank was bent and it needed a new engine. Then, once I'd saved enough to replace the engine, I got a call at work telling me that someone had set it on fire. Total loss.

I came back around and bought my second one at the end of 2009 - a '92 with 296,000 miles on it and not a small amount of rust. But it ran, and only cost me $2000. I thought it was a good deal. Unfortunately, someone else felt the same way. Less than two months later, I came back from running an errand with the wife to find it had been stolen.

So now it's 2016, and rather than find a cheap beater for my mother-in-law that my wife would accept, I've given her my car to drive and bought another '91. She's a bit rough around the edges - the parking brake doesn't work, the #3 cylinder has low compression, the Freon is low and the paint is worn. But she's a lovely V6 with 163k miles on her for all of $1700.

I'm hoping to get some insight from the people here who have done it before. I don't want to trick it out into any type of show truck - she's not a farm truck, but I always seem to have plenty of odd jobs that need doing. But I want to have her look and run solid and get a bit of that "wow" factor when people see her.

What little I already know about cars has been learned through books, YouTube and trial & error; about the hardest thing I've done is replace the alternator on a '99 Passat. So thanks in advance for those of you who are willing to field my dumbest questions and help me make this truck the one I teach my pre-school children how to drive a stick with.

 

Damn the bad luck with the previous 2 trucks. Hopefully this one stays with you for the long haul.

Id honestly recommend some kind of anti theft device.

 

It's absolutely near the top of my list. Fortunately, I live in a much better area now than I did then. Much, much smaller town, too.

I think I need to look into upgrading the door panels/locks in general. As is, the driver's side won't open except from the outside.