Said to be from Arizona and having had one repaint while with the original owner, an unknown number of years ago, this 1978 Toyota long-bed pickup looks like a nice example. It’s been hiding away for a few years, and it looks pretty well-preserved. It’s posted here on eBay in Concord, California, and they’re asking $6,000, or you can make an offer.
Fancy! White wall tires and full wheel covers, jeepers/criminy, who was the former owner, J.D. Rockefeller?! Enough of that. I like the look, I don’t know if we’ve seen a lot of Japanese pickups with white wall tires and full wheel covers. The seller says they bought this truck from the original owner in Scottsdale, Arizona three years ago and have had it in storage ever since.
That’s one long bed, at least for a Toyota pickup, at seven feet. Even with the longer bed, this truck is only 15′-4″ long. They show this truck in all sorts of scenarios, in a storage unit, on a trailer, and outside. Here’s what the bed looks like inside.
This is a second-generation Toyota pickup, which was made from May 1972 until July 1978. The much more modern third-gen trucks took over from there. I believe this color is called Medium Blue, and they say it received a repaint sometime during the original owner’s time with the truck. It looks nice and solid, and they say it’s never been driven on salty roads. They say it’s “Almost RUST FREE!” The interior looks nicer than I thought it would. The seller was kind enough to send me a photo of the interior, as there weren’t any in the listing. I see three cracks in the top of the dash, and the seat vinyl is a little wrinkly, but otherwise, it looks nice inside.
The engine is Toyota’s 20R, as you can see. That’s a 2.2-liter SOHC inline-four with 95 horsepower and 120 lb-ft of torque when new. Backed by an L43 4-speed manual transmission sending power to the rear wheels, they mention that it hasn’t been started in the three years they’ve had it in storage. I’m assuming 98% of Barn Finds readers could get it humming like a sewing machine in no time. Power brakes with discs in front are standard, and this would be a fun truck to get running again and use as a truck without worrying about the paint. It looks good to me as it is. Would any of you use this Toyota truck for truck duties?
It boggles the mind that we now use penis extending 1/2 ton 10 mpg Ford Raptors to do the same thing as this little pickup.
What is crazy is that one time, this was all the pickup you needed. I had one in the early 80’s. It was efficient, fun to drive and did everything I needed very well. It didn’t have air or power anything. It towed my watercraft and carried my plywood or hay. I kept it for many years. But towing a larger horse trailer became a problem and eventually I moved up to the square body chevy dually which did that well, but at a terrible economic cost. So the Chevy sat and the Toyota got worn out.
I now have a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500. It is functional, comfortable and gets 25 MPG, but for 90% of my work this Toyota would do just as well.
This one is in exceptional condition, it is hard to believe one still exists .