I found this in a barn a few weeks ago. It is a 1986 Toyota diesel 5sp pickup with a camper. It is one owner and I think the guy had it imported from Japan. It has been sitting for 15 years and does not run or have a title. The previous owner passed away and the family has no interest in the truck. My assessment is that it was well cared for and with a little work it would run great. The current barn owner wants 3k for it. Since I cannot find one as a reference I thought I would ask you guys. My plan is to flip it so once I get it running I will need a little meat on the bone to make it worth the effort. Thank you for any advice.

 

I saw a trashed rusted out diesel pickup locally listed for $3k or $3500 something like that about 5 years ago. Looks like that one is in reasonable shape, but I'm not sure what kind of value it would have. The whole "diesel" part makes it very unique, but you should be able to look at gas truck prices and add a little and have an idea of the value I'd think. Pretty sure diesels here was only imported from Japan. There's a "25 year" rule for imported vehicles where anything older doesn't have to meet EPA (emissions, actually 21 year for this one) or DOT (crash test ratings) to be legal on the road. Check the normal spot for the VIN tag and see if it has a VIN. If it doesn't, there likely isn't a title for it and there should be paperwork from when it was imported that would be required to get it titled and legal for road use. In japan their VIN system is something like model number + chassis number.

I just went through some of this research on the Japanese Mini trucks (in Japan they are a kei class truck). I don't know what all of the paperwork is called, but without it, I'm not sure if it's possible to get a proper title for it. Might be possible to get it titled as a "home built" machine, kind of like a road legal dune buggy.

It doesn't look like the topper fits it very well, guessing it's from a ranger or something from the 80's, but photos can be bad at showing fitment at odd angles etc.

If you grab the model number, it can be decoded to see if it's a base, DLX, or SR5 according to the factory. Like some DLX's came with a tach even though people call them the SR5 gauge cluster (talking in respect to the gas version of course). I know next to nothing about the diesels and I don't think I have any wire diagrams or anything for them either, so repairs might be a little more challenging with out reference material, might have to import a repair manual where that truck was sold and hopefully an English version.

For a non-running truck, I personally think $3k is a bit on the high side, but if it got listed on facebook, it would probably sell. Also depends on your area, looks like rust isn't a major problem there. Interior for that era pickup is expensive to replace parts, they add up really fast. The big item being the passenger side dash pad commonly cracks. I have an 87+ style in gray, they run about $400 on ebay.

The trim package looks a little unique on it, maybe a Japan thing, over here we got chrome or black (painted chrome), looks like you have a mix of both if that's not just wear. Also I think those center caps are unique to that truck too, I don't recall the 86 plastic center caps looking quite like that. Cab looks a little different too, the black plastic behind the door handle area is solid metal on the other trucks, but the US trucks had a plast cover up higher about the height of the window. Almost looks like an older body style than the 84-88 pickups.

Just checked my pics of my 86 2wd long box and yea the styling is quite a lot different.



Looks like it has the older bodystyle, like 83 and older (79-83 I think?). I don't know much about the parts on those if that's the case for the interior, but probably even harder to get parts for. I've never seen an 83 or older pickup for sale locally, but I'm in the rust belt, they probably rusted away long ago.

 

Did some additional dig and it turns out it is a 1982 Toyota Hilux truck VIN#jt4ln44d5c0067345 Thank you so much for your insights. Very helpful

 

It has a VIN, so it should have had a title. That makes things a lot easier for the legal side of things, can request the current owners to apply for a lost title, here in Michigan it's $15 (assuming they have the truck titled in their name). They might need death cert and such if it's in the guy's name, not sure on all of the requirements for that. The owners *should* be willing to work with you on that, which will make it a titled vehicle and actually usable for the road. With the title, I probably could see the $3000 price point for the right person to fix up.

If they refuse to even attempt for the lost title which is by far the easiest route, there's also applying for an abandoned title. I don't know what all the requirements are, but after a vehicle has sat/been abandoned, someone else can apply for a title for it. Of course they will attempt to contact the last owner so if they won't try for the lost title route, I'd apply for the abandoned title before buying it encase they claim it's stolen etc (people are weird sometimes). If you do buy it before getting the title, make sure you get a bill of sale at a bare min, different states have different requirements, so I'd fill as many requirements as possible with the missing title. Make sure the bill of sale is actually a legal one, not just a wrote up one since you might need it as proof of ownership.

Anyway, I'd count the VIN on the vehicle a good sign, hopefully the current owners will apply for the lost title and actually legally sell it the correct way. Have to love the headache of paperwork for bigger toys.

FYI, it's possible for a vehicle (or trailer) to have a VIN, but no title. I recently bought a brand new trailer, and got a cert of origin, an invoice etc and a temp plate to drive it home from out of state. I was able to use it for a month with no title and the temp plate before it expired. Went to the SOS (DMV for other states) and gave them the paperwork and got my title in the mail and a trailer plate. The whole time the trailer did have a VIN.

 

Oh I should probably mention, I bought a barn find 1986 2wd standard box/cab truck with an insanely low mileage for parts. Story was the orig owner left it in their garage for 25+ years and the mileage was something like 37k miles. Body looked pretty good, had some wiring issues that the neighbor tried to fix (they got it from the orig owner first), so I fixed those right (swapped the part with a known good one) and the engine ran on the 25+ year old gas. Clearly not good to do that long but I was bottle feeding it and it came to life. Anyway about the level of the body as the very bottom of the doors had pretty heavy rust. The door seams were rusted apart, and basically every bolt on the frame/trans/engine were very rusty and just about all of them wanted to break for taking them loose. I got it cheap enough and 2wd is pretty undesirable in my area that I ended up parting it out. It had a 4 speed which is somewhat uncommon for that year, and a very high geared rear end (overall higher geared than the typical axle ratio and a 5 speed). It also was the base of the base trucks, everything manual, no ac, no slider, black trim, etc. Sold the dash pad, box, etc and easily 3-4x my investment on it. It was just like that one, window was left open and the interior had a racoon get in it and make things dirty (didn't really damage much).

I probably could have saved the truck and got it road worthy again, but I'd be looking at all new brake lines, fuel lines, drums, rotors, pads, shows, possible wheel cylinders/calipers, etc. Replacing all of that + initial cost + time/effort vs what similar condition trucks where selling for, it didn't make sense at the time to save it, so it lives on as parts in a bunch of other trucks. If it was an actual SR5, 4x4, or something desirable, I probably would have fixed it.

Long story short, vehicles that sit generally have a lot of rust problems, atleast relating to the brake parts and things down low and under the vehicle. Be sure to check that stuff out as it's a solid bargaining chip on the price if you don't mind the work. I can see on the box, there's a line of rust. The 86 era trucks had a seam around that area and the box rust generally started at the seam. Once they start going, it seems they rust fast.

 

Wow, you guys are fantastic. Thank you for all of your help. I live in KY so the title part is easy. Just give the guy at the DMV some bourbon and you get a new title for just about anything. All the filters and fluids are in great shape the last owner was meticulous. Might be a fun truck to keep. I bet I would be the only one in the US to own one.
Found another pic:

 

They are rare in the US, but not impossible to find. Possible you'd be the only one in Ohio, no close ports xD. Those trucks are very rugged, used like cray in 3rd world countries (Africa etc). Land cruisers are a step up but the pickups get abused like crazy over there too. I've read they've tried other brands and even though a land cruiser down there with 30k is like one here with 300k, the mercedes trucks only lasted around 10k (probably km instead of miles, so 60% of that, 6k miles!). Of course we have roads everywhere, no rivers to cross etc, so it's a pretty easy life for them here.


Here's what the roads in Africa are like (different areas have better/worse, I've read the Congo has the worst trails and the people there are the most tribal, I read about a couple that traveled through there with a land cruiser and had several break downs and got stuck a lot).

 

That is a cool truck. I would definitely be keeping it if it was me!

 

The truck needs a bath but the diesel looks to be very sold. Someone stole the radiator out of it. Do you guys think it will be hard to find a new radiator for it? Might have to roll the dice on this one.

 

If it's a manual, a gas manual radiator I'd think would be a match. have to look where the lower and upper hose is and see if the locations match up. Tube size and such can be adapted if needed but I'd assume they were the same size since the engines are similar sized.

 

It is a manual. Is a diesel cooling system different than gas? In theory, it should work.

 

The injector pump was the Achilles heel, and after sitting so long it might need new seals.
The LN wasn't common in the U.S. market, but not as rare as the diesel Camry or Corolla.
There's a plate on the firewall or inner fender that has the model#. Something like LN42L-xxxxxx
If the Model# ends in "A" than it was a US market vehicle.

 

Very helpful. Do you think it is worth 3k? Thanks

 

Hard to say. Back when using discarded deep fryer oil as fuel was all the rage those diesel Toyota’s were highly sought after.
A vehicle that can’t be test-driven typically has pretty value. It was parked for a reason, plus now all the stuff that has deteriorated from lack of use.
About the best thing you can do is evaluate it as best you can; frame, body parts, interior, etc. and see how much you could recover parting it out if it turns out to be a basket case.

 

they were brought into Canada from 81 ish to 87/88 , so not as rare here, might even be a Canadian model ?