Junkyard Find: 1981 Toyota Pickup, Scrap Hunter Edition
The third-generation Toyota Hilux, sold in the United States as the Toyota Truck or Toyota Pickup (remember, this is the extremely un-frivolous company that, even today, sells a luxury sedan called the LS), achieved legend status very early in its career. An 800,000-mile example will be equally comfortable hauling a dozen or two Taliban fighters through the wilds of North Waziristan or a ton of discarded bicycles and box-springs through the streets of San Jose.
Here’s one of the latter occupation, spotted last spring in a self-service yard in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Because this truck hauled scrap in the San Francisco Bay Area, the entrepreneur driving it included the word “green” in his flyers.
It sports a sturdy, well-made cargo cage, enabling no-doubt-precarious loads-O-junk to be piled high while making its rounds.
I’m guessing about the 800,000-mile part, because the odometer only goes up to 99,999.9 miles before turning over. Maybe the ol’ Toyota has 184,999 miles, maybe it has 984,999 miles.
The automatic transmission was a very unusual option in these trucks, or for any small pickup during the Malaise Era.
The baby shoe and rosary hanging from the rear-view mirror suggests that the operator of this truck was a Catholic family man.
Unusually, the standard-size 2-1/16″ voltmeter hadn’t been grabbed yet when I photographed this truck. I have several stockpiled, mostly VDOs, so I left this one in the yard.
Someone had snatched up the 20R engine, though; you’d think that a lower-mile donor, such as a Celica of the same era, would have been a better bet to have a lot of life left.
Washers, dryers, whatever!
Toyota trucks, built with Toyota quality!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Why not drive that extra mile to reach X85,000? Mini trucks like this were all the rage when I was in HS in the 80s. Mostly Mazda B2200 lowered on tiny wheels and covered in various graphics with neon under them and two 12" subwoofers behind the seats. My buddies all had them because back then trucks where the cheapest vehicles on the lot. They were bullet proof, got good mileage and the insurance was low too. While they were slow they were still RWD thus were ideal for tearing up your ex-girlfriend's front yard.
A massive heavy cage at the back, thrashy 3 speed auto and the mighty 4Y engine with 45 kW of raw power - watch out for neck sprain !