I've been meaning to do this for about a month now, but I've been busy.
I picked up a Teal/Grey Typhoon about this time last month. I just happened to stumble into it. I made plans to head to Phoenix to look at a Red/Grey one, but while laying in bed browsing craigslist the night before I found an ad that was very vague, but essentially said that he had parts from a 28k mile Ty. I got ahold of him the next morning as I was just about to look at the red one. I asked what parts he had and he told me he had a complete truck minus 3 items - front bumper assembly and both rear corners.
Which then led to my next question, "what color is the truck?" His response was "Teal/Grey." I was NOT excited about a teal truck, but decided that because of the mileage that I would go look at it.
This is essentially what I showed up to. The only difference being that all of the stuff that you see on the ground was piled on top of, around and underneath of the truck. I poked my head in and the Odo read 27,177. Whoa..!
In talking with the guy, he was the original owner. He and is now ex-wife bought it new, she drove it daily for a bit. It then became a weekend/fun car until around 2003-2004 when they separated. He moved out and got to keep it in the divorce, but didn't have anywhere to store it. So, it sat outside at his place of employment for ~5 years. He then purchased a house with a 3 car garage and drove it to his new digs and parked it in the third bay of his garage. It sat there for another 5 years or so until he decided it was time to move on. Luckily, I was able to talk him into selling me the entire truck and as it turned out, I really liked the color.
Here it is after I dragged it up on the trailer..
I finally got the thing home and tucked away in the garage so I could get started on getting it running again.
Got it running and back on all fours, so I gave it an unnecessary wash. I drove it daily like this for 2 weeks while I spent some time cleaning the interior and flushing fluids. I ended up having to pull the tank because the gasket had dried out, but that wasn't a big deal. It was a little challenging to do alone, though..
So once I got everything set in terms of maintenance I turned my attention to the body. The interior is perfect, so I didn't have anything to do there except for re-tint the windows. Anyway, back to the body... I had gotten a few quotes to have it done as a side job, but I wasn't too excited about the idea of possibly being stuck with whatever they felt was satisfactory. I needed to take my wifes Camry in for some work after we had been rear ended and was able to negotiate a decent deal for dropping off both cars. It happened a little faster than I had planned, but it needed to be done.
Here it is as they're finishing up taking it down to the metal. This had to be done because the factory paint was flaking off on the areas that had been facing the sun without any protection.
They've got the whole thing in primer currently, but I didn't take any pictures of it while I was there the other day. They've been sanding and blocking it this week and I think plan to have color on it in the next few days. Once the truck body is done the cladding will get some attention. I'm waiting on the last couple of parts to show up, so hopefully the timing will work out well. I'll post some updates as I get them..
I'm excited to get it back. I have a set of factory wheels that I had refinished, which should look really good with the fresh paint. It'll be like a brand new truck..!
I picked up a Teal/Grey Typhoon about this time last month. I just happened to stumble into it. I made plans to head to Phoenix to look at a Red/Grey one, but while laying in bed browsing craigslist the night before I found an ad that was very vague, but essentially said that he had parts from a 28k mile Ty. I got ahold of him the next morning as I was just about to look at the red one. I asked what parts he had and he told me he had a complete truck minus 3 items - front bumper assembly and both rear corners.
Which then led to my next question, "what color is the truck?" His response was "Teal/Grey." I was NOT excited about a teal truck, but decided that because of the mileage that I would go look at it.
This is essentially what I showed up to. The only difference being that all of the stuff that you see on the ground was piled on top of, around and underneath of the truck. I poked my head in and the Odo read 27,177. Whoa..!
In talking with the guy, he was the original owner. He and is now ex-wife bought it new, she drove it daily for a bit. It then became a weekend/fun car until around 2003-2004 when they separated. He moved out and got to keep it in the divorce, but didn't have anywhere to store it. So, it sat outside at his place of employment for ~5 years. He then purchased a house with a 3 car garage and drove it to his new digs and parked it in the third bay of his garage. It sat there for another 5 years or so until he decided it was time to move on. Luckily, I was able to talk him into selling me the entire truck and as it turned out, I really liked the color.
Here it is after I dragged it up on the trailer..
I finally got the thing home and tucked away in the garage so I could get started on getting it running again.
Got it running and back on all fours, so I gave it an unnecessary wash. I drove it daily like this for 2 weeks while I spent some time cleaning the interior and flushing fluids. I ended up having to pull the tank because the gasket had dried out, but that wasn't a big deal. It was a little challenging to do alone, though..
So once I got everything set in terms of maintenance I turned my attention to the body. The interior is perfect, so I didn't have anything to do there except for re-tint the windows. Anyway, back to the body... I had gotten a few quotes to have it done as a side job, but I wasn't too excited about the idea of possibly being stuck with whatever they felt was satisfactory. I needed to take my wifes Camry in for some work after we had been rear ended and was able to negotiate a decent deal for dropping off both cars. It happened a little faster than I had planned, but it needed to be done.
Here it is as they're finishing up taking it down to the metal. This had to be done because the factory paint was flaking off on the areas that had been facing the sun without any protection.
They've got the whole thing in primer currently, but I didn't take any pictures of it while I was there the other day. They've been sanding and blocking it this week and I think plan to have color on it in the next few days. Once the truck body is done the cladding will get some attention. I'm waiting on the last couple of parts to show up, so hopefully the timing will work out well. I'll post some updates as I get them..
I'm excited to get it back. I have a set of factory wheels that I had refinished, which should look really good with the fresh paint. It'll be like a brand new truck..!