Riding High

Either you have done it or have wanted to do it.

Owning a fancy car/truck.

I myself have had a few for example 69 Camaro, 79 AMX. But the one that I really went crazy with, and made it into a true show rig was a 1983 Toyota pickup!

Now you might ask why did I pick that. Well it was what I owned at the time and aftermarket parts were becoming plentiful for them.

So I took a perfectly good truck and made it worthless. Looked real good to drive it, but that was about it.

Ok enough of that, now to the story. We headed over the mountain in the early spring in the before mentioned AMX and caught a late snow storm so what should of been a 3 hour drive became a 5 hour drive.

Was so fed up with that car, that the first thing we did when we finally made it over the mountain was to find a Toyota dealer! Then, Rod was driving a new rig.

Honestly had been wanting one for some time and that snow storm just sealed the deal.

We stopped on the way home to make sure the 4 wheel drive worked, and set off for the snow only to find it had all melted off, clear roads the whole way home!

I drove it for a year basically in stock trim and had some great times with it. One day I was looking thru a magazine and ....hey what's this? A lift kit for Toyotas, man no body had a truck in central Oregon with a lift kit in it..ok how much? hmmm got the money...then picked up the phone and ordered it. Oh yes had to get the fancy roll bar also.

The kit and roll bar arrived so I took them out to my parents place to hide them and also went to the local tire dealer and ordered the recommended tires and waited until the weekend.

Saturday showed up and there I was a wrenching away took about 4 hours to install everything but I did get it done then snuck it into the tire dealer and then hid the truck from prying eyes waiting for the right time to reveal my new creation...night time.

After what seemed like an eternity it was officially dark, time for the surprise. I headed to one of the local hang outs to show off the biggest baddest Toyota in central Oregon! It was amazing! Instant crowd and everyone asking questions, looking it over wanting rides, the works. After awhile a couple of buddies and I decided to take it out and play in the snow so we procured some beverages and off we went to the high country close to town.

So to make a long story short, we found the snow, drove in the snow tipped truck over...did not see the stump. No one was hurt only casualty was pride, some beverages, and two front teeth of yours truly. Did not hurt as I had enough liquid pain killer in me for that.

Five mile walk back for help rescued truck and the next day took the biggest baddest wrecked Toyota in central Oregon to the body shop!

It took 2 months to get it fixed and oh yes a new bigger lift kit and tires, lots of lights, fancy paint job, more chrome, and if I had remembered right in the short time I had driven it, it was gutless so there were some minor engine changes made as well.

Finally, got it out of the shop and it was a highway queen did not dare take it off road for fear of repeating what happened before and could not risk scratching that paint no way.

So I had a show truck, and I was invited to a lot of them all over the state in the daily driver category. Everyone loved it, even if it was impractical for anything other than driving down the road.

To give you an idea of how impractical it was... got maybe 5 miles to the gallon, 5th gear was a creature feature that never was used, could not drive on slick roads of any kind. But it did look good. And did I happen to mention it was a girl magnet hmm might of been the reason..don't know but probably was.

It was a work in progress always adding this or that to it so one day sat down and figured out how much was invested.. WOW.. how much more was needed for the rest of the project...WOW now let's rethink this.

Ok it's impractical, very bad fuel mileage, basically a money pit.... ok I'm done time to sell..right now. Everyone wanted it, but imagine this nobody had money! So I traded it in, and learned a very costly lesson. But it does bring back good memories and bad. And, everyone either wants to or has done it before.

It is what it is

Even when it is stupid

Rod