4Runner 4Ever!

LAST OF THE NORTHEAST 4RUNNERS FROM THE '80S
Today I'm featuring one of those common vehicles that quietly disappeared from the streets when no one was looking (hush up California, we know you still have every car ever made in that dry heat).

This is a 1987 Toyota 4Runner in White. I've got to give it up for Toyota as they had 3 different colors in '87 named White as well as a 4th named Super White. Who knows?

Take a good look people. This is the greatest vehicle ever made! Yes this one has a funky Japanese translation of a Blazer for a body but underneath it all lies the Basic Toyota Truck. Indestructible and reliable are two words that fit the '80s Toyota Trucks so perfectly that they should take those words out of circulation unless discussing one of these rigs.

Peppered with millions of dead insects and sand but this beast still looks eager to go wherever you point it. The license plate is mashed under the bumper because of course it is! This thing probably flattens a hedge every time it leaves a driveway.

This is essentially a pickup truck with a funky fiberglass rear roof section covering the bed. You can see the line behind the front door going across the roof where the metal cab and removable rear section meet. Between 1984-1986 many of the U.S. import models came with no rear seats. This allowed for a lower import tax as it was classified as a truck instead of an SUV.

Dents and bumps abound as they should on such a capable rig. That tall ride height is factory correct.

Making me swoon even more is the fact that this one is a stick shift. The engine is the legendary 22R-E 4 cylinder breathing through carburetors, proving that you don't need a massive V8 to conquer the Earth. The smaller gearshift controls the 4 wheel drive, high and low.

This atomic security sticker confirms what I suspected. The 213 area code is Los Angeles. Of course this isn't riddled with gaping rust holes!

These are tall inside and ride nice and high up. The rear wiper and washer fluid show you how often Toyota thought people would remove the top. I've only seen one or two ever with the roof off.

The glass goes down into the tailgate like a station wagon in this era. This setup would last until 2002 when the tailgate became a lift-up version hinged at the top.

I'll give it up for the unusual assortment of stickers. Look how '80s the emblem logo is on this ride with the 4 and R being integrated! After all this was the same year that brought us Robocop and Lethal Weapon.

This looks like such a threat to the clean green Honda in front of it. It's almost like this thing is taunting it for being too bougie.

The rear side windows are pretty weird. It wasn't until 1990 that the 4Runner would be offered as a 4 door. This is the first generation which was introduced in 1984.

You have to get out and manually lock the front hubs when engaging the 4 wheel drive.

Oh yeah baby she's been around! Beauty marks.

Well there you have it; a 30 year old off-roader that still looks ready for whatever you ask of it. Toyota trucks of the 1980s have long dissolved into dust in the Northeast. Thin metal with plenty of nooks and crannies for mud and salt to get lodged in did away with them. It's a shame though because I'm sure most of them drove until their frame cracked or people got tired of water splashing up at them through the floorboards. To see one in 2017 stopped me in my tracks and make me take notice. Maybe one day I'll have to pick one up in California and drive it back (leaving the masses of smog equipment elsewhere).
Hats off 4Runner owner! Wash it often during winter because, trust me.

Orange Bucket Truck

ORANGE BUCKET TRUCK

I was walking along some industrial corner of Brooklyn when I encountered this orange bucket truck:

I love the plainness of this thing! It's really very orange and the bumper looks like it's had 3 more lives than the truck itself.

I don't know anything about this beast and am not inclined to research it. Hope you enjoyed this mighty orange bucket truck interlude, and thank you for your support!

Love letter to a neighborhood, bar, & truck

LOVE LETTER TO A NEIGHBORHOOD, BAR, & TRUCK

There are businesses around town that have a vehicle mascot parked out in front for eternity. The Caliente Cab Company in the West Village has a 1950 Studebaker Champion just like Fozzy drove in The Muppet Movie (it's by FAR the best part of the C.C.C.). The Green Space in Gowanus has a 1928 Ford pickup truck roosting out front. Today I'm featuring a vehicle iconic to weary Brooklynites looking for the Greatest Bar on Earth:

For some of you this is giving you a hangover just looking at it. For others it's making you feel like it's been too long since you've meandered out to this almost-inaccessible corner of Brooklyn. Regardless this is a 1953 Willy's 475 truck in Willow Green. It is permanently parked in front of Sunny's Bar in Red Hook.
In 1953 the number of horizontal bars on the grill went from 5 to 3 (this one is missing the lower bar). That combined with the smaller rear window on this truck pinpoints it as a '53 as 1954 would introduce a window that covered the entire rear of the cab.

If you don't know now you know; this is the Greatest Bar on Earth (or at least has a very strong contender). In the modern Brooklyn everybody knows and complains about this stalwart has soldiered on against true adversity. In 2012 Hurricane Sandy flooded the entire neighborhood with Sunny's having water almost up to the ceiling. It was closed for 8 months and it took volunteers and a benefit concert to reopen it. In 2016 the beloved owner Sunny Balzano passed away at age 81. After that most of the 18 (!) related owners wanted to sell the bar but it seems that his widow has won a chance to buy everybody out. Come and visit. Tip your bartender.

Back to the rig at hand; check this beast out! There's the speedometer but does it have a lens of even a needle? Nah! There's an extremely rare factory radio (to the left of the steering wheel no less). Before you ask if it works look at that exposed $3 speaker laying on the floor! The seat looks surprisingly decent and must have been redone at some point. For all I know this was parked in 8 feet of ocean water back in '12.

This is parked at the edge of the world a solid 25 minute walk from the closest subway station. the cobblestones are most likely here to stay.

Like the neighborhood around it this truck has seen some shit! This fender is doing its best to hold on but the rocker panel disappeared long ago. One look at that ancient wheel with the sort of tire you can't even buy anymore tells you everything you need to know.

The rear fender and lower bed are holding up remarkably well. This is my favorite spare tire placement for trucks. Those leaf springs are ready for hard work; this little truck was rated as a 1 ton when new.

I'm going to say that those taillights are from a mid '70s to early '80s Chevrolet. Rear bumpers were optional when this rig was built.

This is the classic Willys logo. Willys was started in 1908 and has been folded into and taken over a dizzying amount of other companies, currently a part of the greater Fiat-Chrysler corporation. Every body panel on this ride is simple stamped steel like this.

You can see the Freedom Tower in the distance which gives you a sense of this location. At one point this area of Red Hook was one of the busiest ports in the world. Originally called Roode Hoek in the 1600s by the Dutch, the name means "point" or promontory. There was a Revolutionary War fort here known as Fort Defiance which is memorialized today by a restaurant/bar of the same name. By 1990 Life Magazine called this one of the worst neighborhoods in the country and the Crack Capital of America. A lot has changed since! For those of you who constantly bemoan the loss of "old New York" I point out the fact that the principal of the local school was killed in 1992 when he got caught in a drug war crossfire. Change isn't all bad.

Back to this sweet rig. It seems to be always filled with fresh garbage so I'm assuming the sanitation guys pull bags directly from the bed. That little reflector is a sweet notion as I think this fender has been facing the building protected by benches for decades.

As I mentioned briefly the year after this brought a rear window that was expanded almost down to the top of the bed.

From this angle you can clearly see the handsome lines of this ride.

The split windshield lasted until 1959 when a single pane was used on a special model. In 1960 they started switching all Willys trucks over to the non-split windshield but the date isn't exact. They just kept building the splits until old parts ran out so 1960 models can be either way.

Well that's where I'll leave this beast with its homemade wooden bumper and incredible life story. I have a feeling that even if this doesn't move for the next 20 years there will always be a fresh inspection sticker in the window. I support that 100%. I also think that if a rookie cop wrote a parking ticket for this rig his hand would burst into flames.
I realize this was a long-winded post more about the neighborhood than this actual vehicle but to me the two are inseparable. Some folks who are so painfully cool that they're really no fun to hang out with might say things like "Don't tell everybody about this cool spot or it will get ruined!", but to them I say this; Sunny's has been here for just shy of 100 years. The world is unrecognizable now from when these buildings were built in the 1850s. I might be a romantic but I think this little corner operates outside of the normal constraints of gentrification. Hopefully anyway!

Life on the farm circa 1956

BASIC DONKEY
I was riding through Red Hook a while ago when I stumbled upon this hardy beast. It was parked in a delicious cloud of barbecue smoke behind Hometown. I asked some folks who were unloading firewood for Hometown if I could snap some pics and got something like a muttered "go ahead":

This is a 1956-1957 International Harvester S-120 in Chesapeake Grey. The S-Series was introduced in '56 and only lasted for 2 years before being replaced by the A-Series. This is not to be confused with the IH S-Series that came out in 1978 and continued on for a decade. The newer S trucks were much larger and have nothing to do with the truck here. They simply elected to reuse a name.

I realize this pic is inscrutable with the glare but rest assured there isn't much to miss. The grill consists of a simple loop with turn signals for molars. The grill actually looks like a mini truck front end jammed in a larger opening of the same shape.

This iH logo is known as the Man on the Tractor. The lower case i is the farmer and his square head while the H makes up the large tires of a tractor that he's piloting. This is a decidedly Jet-Age version.

On the lower rear edge of the hood you can see that piece of chrome about 3 inches tall by 1 inch wide. That is a handle and there is another just like it on the other side. Uniquely, the IH S-Series hood is hinged on each side and as a result can be swung open to the right or the left, or even lifted off completely. That basic school bus style turn signal is function over form to a T.

The two holes above would have had the INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER emblem originally.

This beast sports locking front hubs which means it is equipped with four wheel drive from the factory. IH started offering 4x4 as an option across its entire line in 1953 due to the popularity of aftermarket conversions. I have no doubt that in first gear with 4-wheel Low engaged this truck could pull stumps out of the ground or move a small building. Top speed in 1st Low is probably around 10mph.
I love how unforgiving these tires are. They look old as hell and meant for mud & snow.

The running boards under the doors are making their last appearance with the S-Series. The A-Series which debuted in 1957 stood for Anniversary to celebrate their 50th birthday as a company. The newer trucks were much more modernized and really some of the glitziest vehicles ever produced by IH. That cab was more of a cohesive unit, sitting lower on the frame with doors going down to where these running boards are. They also had heavily chromed front ends and stacked quad lights.

I don't know what is in this wooden box but I love it. This primitive beast is all utility so I'm assuming there are tools or jumper cables or something within.

This stake side bed may indeed be a dump truck. Some of the S-Series trucks of this vintage had dumping capabilities even in the normal pickup style bed.

This thing is ready to work!

The gas tank is ridiculously basic; a tank under the cab with a filler tube attached. Zero frills.
Well that's where I left this brute while it awaits instructions from its master. If you can keep the rust at bay and provide the most basic of lubrication and maintenance you can drive one of these trucks forever. I had a '79 IH Scout and even though they look very different the basic running gear of this and that rig were more similar than dissimilar. The engine blocks are massive, heavily cast lumps that are meant to stay in the lower RPMs. Measured, deliberate power is the name of the game for IH who made their name providing lifeblood machinery for farms. The original owner of a truck like this might come to town every other week and spend the rest of the time on their land repairing things themselves. To see a stalwart old rig like this in Brooklyn was a treat.

The perfect device for colonial imperialism

THE PERFECT DEVICE FOR COLONIAL IMPERIALISM

I was walking through Windsor Terrace recently when something appeared that seemed as foreign and out of place as the Coke bottle in The Gods Must be Crazy. Behold!

This is a 1978 Land Rover Defender 109 in what I believe is Spring Green (I think British Racing Green is a little deeper in an evergreen sense as opposed to this hue).

 Make no mistake - even though this is parked in a lovely neighborhood this beast is safari-ready. It is positively dripping with aftermarket heavy duty upgrades.

This is the long wheelbase station wagon that is really just a few steps away from its prehistoric ancestors. The Defender was originally launched in 1948 and ran all the way through the 2015 model year. While there were plenty of changes and series over the decades it remained remarkably true to its initial design over those 67 years.

You've got to give it up for the full external roll cage on this thing! In addition it has a roof-height snorkel for the engine. Everything about the presentation says it's ready and capable for serious off road adventures. How it got to Brooklyn is a mystery to me. Maybe it drove along the bottom of the ocean?

I have a close friend who drives a newer Discovery with these same wheels. He calls them the "U.N. wheels" because Land Rovers stationed around the world tend to sport these no nonsense white steelies.

I can't think of a single custom touch that this isn't already outfitted with. That spotlight on the roof even has a protective metal screen over it as if this were exploring a rugged continent. 

 From this angle it's plain to see how utilitarian these older Defenders are. Exposed hinges, simple metal body panels, big expanses of flat glass, etc. While this company went on to produce luxury SUVs and crossovers this vehicle harkens back to the need to traverse faraway lands with no paved roads. I'm sure this is cold in winter, hot in summer, and pretty loud and rattly on bumpy ground. It is 100% honest is what I'm trying to say.

Well that's where I'll leave this conquerer to enjoy semi-retirement. The fact that the license plate is mashed up under the bumper alludes to possible adventure so hopefully it's not retired at all. Either way I'm impressed and somewhat in awe of this hardy British beast.