Blossom; The '81 Te72 Wagon

November 15, 201213 yr

I sold my '66 valiant quick for $675usd and bought this TE72 wagon for $400usd.

The car was really well cared for by its original owner, it always went to the Toyota dealer for everything but things he could get a better warranty on. (Exhaust, brakes, tires, batteries.....etc)

The car had 40,000mi on it by the time it was a year old!

The po was a carpenter and used it like a truck; he even bragged he had 8 sheets of plywood strapped to the roof. Overall; it's pretty clean; it's condition belies the 275,000 MILES on it. It doesn't smoke, knock, use oil. Trans shifts perfect, it's supposed to have 3.58 gears, but feels more like 3.90.

When I found it I was told it needed a new carrier bearing. When I test drove it, I found it needed a u-joint; when I bought it I discovered you can't change the u-joints, but found an '80 in the junkyard for $65usd.(twinlights if anyone's inerested)

Waterpump was loose, so it got changed. Thermostat got changed as well. It gets hot in traffic, so I just today mounted an old mercedes fan I had lying around. While I was at it, I straightened out the bent valence.

It had an intermittant miss especially when wet so I suspected plugwires. Sure enough two were burned through. I'm completely out of money, so I siliconed the holes, filled the ends with dielectric grease, and closed the plug gaps to .15. When I get a job or sell something I'll get wires.

It has no exhaust after the cat, but is really quiet. The tires are bald. the fuel guage doesn't work. Overall I still think it's a great car; I got offered $1200usd for it last night!

It will be semi-gloss black (to hide numerous dings and some minor rust) someday; I'd really like to get the chrome bumpers, but the shipping would cost more than the car....