Just as we figured, there was a nice little truck hiding under all the muck and grime.
While waiting for some time to work on the mechanical side of things, we spent a bit of time cleaning the interior and exterior. Can you blame us? Cleaning a car this dirty is a pretty satisfying endeavor, especially when we knew something nice was underneath.
We knew the truck was in good shape but even we were surprised at just how nice everything cleaned up. As far as the interior is concerned, well, all we can say is God bless those '80s vinyl interiors! A bit of Simple Green, a rag and an old toothbrush were all we needed to get the interior looking great. The dash, seats and door panels literally look like new again. We removed the carpet so we could steam-clean it. As with the much of the rest of the truck, the floor boards are in perfect shape (the orange junk you see in the pics is glue). All we need now are a couple trim pieces and some new vent windows (the hardware on ours was originally bonded to the glass and over time the adhesive must have dried out and the hardware simply fell off the glass).
The truck's exterior looks awesome too. Almost no dents and only a couple spots of surface rust make for a very original look. The bed has a bit of surface rust from being used without a bed-liner, but that's easy to take care of. The tailgate appears to be from a different truck, but it is rust and dent-free, so we're okay with that.
Next up we'll take a look at getting this thing running. The battery is dead after all those years of sitting dormant, so that'll be first on our list. The previous owner said the truck was parked due to ignition trouble, so we'll likely be checking that out first, should the truck not start up on the first crank.
While waiting for some time to work on the mechanical side of things, we spent a bit of time cleaning the interior and exterior. Can you blame us? Cleaning a car this dirty is a pretty satisfying endeavor, especially when we knew something nice was underneath.
We knew the truck was in good shape but even we were surprised at just how nice everything cleaned up. As far as the interior is concerned, well, all we can say is God bless those '80s vinyl interiors! A bit of Simple Green, a rag and an old toothbrush were all we needed to get the interior looking great. The dash, seats and door panels literally look like new again. We removed the carpet so we could steam-clean it. As with the much of the rest of the truck, the floor boards are in perfect shape (the orange junk you see in the pics is glue). All we need now are a couple trim pieces and some new vent windows (the hardware on ours was originally bonded to the glass and over time the adhesive must have dried out and the hardware simply fell off the glass).
The truck's exterior looks awesome too. Almost no dents and only a couple spots of surface rust make for a very original look. The bed has a bit of surface rust from being used without a bed-liner, but that's easy to take care of. The tailgate appears to be from a different truck, but it is rust and dent-free, so we're okay with that.
Next up we'll take a look at getting this thing running. The battery is dead after all those years of sitting dormant, so that'll be first on our list. The previous owner said the truck was parked due to ignition trouble, so we'll likely be checking that out first, should the truck not start up on the first crank.
We've all heard the phrase, "a diamond in the rough" before, right? Well folks, that's what you're looking at here.
We recently found this '82 Rabbit Pick-Up truck listed on a national site and when we saw the owner was located in Tallahassee, FL - a mere 300 miles from Sarasota - we new we had to scoop it up sight-unseen. It didn't run and the owner didn't know why, but we still wasted no time agreeing to buy it. You see, in the ad we could tell the truck was original and seemingly rust-free and, well, these days you just don't often find these things in that sort of condition, running or not.
So we loaded up a GMC Denali XL with a rented tow dolly and trekked north to Tallahassee. When we saw the little truck in the flesh, it looked pretty pitiful sitting abandoned on the owner's front lawn. The fact that it was covered with a variety of different forms of moss, lichen and assorted fungi only made it look worse. But upon closer inspection it appeared our earlier assessment was correct and that the truck was amazingly original and in excellent shape under all that "stuff." The rockers were 100 rust-free and even the pinch-welds were clean and neat. In fact most every panel was straight and rust-free, minus one spot under the windshield and another under the rear window.
The interior was intact and original, but due to the fact that the vent windows were not sealed, inside the truck harbored the same sort of plant life as found on the exterior. A nice surprise was the odometer that read only 73,487 miles!
We met the owner who turned out to be one of the nicest people we've met in a long, long time. The truck was owned by her husband who had sadly passed away three years ago. The truck wasn't running when he died and she didn't have much motivation to have the Rabbit worked on. And so it sat for the three years prior to our visit.
We happily paid the owner and loaded up the little truck for the 300-mile drive back to Sarasota.
This is another project designed to provide a nice Project Primer (http://www.b-p-design.com/services.html) platform for someone looking to build a Rabbit Pick-Up project (it's a perfect candidate for a 16v or even a 1.8T swap). As mentioned, rust-free trucks like ours are getting harder and harder to find, and we're quite sure this truck is going to find a good home soon. We intend to clean it up, get it running and see what, if anything, it needs to be truly roadworthy again. If no one claims it as a Primer, we'll be happy to keep it and use it as a bpd shop truck.
We recently found this '82 Rabbit Pick-Up truck listed on a national site and when we saw the owner was located in Tallahassee, FL - a mere 300 miles from Sarasota - we new we had to scoop it up sight-unseen. It didn't run and the owner didn't know why, but we still wasted no time agreeing to buy it. You see, in the ad we could tell the truck was original and seemingly rust-free and, well, these days you just don't often find these things in that sort of condition, running or not.
So we loaded up a GMC Denali XL with a rented tow dolly and trekked north to Tallahassee. When we saw the little truck in the flesh, it looked pretty pitiful sitting abandoned on the owner's front lawn. The fact that it was covered with a variety of different forms of moss, lichen and assorted fungi only made it look worse. But upon closer inspection it appeared our earlier assessment was correct and that the truck was amazingly original and in excellent shape under all that "stuff." The rockers were 100 rust-free and even the pinch-welds were clean and neat. In fact most every panel was straight and rust-free, minus one spot under the windshield and another under the rear window.
The interior was intact and original, but due to the fact that the vent windows were not sealed, inside the truck harbored the same sort of plant life as found on the exterior. A nice surprise was the odometer that read only 73,487 miles!
We met the owner who turned out to be one of the nicest people we've met in a long, long time. The truck was owned by her husband who had sadly passed away three years ago. The truck wasn't running when he died and she didn't have much motivation to have the Rabbit worked on. And so it sat for the three years prior to our visit.
We happily paid the owner and loaded up the little truck for the 300-mile drive back to Sarasota.
This is another project designed to provide a nice Project Primer (http://www.b-p-design.com/services.html) platform for someone looking to build a Rabbit Pick-Up project (it's a perfect candidate for a 16v or even a 1.8T swap). As mentioned, rust-free trucks like ours are getting harder and harder to find, and we're quite sure this truck is going to find a good home soon. We intend to clean it up, get it running and see what, if anything, it needs to be truly roadworthy again. If no one claims it as a Primer, we'll be happy to keep it and use it as a bpd shop truck.