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Toyota Wolverine

tbplus10

Moderator
Staff member
1000 Posts
Community Leader
Found an all original 1978 Toyota Wolverine parked on a ranch last night while looking at some construction equipment.
It's a complete unmolested truck but the floorboards are swiss cheese, surprisingly the interior is still in good shape, with a decent battery the radio worked and the engine turned over but had no spark (the reason it was parked over 20 years ago) It could get spark easily though and I did make it cough but I didnt want to start it for fear of running 20+ year old fuel through the carb. The land owner was given the vehicle with title from a friend of his sons who originally wanted to store the truck but later just gave up it up to pay for many years of storage ( I think he just didnt want to pay to have it towed).
Now I have to decide if it's worth buying and restoring, modding, or flipping.
Anybody else have experience or parts availabilty for these trucks?
Oh yea has the 20R with a 4spd and Dana frt/rr axles.
 

suncomb1

Member
The Wolverine series of trucks were built prior to Toyota introducing its own factory 4x4 trucks in 1979 and they are very rare. The conversions that were done utilized Jeep parts. If you contact Trekker Paul on the Yotatech forum WEB site I am sure he can help you as he has an outstanding collection of information on early Toyota trucks and is very experienced with the early Toyota trucks. Tell him suncomb1 told you to contact him. Paul lives in Oregon.
 

tbplus10

Moderator
Staff member
1000 Posts
Community Leader
As you can see the original post is 7 months old. I did manage to buy the truck but it wasnt until November before we could come up with a mutually agreeable price.
I trailered it home cleaned the fuel tank and lines along with rebuilding the carb. New coil. battery. And cleaning the grounds got the engine running. A good tune up with quality parts got it running like new.
While changing all the fluids I discovered it has a rare Warn Overdrive unit but the linkage and shifter were missing. And that the truck is actually very low mileage under 65k.
That was all completed in January. Since then I machined a shifter and linkage from specs and pictures I found on the internet and replaced the bed floor with one from a wrecked 2004 Tacoma that fitperfectly with minor trimming. I also discovered that an 89 to 94 std cab floor pan is very similar and at this time I have the new floor pan trimmed and ready to install. Im only waiting for time to weld and seal the floor pan in place.
As much as I like the truck my business is to buy and sell so I decided to sell it and presently have a buyer ready to take possession as soon as I get the floor in.
The truck runs terrific and someone took great care of the interior and exterior. I suspect the rusty floor boards are due to being operated where roads were salt treated during weather. The ownet obviously washed everything down but forgot to spray the undersides of the floorboards.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
Sounds like a good project that you've put some time into. Would love to see a pic of two during the process and/or when you get done with it.
 

tbplus10

Moderator
Staff member
1000 Posts
Community Leader
Looks like the Beverly Hillbillies mobile right now. The floors were so bad I had to sit the body on 2x4's so it wouldnt collapse they started to buckle when I trailered the truck home.
I'm using a Kindle for internet access so I'll have to see how to upload pics from my camera.
 

TruckRider

Mechanic
1000 Posts
Found an all original 1978 Toyota Wolverine parked on a ranch last night while looking at some construction equipment.
It's a complete unmolested truck but the floorboards are swiss cheese, surprisingly the interior is still in good shape, with a decent battery the radio worked and the engine turned over but had no spark (the reason it was parked over 20 years ago) It could get spark easily though and I did make it cough but I didnt want to start it for fear of running 20+ year old fuel through the carb. The land owner was given the vehicle with title from a friend of his sons who originally wanted to store the truck but later just gave up it up to pay for many years of storage ( I think he just didnt want to pay to have it towed).
Now I have to decide if it's worth buying and restoring, modding, or flipping.
Anybody else have experience or parts availabilty for these trucks?
Oh yea has the 20R with a 4spd and Dana frt/rr axles.

Hi We would like to know the update of the project? Any progress has been taken?
 

tbplus10

Moderator
Staff member
1000 Posts
Community Leader
I got the truck together with a little tweaking.
The buyer backed out due to lack of funds so I listed the truck on craigslist after the floors were installed.
Had it sold to a Toyota fanatic in upstate New York within a day, he bought it as a father son project.
Im hoping to get back some pictures of it soon.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
You know, I think you said that in another thread. Then again it could have been one of your other projects.
 

tbplus10

Moderator
Staff member
1000 Posts
Community Leader
Hard to remember.
That was one project I was really hoping no one would be interested and I could tell the wife "oh well cant sell it may as well build it".
Unfortunately the economy has forced me to sell more of the projects I find in unfinished form, not as many people have the money to buy complete vehicles.
 

carton33

New Member
Never knew about this model before! It looks great, and the name's even better. I bet they cost a lot, though, if they're as rare as you guys say...
 

tbplus10

Moderator
Staff member
1000 Posts
Community Leader
I just looked at an all original 1979 Wolverine Thursday evening.
167k, never apart or modified. Very clean original paint and worn interior.
Asking price was $9800. I made an offer at $8500 and was told no thanks. An out of state buyer picked it up for $9250 Friday afternoon and was reportedly estatic to get it at a price that low.
 

BLACK FLAG

New Member
I just found one few weeks ago in Arkansas all together but not running ill be picking it up next few weeks here’s the pics i have of it though. Pretty dam stout lil truck for sure
32AFC26D-1523-40A5-846A-CC6754071621.jpeg
 

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