1969 TOYOTA

The auction graded it R, the grade for a vehicle with recorded repairs. There is a lot of rust, heaviest on the front bumper, as the photographs show, with minor corrosion in a few places. At some point before it reached us it was lowered, and it runs on wider wheels than Toyota fitted. There is a slight exhaust blow at the gasket between the downpipe and the manifold.

It is driveable and usable as it is. It would respond well to a gentle restoration.

The windscreen wraps round into the sides with no quarter lights, a shape Toyota gave the Stout in 1960. Behind it is a three-seat bench in cream vinyl. The steering wheel is original; its rim is cracked and worn through, and it should be restored rather than replaced. It has air conditioning, in an under-dash unit.

The clock now reads 60,480 km. The odometer has five digits, so on a truck of 57 years neither figure can be taken as the total distance it has covered.

This is a fifty-seven-year-old work truck and it looks like one. Rust all over it, a blow in the exhaust, and somebody lowered it and put wider wheels on. Fine. Now sit in it. That glass, that bench, that steering wheel. Somebody is going to want to throw the wheel away and buy a new one, and please don't, get it restored, it's the original. And it seats three across that bench. Both kids, or your other half and the dog, all up front, all looking out through that glass.