Aron9000

I still occasionally see 1980's Toyota pickups around in these neck of the woods. Although even those are starting to rust along the bed seam and other places, despite us not salting the roads or having much snow in this part of TN. Still see a few beat up Chevy and Ford pickups of that vintage as well, but no Dodges at all earlier than 1994ish, when they went to the big rig styling. Still see tons of 90's Nissan, Toyota, Chevy, Ford, and even Dodge pickups on the road.

Which with the way trucks hold their value now days, it makes sense that guys are spending $$$$ to keep their old rigs on the road. Thanks to Obama and cash for clunkers, a ton of good, useful trucks were crushed. Now a truck that was $500-1000 back about 4 years ago is now worth $1500-3k, and that's a beat up 90's model with a ton of miles on it.

mmarshall

That accumulating rust line where the bed is attached to the frame (all U.S.-market 1980s Toyota trucks start rusting in exactly the same place) occurred because of the truck-tariff policies in those days. The 25% tariff on imported trucks forced Toyota to assemble the cab/interior, frame, and drivetrains in Japan, then send those partial assemblies over on the ships, and have the beds welded on here at Toyota's main West Coast warehouse. That satisfied the letter of the law, and avoided the tariff. They inevitably used crappy welding techniques that were quite sensitive to rust, and, no matter how clean you kept the truck, how many times you washed it, or if you avoided salt, you were going to get that rust-line.....all around the rear of the truck, right along the base of the bed, where it joins the frame. It rusted from the inside out, so there was no way you could effectively stop it.

This is a rather dramatic example, but it clearly shows the rust-line right along the base of the bed, with those crappy welds.

That problem was not finally solved until the early 90s.