I keep my trucks forever. My current model is a 2002 Tacoma mini truck I bought new after the 2003 models were out. I plan to use it for 20 more years or until the frame rusts in half. Then my buddy has first dibs on it to use as a plow truck for his snow removal business. He puts in fish plates and welds the frame together, which works for a little while before it breaks again. I have hauled 30 yards of gravel and dirt in it, every load an over load. Having a front end loader dump a half cubic yard of gravel in your bed really puts the scratches in it, not to mention squatting the suspension when it is dumped in. I have also hauled over 50 full pulpwood cords of firewood in it over the years. I have made numerous trips, one 600 miles hauling a double axle car hauler trailer. The truck groans and struggles on the hills. I have never done anything to it bedsides change the oil, tires, battery and muffler. It's kept outside, summer and winter, driven in the salt. I can't recall washing it. No use cleaning the inside as I keep my hunting dogs in there and they have had numerous accidents back there including filling the rear speakers up with barf. I drive through the woods and the brush has scratched it and have had the hood underwater on two occasions as the stream and swamp holes were deeper than anticipated. It's crinkled, a little bent, tail light lenses are busted and patched with bicycle reflectors and Sho Goo, and one running board and all the mud flaps are long gone. Its a truck for goodness sake, its made to haul stuff, not look pretty. Just toss your stuff in there and forget about it, what are you saving it for, the next guy? Of course that may be your intention, reselling it at some point so I can understand your reluctance to beat it. Almost no one wants one of my trucks (or cars) when I am through with it. The last one ended out with red, white, blue, silver and rust junk yard body panels on it after hitting several deer and cars at various times. The interior also had multi colored panels as it caught on fire and they were ripped out to prevent the spread. Different colored junk yard interiors refinished the interior. I sold it to a garage/junk yard that put on matching panels in and out after my son backed into a tree with the door open and mangled it. The person that bought it next promptly went out and killed another deer with it (that was either number 3 or 4). They took it back to the garage/junk yard and they put the red, white, blue and silver rusty panels back on it. I see a similar fate for the Tacoma. The one before the red white and blue one was a 1949 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup that had bungee cords holding the doors shut and a straight pipe exhaust that exited through a hole in the right front fender. The one before that was a short wheelbase Ford Model AA that was missing the cab and truck bed, you sat in a metal chair welded to the frame on a bunch of cushions. I used it for a log skidder for my sawmill. Trucks is for work.
