Chobis

Welcome t one of the quietest forums ever Mugzy. Decent looking rig there mate. Good to see it's a styleside and has the tub. So many had the tub removed in favour of a flatbed for pushing hay bales off. Would love to see a good photo of one of the hubcaps I spy in that first pic. I've never been able to find any of them and really don't know for sure what the genuine ones look like. All the best with the cleanup mate.

The only thing I can suggest is to keep an eye on gumtree mate. From time to time people pop up on there parting them out. I've not had to replace any windows and touch wood I don't have to.

Nice find Noz. That's awesome!

Wait..... I just noticed you are in SA?!?!?! That's even better news. Hopefully at some point I will see this car at All Japan Day..... or maybe Bay to Birdwood this year???? Yeh I think classic resto is the way to go. If you want to do an engine upgrade into something to have a bit of fun then I recommend something a lot less rare. Personally I would probably keep the vinyl roof on as well but I guess it depends what sort of condition it's in. Also...... I'm not sure about on RT52's, but on other cars that came out with the vinyl roof, they were often prone to rusting underneath the vinyl..... so if that is an issue for this car then, yeh, I would remove it as well. All your plans sound good though. All the best with it. Also if you are putting a stereo in it I would try to conceal it under dash and have the speakers mounted under the seats or something so as to not be cutting holes in door cards or the parcel shelf.

First thing I will say is that I couldn't be more jealous! You're inheriting a very rare car, something that a lot of classic Jap-tin fans would kill for, especially the Toyota lovers like myself. The next thing I will say is........ please do not modify or do anything stupid to this car! Keep it original. If you start cutting anything to put a big stereo in or different engine or gearbox etc etc..... you will devalue this car immediately. Lowering with a different set of rims is no worries, but keep everything that you swap out in order to be able to return it to factory. At the end of the day it will be your car so you can do whatever you want, but that's my advice. With all that said........ I can't give you much info on them........... however I will point you in the direction of a forum that will be able to help. www.japanesenostalgiccar.com/forum If you do a search on there for "RT52 Corona" you will find several posts about them, or start your own once you have the car. Good luck with it dude. Hopefully you keep to your promise of putting up pics for us all to enjoy.

We have a similar thing in SA so I'd imagine NSW would have something. Best thing to do might be to drop in to your local motor rego office and ask them what the options are. They will know if there is such a scheme, then you just need to find a suitable club. In SA it is called Historic Registration or something similar. Not sure if a 1984 would qualify as old enough, but it might be fine in NSW for similar scheme. All the best with it.

The only thing I can be sure of.... is that it would look very nice sitting in my garage next to my Stout

That's awesome Alan!

Hey Adrian. There are a few manuals on eBay if you search for Corolla 1100.

Where are the cars? (ie Vic, WA NSW ???) What condition are they in? Running? Driveable? Basket Case?

Good luck with that. My only suggestion is to phone Rare Spares. If they can't help you then you will have to adapt something to fit. I haven't tried to replace mine so I can't help you, but if you find any good news on this then post it up to help all of us. Cheers, Chobis

It's pretty hard to give you an indication of what this car is worth without seeing it. Presentation is a big part of resale value and if the clear coat is peeling then that will let it down. Another big factor is kilometres and that has very high kilometres. Thirdly collectibility, and again, it's not a sought after model. So, my tip is that it is potentially a $1000 to $2000 car. This is assuming it is easily registerable and like I said, it's hard to say without having a good look at it. Not sure if that helps any.

I guess something to keep in mind is that unfortunately rarity and collectability are not the same thing. Collectability generally stems from a large following of something in the past and an on-going large following being maintained in the future. With those conditions being met, the rarer the item the greater price it shall fetch. Corolla's have always had a strong following. They have been a staple 2nd car in many driveways since the 60's and still are very popular to buy brand new today. Corona's were popular through the 70's to the mid 80's and then all but disappeared from Toyota's export line-up. I believe this is a major reason for their lack of popularity today. GT Falcons, for example, had a huge following due to being race bred and a popular family sedan (albeit generally in a lower spec model) right through from the early 60's to today. Hence their collectability and value have increased greatly. The "originality in their looks" doesn't play much of a part in collectibility. If it did the Citroen Ami6's left in the world would be worth a fortune. Anyway I'm glad you plan to keep your 'Rona original. We would all benefit from seeing some photo's of it B)

I beg you not to convert to a rotor. It will definitely not increase value. RT40's have not seen price increases like KE10 Corolla's at this stage, but I think they will eventually. Keep it original and enjoy it. Low and slow is the go. Venetian, whitewalls, sun visor, weather shield etc. Done to death some may say, but it works and it looks gooooood! Gotta be a bit low too.

Welcome to the forum mate. You certainly know how to open my eyes. An RT56 is a dream car for me. Only ever seen one in the metal and that was a loooooong time ago. I had a look at your website too. You mispelled the link though. Missed the "s" in "restoration" but I still got there. Great site. Hope you keep adding to it. Good to see a lot of pics of the car and read your write up. I'm glad the plan is to keep the car as original as possible. This car is too rare to mess with it too much. As for parts all I can say is eBay is your friend, but I'm sure you already know that. Not sure if Rare Spares can help with rubbers, but they certainly won't be cheap. However I've always found their items to be good quality, fit well and the staff are very helpful. In Adelaide they are anyway.