Quick! Help me learn about this 68 Toyota Corona 1900 coupe so I can buy it!

I've got a trailer hooked up and this afternoon I'm going to take a gander at what's seen below. Title is good, so no need to fuss with paperwork. Has a third pedal which is a huge plus. My biggest worry is rust on the bottom side. Not a fan of sheet metal work, but it's not something I'll run away from. I don't need the car at all. In fact I don't really need a project right now, but I can park it at a buddy's house for a year or so while I source parts and a plan. These seem to be pretty rare. I can't seem to find much on what kind of suspension it should have. I assume it's not rack and pinion. Most of my cursory googling hasn't really yielded me much information.

I've always been a fan of 60-70s Japanese coupes, and this thing has some good character. Looks complete minus the front vent glass on the driver side. Maybe it's inside the car?

Now the price. It's $2k American dollars. Big ouch for something with a big question mark. Not thinking race car but more of a GT. Would be a fun cruiser on the weekends or a fair weather rig to drive to work on occasions. Talk me up, or down.

Going from memory....from many years ago.....a buddy in the local motorsport club had one. The steering is a box , not a rack. The front suspensions is A-arms (I think) and rear was leaf springs on a live axle. At the time it wasn't thought of as one of the cool cars in the club, more of a Japanese Chevelle. Same guy had a four door for his wife. His brother owned the local Toyota dealership so he was sort of compelled to drive them. He would rather have had my 510. Today it would be really cool to have and update, just look for rust in all the usual places, plus a few more. Rockers, suspension mounting points, the main front frame horns where they go under the toe boards, base of the A-pillars. It does look to have most of the trim bits for the exterior, which will be difficult to find.

Edit: I'd be measuring the front frame horns and making comparisons to a Miata if I am correct about it having A-arms, then look under the rear to see if a Miata subframe could be made to fit.

I dont know anything about them,but buy it!

I think 2k seems high,personally, but Im spending your money...so buy it!

They're pretty rare these days, especially outside the desert Southwest. It looks pretty complete, which I think is a major plus as I'd expect the spares supply to be as good as usual for pre-80s Japanese metal (ie, non-existent or close to it).

Price seems to be in line with what I would expect given the rarity and condition.

I'd be concerned about rust after living in a field...

Assume you're not going to find a correct replacement for any missing parts on it, and proceed accordingly.

Buy it and figure it out later. Cant hurt you finacially really.

my Mom had one in the early 70s , very well built and the motor ran weeks with the oil light on until she asked one day what the light on the dash was !

Put oil in it and it ran a couple more years :)   as we kept on eye on the oil level ....

Useless fact......if the steering wheel spline is the same as my 1973 Corolla (I suspect it would be) then any Miata wheel will fit.......that ought to make your decision easy.

All good info so far!

I perused locally for a cheap Miata roller/donor. Found a guy on youtube that swapped in a 1.6 or something into a Corono of same year. Don't know if I have the skill/space/time to do a Molvo or Urchfab Mongrel type build, BUT maybe scabbing subframes front and rear is possible?

The price seems high to me, but then most of these cars rotted away years ago due to the almost non-existent rust proofing.

Early Corollas and Coronas were pretty rugged cars except for rust.  We owned one of each.

Frankly, I would double your budget and buy a car in better condition. The extra 2K will disappear in the blink of a wallet if you end up restoring a car with substantial rust - the parts will likely have to be made from scratch.

I remember a neighbor bringing home a new one back in 1968. That was before Japanese cars were common, even in California where I was. There was a lot of interest on the block over the new Japanese car. I think the Corona was released before the Corolla and Toyota and the dealer had just opened.

There were few Japanese cars back in 1968. Just American cars, Volkswagens and the stray Renault Dauphine.

If it's really rusty I'd do as wspohn suggested and find a better example

As for Coronas; I seem to recall the 20R & 22R motors will drop right in. There is also the 18RG motor if you want something more exotic. 

I'd buy it and plop in a slightly newer motor with 5 speed trans, lower it add some sway bars, decent dampers and have some fun. 

Can you actually find one of these that is less rusty? I haven't seen one in years.

There are few around. If you want one, I would jump on this one.

This one is all finished for the lowly sum of $14500.

CLICK ME

Or this one for $12450

CLICK ME

jfryjfry said:

I'd be concerned about rust after living in a field...

 

There will be mice in there. Lots of mice.

In reply to captainawesome :

The first one has been listed since 2015? They may be willing to deal by now.

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

THIS! 

Planning to build a utility trailer, I drug a free pop up camper home that was still loaded to go camping (it had been sitting open for about 10 years and was loaded with mice). The local outside mouse population soared.

In reply to Rons :

Kinda wonder if he would ever really lower the price much considering it's been on the market that long. At this point he's had to have some offers come in.

Just do it. You want the car for it's cool looks, we know everything else can be changed.

The last time I saw one of those was when a coworker owned one in 1974.

Wait, you're supposed to learn about it before you buy it?  Are you sure you've got that right?

Whelp.

I bought it.

Tried not to, but he changed his mind about being firm on price and started tossing in extras to sweeten the deal.

$1500 cash money. Officially within Challenge budget. For now. Not sure I want this car to be budget restricted based on my grandiose plans.

The car is great in areas I expected to be bad, and bad in some areas expected to be great.

Included were 5 steel 14" wheels. 4 of which were holding air so we swapped them out to make loading the trailer easier. 1 doesn't match.

Also a small box of 3tc engine parts, nothing noteworthy from what I can see though.

Then a pair of black leather BMW 3 or 5 series manual front seats chuck in as well.

Plus an alternator, power steering pump, and starter from or for a 20r/22r. He said upgrade when mentioned, so not sure what that really means. Either way I may source a 22r so having spares won't be terrible.

Brakes weren't locked up. Front drums have cool fins on them similar to old Buicks.

The front suspension is dual wishbone with coil around the shock. Rear steer on knuckles. Miata subframe could be easy or difficult depending on how measurements shake out, but honestly what's there looks like it would work just fine as long as bushings and ball joints still exist. Rockauto has at least cheap ball joints and tie rods.

Floor pans are going to need a lot of work but the chassis rails look to be in good shape and weren't crunchy or thin.

Rockers are actually great on the bottom but the top of the door sill where the foot plate screws in is in need of new metal.

Doors won't latch. Not sure why, but for now you can press them mostly closed.

Under the hood looks great, but the frame structure bonded to the hood skin is mostly rusted away where the hinges bolt on. The skin looks good though so maybe just throw hood pins on it and move on with life or try to do some metal magic?

Trunk won't open. Yet. I think it's going to be plagued by the same issues as the hood.

Interior looks complete.

Enough words. Here's the car and parts. It's parked on a trailer still at my storage space and shall remain there until I shuffle some stuff around at the house. Too many cars/projects.

How hard would it be to swap a stripped chassis of an S2000 under one like they did wit that 2002?

Enabling