KIDNEY, ANYONE? The Cleanest Celica Liftback in Minnesota

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Minnesota, perennially known for salt-caked streets, Prince, and Steve Buscemi getting fed into a woodchipper, is also known for being in the top five places to not live if you intend on keeping a classic Japanese car rust free and not stolen. However, despite the odds this owner has managed to keep his 1977 RA29 Celica Liftback completely perfect. 

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With 32k on the clock, this might be one of the lowest mileage Celicas in the world and for  $9,100 it is a heck of a deal. Notice the immaculate paint and correct badging is still intact. You’d think he sprung the extra few hundred dollars for the TruCoat undercoating to protect from oxidation.

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Sporting a 5-speed manual transmission and one of the best coats of black paint I’ve seen on any Toyota — a rare one-year-only paint color — it’s a highly desirable combination. The owner’s description didn’t provide much in the the way of information, but after contacting the owner we were able to get a much better description of the car.

The car was originally owned out west where the original owner daily drove it for the first few miles of it’s life. Then he realized it was a very special car and decided to garage it for use only on special occasions. After twenty years, the owner needed the space so he put it outside where the sun did a number on the dash. Luckily this is where the car’s second owner comes into play, he bought the car and brought it up north to Minnesota where he fixed the weather damage and repainted it.

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The keen eye will also notice that he deleted the side trim, which is a bold move but personally I think it helps accentuate the body lines of the vehicle.

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The depth of field in the owner’s pictures is surprisingly well used, especially for used car photos. In this particular case, the owner also used the steering wheel to frame the gauge cluster for an especially aesthetically pleasing shot.

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At $9,100 the Celica is a steal of a buy. With the collector market for Japanese cars beginning to heat up and Toyota at the forefront of that wave, it won’t be long until the RA29 Celica will be deep into the five-digit mark. It is very hard to find a car of this quality for sale in any marketplace, especially in Minnesota. See the ad here and enjoy life with a classic Toyota that will appreciate in value faster than most 401Ks.

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9 Responses to KIDNEY, ANYONE? The Cleanest Celica Liftback in Minnesota

  1. Jim Simspson says:

    This looks to be an absolutely screaming bargain, if I did not own 3 of these already i would be all over this one…

  2. Gary says:

    WOW – awesome car

  3. felix says:

    Very nice, the only down point is the US chunky bumpers/fenders.

    Nearly bought one of these for my first car back in the eighties,
    but it had too much rust.

  4. Gerka says:

    Deleted side moulding helps any car, these Celicas especially

  5. Scotty G says:

    Ohhh.. and it’s in St. Paul, too! What a great find. I wonder, all things being equal, if it were 100% original and in that condition, would the price be more or about the same?
    Nice find!

    • Randy says:

      Go for it, man!

      I don’t think a repaint would hurt the value THAT much… The repaint’s probably better than the original, anyway. I’ve seen old, original paint on cars, and they weren’t as shiny as we’d like to think. If anything, they got shinier from the decades of polishing that smoothed out the orange peel.

      Not all modded to hell, so maybe finish the resto with whatever molding or decal set is correct… Yeah, it may look “better”/”cleaner” without, but it’s a nod to practicality. “Resto” is even a stretch, as it’s really just been mostly preserved.

      Car’s probably too nice for me…

  6. sabin simard says:

    She doesn’t seem to have her original paint, too much bright, the side molding and the standard GT stripe on rocker panel is not there.

  7. Censport says:

    Actually, this generation of Celica is already in the 5-digit range. A local friend has his imported JDM Celica Liftback for sale, asking $20,000.

  8. RA2976 says:

    Where do Celica Liftback 1976-77 inquire about cheap spare parts?
    It was supposed to be restored

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