Hi!

I would like to introduce my old japanese car which I bought in January and had it restored since then.

It´s a 1988 Toyota Camry 2.0 GLi Sedan Automatic with 89.000 km on the clock. It may not be rare or special in the US or in Australia, but here in Austria we have winter from October until April with a lot of salt on the streets and a very strict annual road safety inspection, so the first two generations of the Camry are now nearly extinct here. Only very few have survived and most of them are in very rusty condition.

My Camry was quite rusty too, both front fenders badly repaired and very rusty, the right rear arch very rusty, it had an accident which dented the left rear door, it wasnt in good condition when I bought it:







On the inside, it was very beautiful and nearly like new, this was the reason why I did not export it to Africa but get it restored:









More pics from the restauration:







The result after three weeks restauration and a lot of money spend on the car:









A lot of little cosmetical things have to be done now, but it already looks remarkable!

As I said before, it is very rare here because of our snowy winters and the huge amount of salt on the roads for a long time so a japanese car from 1988 can be called nostalgic here. I´ll drive it only from April until October, it´ll never see winter again.

Lukas

i had an 89 camry. rusted out same places. also the side mouldings all rotted and separated. car looks great brings back memories.

Wow, good job on the body work, it looks brand new!
do you get alot of complements on it?

Thanks!



I don´t think this will happen. For most people, it is just an old Toyota, nothing special. Very rare, but nothing to look twice. Only the african car-export-dealer would like it for Africa, but they wont get it.

looks fantastic!

Fear not Lukas, they rust in the same spots over here with no snow!

Excellent job on the resto. They are getting a little harder to find in good condition here too as they get crushed very regularly. I'm planning to add one into the museum. I had a SV21 Camry wagon as a workshop loan car and it never failed.

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Too many Mazda's in the collection. 4 Mitsubishi's, 6 Toyota's and now 3 Datsun's as well.
Putting together a Mazda/Japanese motor museum. New bigger venue for the museum has been bought, watch this space!

After reading this yesterday, I decided to count how many I saw on the streets here. In one day, I saw 16 of them.

None as clean as yours, though.

And none of ours came with that sweet front lip...

I saw 2 (!) since I bought mine two month ago. One on the street (2.0 GLi 4WD, rusty and going to get exported soon) and one at a scrapyard (XL Turbo-D, rustholes everywhere). No more, all gone. They did sell in reasonable numbers here, especially the 4WD and the Turbo-D, but after 20 long and salty winters, there are only very few left. Good for me though, mines getting even rarer.

There's this one a few blocks from my house

Somehow it looks completely different than mine, and it´s not only the color!

Weird to see a car that is sooo common over here referred to as rare over seas . I literally see 5 different camrys every single day, and rarely see the same one twice, lol. Car is clean! Great work on the body, turned out very very nice .

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

This Camry sold in reasonable numbers, but got very rare over the years. In Austria, the average lifespan of a car is 12 years. After 12 winter, most cars are so rusty, they get exported or cubed. So you hardly see cars older than ~ 15 years and especially japanese cars don´t last long because of rust and a very strict annual vehicle inspection.

So you almost never see cars at an age of 21 years like my Camry on the streets, especially japanese cars are gone long before. So it is definately oldschool. Here.

A current pic of the Camry:



I don´t drive it much, it sits in the garage most of the time, safe and dry. I drive the Camry only on beautiful days at times with not so much traffic, it should remain as nice as it is now.

L

I salute your dedication to the Camry sedan!

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Nice clean Camry, ya got there.

Here's my 89 Camry VIP(Bippu), sadly it is gone, due to the title was lost and couldn't be reregistered. RIP

Now that the snow and salt is gone, I´m using it as a daily driver. It is only one week now, but two people already started talking to me that they have´nt seen such an old Toyota for a very long time and that it looks like new. Of course I´m proud.

L

hi, i have never seen or heard of someone restoring a camry. i give you much respect in doing so. she's a beauty. nice front bumper too. don't have those here.

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i might be young, but i love old school cars.
1981 corolla wagon
1985 corolla gts
model car blogspot
http://zenkitrdcoupe.blogspot.com/

This is cool! Camry is a highly appreciated vehicle here in Finland! Keep up the good work

I've built two Camrys.

My wagon:


My sedan:

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Corona RT134, 20R, 1980
Corolla Verso R1, 2AD-FTV, 2006
MR2, 3S-GTE, 1996
Toyota Club of Finland

Very good to see that you are takeing care of the Camrys! Our US-friends can´t understand that, but I know how rare they are here and that most of them have died the rusty death...

Mine wont see snow or salt again!

L

we can still regularly see these Camrys on our streets but I salute anyone who keeps a rare and otherwise unloved car.

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