Restore or Parts Car? 1967 Toyota Crown
Toyota first entered the U.S. market in 1958 – and sold a whopping 288 cars in its first year. The off-road Land Cruiser would largely carry the Toyota flag in America until the mid-1960s when smaller, imported vehicles (besides the VW Beetle) would begin to find acceptance with U.S. buyers. The Crown would be the largest car that Toyota offered at the time and you don’t see many of them around here these days. This 1967 Crown is a true barn find that has been dormant for some 40 years. It’s available in Bonsall, California and here on craigslist for the best offer submitted. Our thanks to gaijinshogun for bringing us this tip!
Styling for the second generation of the Crown (1962-67) is said to have been influenced by the 1960 Ford Falcon. The front grille looked similar to another car with the name Crown (1960 Chrysler Imperial Crown). When I look at the body lines of the car, it looks a lot like a 1960s Mercedes to me. So perhaps it was Toyota’s intention that the Crown have universal appeal for markets like the U.S. and Europe. More than 50 years later, these are cars you don’t see on the road very often, if at all. NADA estimates top dollar to be about $2,500, so restorations would have to come from love, not economics.
There were three trim levels of the Crown in 1967, Standard, Deluxe and Custom. From the seller’s post, we can’t determine which one this car might be. The RS40 was your basic Crown and it came with an inline 4-cylinder engine that displaced 1897cc or 116 cubic inches. At 80 hp, supposedly this engine was powerful enough to push around a 2,700 lb. car like the Crown, but you weren’t going to get whiplash from a dead start. Fans of the James Bond movie franchise might recognize the Crown from a scene in You Only Live Twice. The car that was picked up by a helicopter with a big magnet and then dropped into the bay was a second-gen Toyota Crown.
This ’67 Crown, with a 4-speed manual transmission, was parked in the barn where it currently resides back in the 1980s. And it hasn’t moved since. We can’t tell if its complete, but the driver’s side window looks like it was left rolled down and Mother Nature has taken over as much of the interior as she has the exterior. This is a car that could be purchased for a restoration or one that could be parted out. Just to get it moved, you’d have to put on a set of tires that will hold air. Because this automobile car has been out of commission for so long, the seller has lost the title. What would you do with it?
Auctions Ending Soon
2006 Ford Mustang Saleen S281 SCBid Now8 hours$15,000
2002 Subaru Impreza WRXBid Now3 days$333
1975 Chevrolet Corvette ConvertibleBid Now3 days$3,000
1964 Ford F-100 Camper CustomBid Now3 days$2,000
2006 Jeep Wrangler SportBid Now5 days$10,500
Comments
1) Find out why it was parked and neglected.
2) “Make offer”-ok, give me $100 and I’ll drag it away to free up your barn space.
3) If it doesn’t reek of cat/mouse/barn animal maybe a power wash to see what is salvageable.
4) If it’s salvageable and strikes a spark in you, make it a daily driver-nobody will ever steal it from you!
5) If it’s not salvageable don’t try to sell it to a scrap yard without a title (in California anyway), donate it to a scuba dive club to drop off a boat into the ocean…
ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS:
A:
1) Do a cheap version to electric and sell it without cleaning up ANYTHING to a hardcore environmentalist.
B:
1) Shake your head with amazement.
2) Walk away.
Almost anything can be restored, this toyota is really not that bad.I have done worse cars. Old toyotas are cool to restore, parts are available in Mexico.
What the flock! This is clearly garbage disposal stuff!
Clearly….
I drove the wagon version of this.One of the most boring
cars I’ve ever driven.
I had a wagon too. Almost died in that thing when the cable operated rear drum brakes overheated while descending the steeply winding and narrow road from Topanga down to Pacific Coast Highway.
Standing on the brake pedal yielded no reduction in speed.
By the time I go to the bottom of the canyon, and the road leveled out enough to stop, I was ten years closer to the grave.
Oh, and then there was the Alfa Guilletta brake failure….
The emergency brake cable might have been rusted up and seized – causing your rear brakes to remain engaged and overheat, but your rear brakes were note “cable-operated” – they were hydraulically operated just like any other car of the time. I know – I was a Toyota mechanic for years. Just like any car with hydraulic brakes, when the brakes overheat the pedal becomes spongy – when the brakes overheat to the point where the brake fluid is boiling, the brakes are essentially useless. Rusted emergency brake cables causing brakes to seize and overheat have been a problem with all makes and models of cars for decades.
All 1960’s Toyota’s were total crap. I had a 1967 Toyota Stout (Pickup), while cool looking and built sturdily body wise the engine (1900? IIRC) ALWAYS had to be worked on. It got TERRIBLE gas mileage, like less then 15mpg. Had zilch for power.
My grandfather had bought one of the cars, I think it was a Corona, but it might have been one of these Crowns, either way he was terribly underwhelmed by the fuel economy and unreliability.
I’d take this one for free if the guy was near me, but I sure wouldn’t waste any money on it.
“All 1960’s Toyota’s (sic) were total crap.”
Yes indeed. And that’s why the Toyota marque slowly faded into obscurity, never to be heard from again, while the small domestic offerings soared in popularity and took over the market for decades to come, with their legendary reliability.
Oh wait, that didn’t happen….
Test, my comments don’t seem to show up.
I wrote a big-azz comment that disappeared somewhere between ‘Post Comment’ and ‘Comment notification’. Damn BF!
It magically showed up a day later (what’s up with THAT?).
from the looks of the passenger floorboard generations of mice have made their home inside this car. I can imagine the smell and would not touch anything without a biohazard suit.
Wow that looks like crap ON the car.
I bought a rough 71 GTO. I didn’t know where it was found. Was parked in a guys driveway. It had sat for years. The 400 was stuck. We loosened the motor up. Added a good carb and a friend donated a good fuel tank as he back halfed his Chevelle. The car ran very well.
The interior…..It had to be gutted. Mice moved in. Had families. Passed on….others moved in. On and On.
I used a hospital cleaner that was actually turned corrosive. One thing for sure. Mice poop can kill you.
Dull, boring appliance. A 3/4 scale ’63 Chev chassis & suspension.
So what you’re saying, Chris, is SBC!?!? 👍🏻🤣
I’ve had a couple of these, both at the same time. A 63 Wagon and a 64 sedan. The 1.9l forklift motors were un-inspiring performers and the 3 on the tree transmissions clunky. Still, they were interesting cars and Toyota’s flagships in their day. The wagon went to Sweden (?!?!) to the Swedish Toyota Museum and the sedan went to LA…….neat cars and somewhat of an anomaly!!
Is there ANYBODY in the whole wide world (including Japan) that would spend the money to restore this nondescript sedan?
$0 collectibility and $0 value. Jump yard material.
I feel this has the potential to be the ultimate sleeper
Yeah, maybe-but that would make it a true Frankenstein-ish creation as it already looks and undoubtedly SMELLS dead..or would it become a Zombie!?
put a match to it !!
So little imagination,all cars have the right to be restored
Title was in the glove box and the mice ate it for lunch
1. Where would you find parts to restore this?
2. Why would you want to?
Parts? For what? You would have to pay me to even think about looking at this thing….
Ho-Hum, Next…..
Great idea leaving the window down for forty years.. Must have been hot out the day it was parked…!!! 😕
These cars were not unreliable my father bought one in 1967 brand new
He drove it daily when he passed it became my problem as I never really liked the car I left it stored in my mothers garage until she passed.
Stuck a battery in it drained the fuel which was still leaded petrol
Poured a cup of petrol down the carburettor and it fired straight up and ran.
As I’m am in Australia I can tell you that the rear differential was made by General Motors Holden in Australia which was a subsidiary of General Motors the rear suspension and front suspension coil spring all round was copied from a Holden torana
As the car had survived the test of time relatively unscathed I thought I would liven it up a bit I removed the original 138ci 6 cylinder engine and fitted a LSA and 6 speed tr6060 nine inch diff and discs all round fitted Simonds wheels and lowered 2 inches
Now it’s a cool car