CAPABLE of turning heads in its factory form, Ronda Davis’ 1967 Toyota Corona Deluxe goes a few steps further with its pink, white and chrome highlights to stands out on the road.
The classic vehicle lives up to its colour – the Holden shade Striking Pink – making it truly a one-of-a-kind.
An avid car enthusiast, Ms Davis’ husband Dave Rawnsley said the Australian-assembled car originally came from Japan in pieces.
“We purchased it from a deceased estate in 2013 when it was its factory Battleship Green colour,” he said.
“The previous owner said his father bought it for his wife brand new in 1967 and through the years she passed, the dad sold his other car and kept this one.
“In 1986, he started getting old and started to get a few dings in the car from hitting things.”
Mr Rawnsley said the family’s children encouraged the father to sell the car and one day it just disappeared.
“They thought he sold it but after he passed away, they went out into the chicken shed and it was there all covered in blankets.
“When I got it, it was all there, just with few dents on it and a lot of surface rust from the car sweating under the blankets.”
A short time after, Mr Rawnsley said he stripped the car back to bare metal and re-built it in a month with a friend from Brisbane.
“The car is my wife’s because I told her the next car I got was going to be hers,” he said.
“She had a Toyota Corona as her first car so it was what she said she wanted.”
Mr Rawnsley said the whole restoration took place in his back shed while he lived in Alice Springs.
“The car has an engine with raised compression, twin SU carburetors, has been converted to floor shift manual and a narrowed differential,” he said.
“The door cards are original but have been restored as one was torn, the seats have been re-trimmed in leather and we redid the carpet and hood lining.
“The idea was to build it very much how a girl would have in the early 70’s with the period correct wheels, lace-painted roof and chrome on the engine.”
Mr Rawnsley said the car was also fitted with lightweight alloy drums, originally fitted to a 1600S sport model.
With various Japanese features, Mr Rawnsley said the 14×7 Hayashi Yayoi forged rims were his stand-out favourite aspect of the car.
“The rim name means cherry blossom in Japanese because that is what they look like,” he said.
“Production stopped making them in around 1982, making them extremely rare.
“I made the car fit the wheels and the differential had to narrowed to fit the wide rims.”
Painted in a bold pink, Mr Rawnsley said the shade also had a special meaning.
“The colour came about from my Valiant stationwagon we call George as it was given to me from my wife’s uncle George,” he said.
“We were going to paint the car in a similar colour but I like different colours for different cars.
“Because we called that car George, we thought we would name this Mildred – inspired by the British sitcom – and Mildred is girly so we thought pink was fitting.”
Mr Rawnsley said the mirrors were also inspired by the Japanese Domestic Market – or JDM styling.
“The mirror location is different, but in Japan that is where they put them,” he said.
“The Australian cars have a silver plate there instead, but I wanted to install the Japanese mirrors.
“In Japan, the small-sized Toyota vehicles were called Toyopet instead of just Toyota which explains its grill badge.”
Mr Rawnsley said the car had won multiple show awards in the past including judge’s choice at the Red CentreNATS in 2016 and best early Toyota at the Toyota Nationals in 2015 and 2016.
