Barn Find Classic Toyota Survivor! Will it run?

Thank you Jonny and your team for bringing my Uncle Ken’s Toyota Celica back to life. It was a pleasure to spend a day filming with you and a fitting tribute to my uncle ❤

I love how he got annoyed with you for being mesmerised by the aerial when you left him earthing a plug 😂

You were a good combo, the owner wasn’t letting you mess around Jonny 😂

The older gentleman in the background had a blast watching this thing come back to life. Those things are the best part of these barn finds.

In 1980 I worked for an aftermarket company so I was driving all sorts of customer cars from the dealers to our garage workshop. I had the chance to drive one of these (along with all sorts of 80s cars, Nissan Sunny, Nissan Space Wagon, Toyota Corolla, XR2, XR3, Sierra, Vauxhall Astra etc) and even though it was a few years old at that time, I'll never forget the Corolla GT's engine being a huge surprise. What a machine. Torquey and yet free revving. Beat the crap out of UK mass market engines. And how incredibly beige it was! Anyway we did used to fit Remov-A-Top sunroofs, so it was definitely a dealer fitment. Dealers would get them fitted as an added enticement, along with a rustproofing system using Waxoil, if you remember that. Jeezuz, I'm so old.... takes me back!

Will it run? It's a Toyota, of course it will run

This car was stored for literally my entire life, I'm as old as it's life in storage. And now I own a Toyota of a very similar age to this one...

Just finished the British F1, now on to another winning formula 😉

Perfect late 70s / early 80s brown and beige. What a beauty!

In 1983/1984 a bloke I worked with used to give me a lift to work in one of these. It was his pride and joy and I loved it. He would never let me have a drive. Great car, great video thanks Jonny.

That car is in incredible condition. Brings back great memories. I owned a 1978 1600 coupe in metallic blue with the same interior but in blue, bought at 5 years old with big scabs on both rear wheel arches but boy did I love that car. It was cracking to drive. My Dad always said it was the most comfortable car he’d even ridden in. Fantastic

I think this is the first time I've really had empathy for another person's story on this channel, cause I also drive a 2L Celica that used to be owned by an Uncle before they passed away. Don't get me wrong all these Barn find stories are brilliant but this one felt close to home.

Remember one of the older boys had one of these coupe. He was a mechanic really good with cars and it was really quick remember going for a spin in it I was about 10 and we were doing about 120 down the motorway... Galactic speed in those days

So I had never heard of this channel until today. I had 5 different people send me this video because I'm a 2nd generation Celica nerd 😂 I haven't managed to watch the video on it's entirety yet (because I'm at work currently) by just wanted to say that the pop top sun roof would have been dealer fitted. The factory Toyota ones are a wind back sunroof. Probably a good thing it didn't have the factory type because the drains on the mechanism tend to clog and the roof rusts out around the sunroof panel. Also the stainless trim going over the roof is called a tiara. This is an awesome car. It's so damn clean. If you need any parts for it please feel free to get in contact. I'm in Australia but happy to ship worldwide and help out fellow 2nd gen owners.

Ah Jonny, you're hitting close to home with this one. My high school buddy had this very same Celica, a 1978 model , different color (it didn't have the two tone vinyl roof), same interior, same wheels, different lower body trim, sunroof everything - but in US spec (I think it had the 2.2 liter 4 cylinder with fuel injection if I remember correctly). It was a very nice car and he lusted for the follow up 6 cylinder Supra that came later. He had an after market Pioneer cassette deck with 4 6x9 speakers, one in each door and two in the back in custom built cabinets and a 200 watt amplifier. He also loved the Sunchaser which was a very rare dealer special order custom model with a removeable targa top roof and folding rear roof. Another great post - I love this!

Cars of this era were SO brown! It's easy to forget but just seeing this was such a shot of pure nostalgia. The multitude of shades of brown inside a car is like a snapshot of the 70s and early 80s that'd be impossible to explain to young people without showing them.

Tear in my eye watching this. My second ever car was an ST version of this in the same colour. Brought back so many memories of a being the proud owner. Loved it… and was especially fond of the electric aerial 😊

Wish I could have joined you on this one. Toyota Mechanic from 1986 . I worked on loads of these. Fantastic car.

I was thinking about asking Jonny to come to my place, my car is not old, it does run very well, it just needs washing!

Fantastic! What a survivor. In 1979 my Dad bought a new Hiace pick up it had similar hub caps and the same tool roll and book pack - great memories!