Restoration Tomica: Honda N360 and Toyota Corona 2000GT

For the last of my restoration series I also focused on a few Tomica’s that didn’t get the best of them.  While one was chipping away its paint, the other lost its paint, bumper nearly falling off at the front, and overall was in rough shape.  With the right amount of prep, fresh paint, and additional details these two were brought back to life.

Honda N360

The N360 was Honda’s version to comply with Japan’s Kei car registration when it was introduced in 1967 and it shares some common styling with the N-one, but at a much smaller scale.  The notable features include a dashboard where the shifter comes out of the dashboard instead of resting on the floor, increasing interior space for four.  The trunk area gains some space as the spare tire is located in the engine bay, fitting since the engine is an air-cooled 354 CC flat-2 that produced 23 horsepower through a 4-speed manual transmission.  Variations also included the N300 panel van and the beach buggy Vamos.

This Tomica casting is nicely done and started life as a yellow car before I repainted it orange; you can see some yellow from the deep window recesses that made painting difficult on this model (by the way I leave the vehicles riveted when painting them) and inside you can see yellow along the door panels.  The front has round headlights with rising fender lines and center hood spine that reaches the large grille with H logo and signal lights.  The sides show a typical hatchback profile with odd rear fender vents and 5-spoke wheels that look modern on this car, while at the rear is high-mounted square taillights and a license plate/trunk handle with Honda plate.  The metal base shows off the front subframe with lower engine, the exhaust system, and beam axle with leaf springs, while the hood opens to show off the flat-2 motor with carbs in the back of the engine and the spare tire, based on the Tomica wheel, sitting to the left of the engine at the back.  The interior has seating for four and a steering wheel with no dashboard in typical Tomica fashion, but with an opening hood and plenty of details outside an incomplete interior is just a minor blemish on this fantastic casting.

Toyota Corona 2000GT

The Corona fared much worse as it had at least three different colors on the faded paint, a faded chrome grille that was hanging on to one tab, and wheels that lost the chrome texture on the spokes.  Well after a fresh coat of blue paint, silver on the front grille and wheels, and additional detailing this Corona is now back in action.  The Corona was Toyota’s mid-size car offered over several decades and was also the first Toyota exported to other countries later followed by the Corolla.  This 1973 redesign went for a sleek coupe profile with front-end styling shared with other Toyota models, while the interior has a driver-oriented dashboard that has even the auxillary gauges in the center angled toward the driver.  The 2000GT coupe has the 2.0L DOHC I-4 that produced an estimated 130 horsepower through a 5-speed manual transmission.  The Corona Mark II is a more luxurious version of the Corona, while U.S. production ended in 1983 to make way for the new Camry.

The front has a large chrome grille with Toyota badge in center and quad round headlights, the outer with a square frame, and lower bumper with Corona plate.  The sides show off a typical coupe profile with rear pillar vents and CORONA cased on the rear fenders, while the rear has a round valence panel with reverse lamps wedge between the square taillights and another Corona plate.  Silver on the 5-spoke wheels helps bring this car back to life, while the metal base shows off the engine and drivetrain layout perfectly.  The doors open to a red interior with seating for four, a center console, floor shifter, and a steering wheel to a missing dashboard.  Not a very exciting car, but you can see how much improved this casting looks with a fresh coat of paint and thanks to Tomica’s excellent detailing the casting looks just as good as well.