Burial & Resurrection: Toyota Crown Custom (Part 1)

When I first saw this car, I couldn’t identify it for quite a while. Judging by the appearance, it was a model of the late 1970’s, which had a logo seemingly belonging to Lexus. As far as I know, this company started the production of cars in 1989. Even the internet couldn’t help me with the identification of this strange vehicle, and there remained no choice but to find the owner. I managed to find him through social networks and was finally told the story of this car.
In reality, It appeared to be a custom-version of the model called Toyota Crown, which is the oldest model of Toyota and was intended only for the domestic marked of Japan.

It took 5 years to build this car. A Toyota Crown MS 106 of the 1979 production was chosen as a donor car to fulfill this unique project. This car has an interesting story. It is said that, in the 1980’s, it was owned by one of the most influential and well-known criminal bosses in the USSR. According to the legend, he received this car as a gift from representatives of the criminal world of Russian Far East. For many years, this respectable hardtop sedan served its respected owner travelling across Armenia without any registration and license plates, because in those times such cars could be counted on the fingers of one hand and all the police knew their owners preferring to stay away from them. Such a state of affairs was undoubtedly in the owner’s favor, who, taking advantage of his “authoritative” influence, unrelentingly led a lawless lifestyle, by the end of which he acquired countless enemies.
One day, arriving home, he parked the car in the yard, got home and died of heart attack shortly thereafter. In panic, the family started to hide all his illegally acquired property: gold, jewels, weapons, etc.
Late at night, it came to the strikingly elegant car. The relatives couldn’t invent anything smarter but to bury the car right in the yard. In haste, the Toyota Crown was partially buried. The upper part was simply covered with bricks. As a result, it turned out an imitation of a small hangar, which kept the car away from the eyes of subsequent foes.

Over the years, the car got completely forgotten. Many of the participants of all those troubled events must have already gone to the next world.
In 2009, the current owner discovered the car quite by chance and immediately decided to buy it. It took a few days to remove the Toyota from the ground. The car was finally towed into a dry and warm garage, where the process of resurrection began.
To be continued...