History
So hello and welcome to the story of The Aussie Lightning McQueen Wagon.
First off I want to make a massive shout out to all the photographers who have gone out of their way over the last few years to capture the car regularly at events so I always have something professional to follow my own progress of the car especially that of Karstomz Photography with an absolute gun behind the camera who outdoes my expectations every time he captures the wagon. You sir are a legend behind the lens!
But now for the story on how this a previously below average Camry became a near restored magical wonder to those who need it most for anyone here that is willing to have a bit of a read.
The story starts in December 2017 when I had my first child on the way and needed a bigger car than what I had been driving and after seeing a trashy yet very P plater cool Camry getting passed around from owner to owner before it ended up wasting away on a front lawn just up the road from my house for quite some time, I was for some reason drawn to it despite it looking well below average and very used. But the car enthusiast in me knew I had to have it so pushed on and found the owner who then said “for a half decent set of wheels to fit my Commodore you can have it..” Thats when I just thought Dang it let’s do it and along came a Camry wagon.
It was then on Boxing Day in 2017 that I took the car home and realised just how bad it was as my last photos on here will somewhat show as my early days photos couldn’t hide everything.. Nearly everything from the inside to the outside was broken, missing or damaged. The rooflining was falling out, plastics and body parts missing or broken, severely stained seats and paint, missing or flaking paint, scratches and dents you name it nothing was untouched. The car did have some rather “classy” extras too. The bonnet was wrapped with some cheap wrap, it had a front lip made of garden edging held on by tek screws along with a spoiler made from a metal sign also held on by tek screws. But that wasn’t it they’d even chopped the springs in the suspension almost in half just to lower it among other things..
So it was then I set out to gather anything I could to get this car not only roadworthy but to restore it to near original as I could! Like no joke you’ll see in my photos that it somehow even has the original service and owners manuals from 1995!
But one of the very first things I did was colour match the factory steel wheels as one was normal red, put chrome trims on them and fixed that rooflining getting it trimmed in some red velvet which got me hooked on the red theme and it wasn’t long before my son was hooked on the Cars movies and everyone’s favourite race car Lightning McQueen.
It was then I knew what I had to do to make this one very special car for not just my son and I but for many others who needed it and I set out to get some merchandise and a few other things together..
It was then along came the Kruze for Kidz Good Friday Appeal Show and Shine to end the car show season in April 2019 which I attended the previous year with the Toyota Car Club Australia Victoria and thought let’s do this again but with something new so I made the few hour trip to Sunbury where the car was a massive hit with both young and old including the Police and emergency services members walking over for a look with the little I had at the time offering compliments and words of motivation to stick at it. Little did I know at the end of the show someone from the Toyota club actually won one of the raffle prizes and it was then awarded to me because they were impressed by the fact someone young like myself (I was 28 at the time) had the passion and drive to create something out of nothing and yet this was just the start of things to come..
Later in 2019 when the shows started again there was a period of about 6 months of the next show season before Victoria ended up shutting down due to covid and the display and the look of the car just got bigger and better. By the time the state was shut down at the start of 2020 the car was improving and the display had grown bigger and much to my surprise I had notched up to approximately 10 wins with the car winning all kinds of prizes, awards, medals and even trophies.
My most proudest ones being a Promoters Choice at Wagon Nationals 2019 followed by a 2nd Best Wagon not long later along with a 3 good results here in the Shannons Show and Shine based on likes with a 3rd best Australian in 2019, an 8th best Australian in 2020 and even more great results in 2021 which was my biggest on here yet with 7th best Australian and 11th overall categories on likes and a massive 2.7 thousand views meaning based on views the car was 3rd best Australian and 6th best overall across all categories which is a huge result..
But as covid shut down the state the car decided it would do the same after it went in for repairs that weren’t properly completed so the car sat out the most part of 2020 not going anywhere only for me to get it fixed 10 months later coming into Easter 2021 then 24 hours later on Good Friday it blew a head gasket spending a few more months off the road which in total was over a year off the road which includes 2 of the last 3 of these Shannons show and shine events... But whilst the car was off the road I didn’t let that stop me from pushing on. The display items grew in numbers just like the parts and ideas I had for the wagon. So much so I bought rare black Camry headlights from the USA that were never made or sent here to Australia which will be fitted up in due time after a few other things are done.
With car shows returning in February 2022 and now being 4 shows in we have already won again scoring a ribbon that went to the top 50 cars out of about 600 at the 2.0 Mega Show and Shine back in March just days after my birthday which brings the car a strike rate of a win in every 3 shows which both have made me very proud to accomplish.
But future plans are to up the game a bit with a seat and door card insert retrim in red leather or suede, convert the car to manual, change the colour to red and finish it off with some nice chrome wheels which will most likely be old school chrome 12 slotters.
A win in the Shannon’s Show and Shine this time around would mean the absolute world to me and would be a massive help towards not only getting this car to where I want it to be in the future but would help inspire me to continue on this journey showing others young and old that if the passion is there it doesn’t matter what you own, it’s what you can do with it!
In a crazy world like this we should always dare to be different, strive to be unique and always make sure we create a little magic along the way!
Modifications
- 17 inch Toyota RAV4 wheels for the factory original grandpa look.
- Custom rear spoiler
- Candy red interior plastics including door jam kick panels
- Red velvet roof lining
- L.E.D. Strip lighting down each side of the rooflining.
- Personalised number plates
- Number plate case style protectors
