This Is How the Masters at Toyota GR Garage Restore an MK3 Supra

Many consider the A70 Toyota Supra a lost generation—the car that came before the one that everybody wants. But don’t tell the folks in charge of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s factory restoration team, because they take the same meticulous approach to restoring the Mk3 that they do with anything else that rolls into their shop. The results are immaculate, of course, and watching them work is borderline mesmerizing.

Unless you’re comfortable with Japanese, you’ll want to turn on the English auto-translate captions to follow along as the team works over this 1JZ-powered 1992 Supra, which rolled into the shop with a worn-out paint job and a handful of non-factory upgrades and modifications. I dig the LMs, personally, but like the rest of the aftermarket equipment, they’ll have to go.

Initially, the team leans on two specialists who thoroughly evaluate its initial condition so that they can set the customer’s expectations for the restoration job. Once everybody’s on the same page, the restorers’ real work begins. It’s not long before body parts start disappearing—set aside for work and to make way for the car’s mechanical refreshing.

And that’s a comprehensive job in and of itself. We see the Supra’s twin-turbo I6 and transmission get removed for tear-down, exposing the rest of the engine bay and under-body for cleanup and restoration. Everything from the powertrain’s internal components to the hoses for the fuel, cooling and emissions systems will be inspected, refreshed, restored or replaced as necessary.

With the mechanicals out of the way, the team works to try and restore the unibody to its original condition. This means more than just repairing rust perforations (of which there are more than you might expect despite this Supra’s relatively clean appearance) and touching up the paint. The restorers want the chassis to leave their shop the way it left the factory, which means accounting for damage and deformed metal from years of driving—not to mention previous repair jobs.

Even if you can’t follow the captions, there’s plenty to feast your eyes on in this roughly seven-minute video, and the result is predictably immaculate.

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