1971 Toyota Corolla Deluxe - A Life Remembered

“I eventually got rid of the Civic though and picked up this 1971 Corolla. Our group of friends was mainly Honda heads but Armando never gave me any grief about getting rid of my Honda. He was actually pretty excited about it and always wanted me to bring the car around so that he could check it out and drive it if he could. Around that time in my life I was slowly losing interest in the whole car scene though so I kind of put the Corolla on the backburner and didn’t really do anything to it. It sat for a couple years and I even put it up for sale a few times. I just had other stuff going on in my life at the time and cars weren’t a priority. I always told Armando that I would bring the car out though. I would tell him that I had plans to take it to the shop and get it fixed so that he could see the car,” Henry says.

Unfortunately, Henry’s friend never got the opportunity to see his Corolla in person again. On May 11, 2009, Armando Flores Jr. lost his life tragically in a motorcycle accident. Henry and his friends were left in utter shock that their dear friend had passed. Armando was survived not only by his mother, father, and sister, but also a group of friends that thought the world of him. The way he lived his life inspired the people around him to live every day of their lives in his memory. When it came to cars, there was no bigger fan than Armando. At his funeral services, all of his friends brought their project cars out of respect because they knew that he would not have it any other way. The sheer number of cars that came out that day would rival some of SoCal’s best car meets. For Henry Mendez, his way of dealing with the passing of his friend would be to resurrect his Corolla in Armando’s honor.

“I wanted to do something for him that I know he would appreciate, something that would make him look down from above and smile at me. I made a promise to him that I would one day bring the car back out for him to see and I wanted to live up to that promise. I decided to build the Corolla as a tribute to him.”

The 1971 Corolla Deluxe is a work in progress but to call it a labor of love would truly be an understatement. The 1.8-liter 3TC swap is now back in full running condition. The 40mm Mikuni carbs and custom side exit exhaust release a deep-toned song that would be music to anyone’s ears, not just Armando’s. Every time Henry hops into his Corolla and mashes on the pedal, it’s a screaming proclamation that his dear friend will never be forgotten. “Although the car isn’t in any way complete, everything that I do to the Corolla from now on will be in honor of Armando,” Henry says proudly. “I guess you can say that it’s my way of grieving with the loss. Because of him, I was able to meet some amazing people that are in my life today. Even though it was under a tragic circumstance, I’m glad to be surrounded by other people that were around him because he continues to live through all of us.”