drift freak

Guys, I'm in the process of building my ke11 coupe and need to know the original track width front and back of the car. .The original wheels and original suspension are needed to be fitted. This is measured from the centre of one wheel to the centre of the other. The reason I need this is because if you change wheels and gyres etc. you need to keep the track width within 25mm overall of the original. (STUPID NSW REGULATIONS). At the moment I have front measurement at 1270mm and rear 1225mm, can anybody confirm this???

Not necessarily Jordain I still have a reasonable amount I could go inwards at the strut tower. I'll show you on Sunday. Rolla Beams : not sure where you could pick one of those up from as apart from Japan. They aren't super common here in oz either so finding stuff like that can become a pain in the arse. Willis : yeah Jordain is coming round on the weekend with a strut bender so we can have a go at it. Fingers crossed it works as this is the final piece to the puzzle for both of us. We will get some pics and post them up when it's done.

I have spoken with K-Mac suspension today and they have told me that their camber tops are far more adjustable than standard 'slide' style tops. They assured me that compared to other competitors camber plates I should be able to get another 2 degrees of neg camber. The only drama is they are fair bloody expensive!!!!! K-MAC Camber Top Slide Style Camber Top Question - Has anybody out there had any experience with these K-MAC camber tops and do they give that extra adjustment compared to 'slide' style???

Jono.C yeah I've spoken with Jordain about this to great length but not sure hwere to get it done properly and for a reasonable price. I see your in Tasmania, would you know of anyone in NSW by any chance. Also have you done this before with any luck????

ro11in#22, thanks for the link. They look interesting and could possibly be useful down the track. I can't use them now as NSW RTA regs state that all suspension components must be rubber mounted to insulate against shock loading into the chassis. After the engineering is sorted then they will probably make their way into my car :)

My only issue now is getting enough camber into the front end while getting a reasonable size wheel and tyre under the guard. Going with the 5 stud pattern has thrown up its share of problems with not alot of rim sizes in the offset I require. Due to the hopper stoppers brake kit I have to have 15" rims, if I had of gone the same route as Jordain (building the same car/engine combo as me here on rollaclub) I would be able to use 14" and would have way more options in rim combo's because of the 4 stud pattern from the AE86. Back to the camber problem, with the camber tops fully adjusted inwards I'm still a 0 deg camber. If I use KE20 LCA's then the wheel track will be wider again and the stub axle will stick right out from the guard. I still have around 15mm before my top spring perch touches the inner of the strut tower. So theoretically I could gain a couple of degrees more camber if I could get the top of the strut inboard some more. My question is does anyone have any suggestions about how to gain more camber from my setup???

Well time for an update. I know its long over due but things have been hectic busy at my house so progress is sporadic and slow :( The front end is coming along slowly with a few hiccups along the way. I bit the bullet and swapped to AE86 struts from the KE30 ones as I can use a shorter shock which has allowed me to lower th car to the desired height with enough travel left in the shock for proper operation. I also had to swap my crossmember for a KE20 one, this gave me two advantages: 1) I don't have to use adapter mounts for the LCA's 2) I have enough room behind the crossmember to mount the KE70 rack and pinion. Along with the change to the KE20 crossmember I have installed KE20 castor mounts and used KE30 castor rods with the thread machined down to the KE20 thread size to make it all fit. I have also purchased a PWR radiator core that fits nicely inside the original radiator opening (just have to cut he end tank plates and get it all welded up). A mate of mine has started to wire the ECU in and tidied up the engine wiring loom nicely, everything runs up and under the rocker cover then through the firewall behind the head :)

Cheers guys :) I am currently in Thailand until the 22nd so I'll have some more progress soon. Hopefully have the front end sorted early in the new year :) then onto the body and diff.

Iroken - yeah I'd like to stitch it up instead of fully seam welding. I'll brush all the overlaps with seam sealer before I spray the under body shutz (the textured rubber coating most cars under carriage). I also went and got my hilux diff I'll try and use plus a ke30 front suspension setup. Now I only need a ke70 rack and column (anyone knows where one is can they let me know) I was worried my brakes and coilover kit wouldnt fit onto the later model stuff but everything does :) I need to change the inner wheel bearing because the spindle was 2mm bigger in diameter. These luckily came with the kit when I bought it. Secondly I had to shave the length of one bolt down a couple of mm as it fowled with the strut because of the two bolt steering arm compared to the 3 bolt ke10 item.

Well I've got some more photos of the the tunnel fabrication. I had to remove the centre piece and replace it with a section that overlapped bothe the firewall and main tunnel piece. I took a few photos for the people out there that wanted to see how I did it. I started by flattening out the old piece and tracing the shape onto a new piece of steel. I then added 20mm around the outside edge to be used as the tabs for overlapping. I then shaped it using my mates bench folder. I started with the middle fold then made my way to the to either side as it was the only way to be able to fold them all. Then with a little grinding and trial fitting it eventually slotted back in very well. I then had my neighbour hold it in place while I spot welded it in.

Not sure what his reasoning was probably just strength issues but i suppose all joins are lapped from factory. He told me to seam weld both sides of the joint too then stress releive it by drilling the welded corners out. Will upload some photos when I get to it.

Well I sent a couple of photos to my engineer and rang him again. He told me it does need to be overlapped by more than 10mm. I got it wrong. I also went over to visit one of the local fabrication/hot rod shop and spoke to the main builder. He has told me he uses 1.15 mm cold roll mild steel sheet for all floor pan. He said it was easier to shape. I'm gunna stick with 1.6mm for extra strength. So I'm going to remove the middle section of tunnel I've made and make one with tabs for the added strength. Not much fun redoing things but I want to know it's as strong as. Will try and remember to take some photos as I make it.

Somemore prgress shots. Jordan I've spoken with my engineer and I'm going to put some reinforcement in the inside between the floor and tunnel (prob some 20*20 mild steel tube and stitch it to both) but not up the firewall as it will interfere with my feet when using the pedals. The footwell is already extremely small, no work boots when driving this bad boy :)

Well heres some more photos of the tunnel and firewall. It has been slow but I'm finally getting somewhere with it :) Once I finish filling in the gaps on the side its onto the floor brace and the gap near the handbrake (this is going to be very interesting thats for sure as the selector out of the gearbox might interfere with the brace, we'll wait and see)

Just found this link in RobJ's KE25 build thread. Very handy!!!! http://www.toycrazy.net/tech/struts.html

Bought the heater unit from rocket industries. $380 plus delivery. Yeah I know about the weird rules but that is what he wanted so that is what he is gettin (for now). I spoke to another guy the other day and he might be getting authorized to engineer, he told me to go with ke70 xmember etc etc so might go that instead. I will do some more research and trial and error then decide which way to go.

Yeah I've ordered a vintage air bi-level unit with demister. By my measurements it should fit in nicely.

Slo-030 is correct, my engineer has told me to retain the original cross member. If I don't it then becomes an individually constructed car and is then subject to crash testing. I definately don't want to smash this after all the work I'm puttin into it :) hopefully this won't matter anyway with retrofitted ke70 lca's and rack and pinion it won't matter. Yeah I borrowed the bender of my neighbour (has made life so much easier and cheaper considering the local hot rod guy quoted me $2500 just to fab a tunnel up). Hopefully some more progress will be made this week, I've ordered my computer, heater/demister unit and insulation, now to work out what to do for a radiator.

Heres some more photos of the build guys. If anyone wants to know anything just ask away.

Some more photos of the progress on the tunnel. I've used 1.6mm mild steel sheet and folded the shape into it using a bench folder. Will be doing some more tomorrow :)

Performance wheels in Sa xr8racer. 206 a rim plus delivery. Ended up about 245 per rim total without tyres

Well some progress has been made :) The engineer came around the other day and was really happy with how the prgress is coming. Because I am going with the 3SGE and it is over 45% bigger than the original motor in capacity I need to use a collapsible column. Now this has thrown a spanner in the works so to say because I can't run the original lca's because to install a rack and pinion with collapsible steering column the mounting bolts are in the way. So I've asked the engineer about using KE70 lca's with adapter brackets like the ones 68Krolla has designed, he said this is the best way to go as I retain the standard crossmember as it is a requirement of the engineering process. So now I need to chase up some KE70 lca's, rack and pinion, struts, radius rods and mounting brackets to finish the front suspension setup. I also asked him about the trans tunnel, he has no probs with what i'm planning on doing. Now I received my wheels today so I've fitting them up tonight so I can move it around the shed over the weekend (pics below), now I mis-ordered them and ordered positive 3mm offset on 15*6 rims and theyu sit out of the guard by about 25 mm. So I'll sort this out once the suspension is finalised. (Always remember to measure twice and check twice more before ordering stuff lol) So now its onto the tunnel, after discussing the best solution with the engineer I've decided to get a section rolled at my local sheetmetal business and weld it in myself, he has no probs with that and thought that was a better idea than me trying to fold up a squareish piece myself at home. I've just got to make some templates and go and see them.

Ordered my wheels from Performance wheels in sa today. Superlite 15*6 with 3mm positive offset in black with machined lip. Probably a little out of order considering I still need to find out about the front end but I suppose I can always sell them if I don't use them. Wish they'd hurry up and turn up I need to be able to roll it around the shed.

Yeah count me in also. Very keen. Might be able to help with chrome strips that run around outside of car ( just not sure what colour I'm going to paint it as that will determine wether I keep the strips or not) pics, pics, pics :)

Peter clarke from st georges basin on the south coast