Fat Bastard Customs

nice car, lots of motorsport history here and in un zed, i really do feel for the guy because wether or not you like or dislike someone elses car, that thing had an arseload of work put into it and its always sad to see that happen to something that someone has invested so much time and money in. having said that, its still a taxicab with F100 running gear :)

Sbox, instead of telling me i'm wrong read the book that i've been speaking about (which i have in front of me) and see what I mean. You don't have to drill holes and weld important suspension components just create new rear shackle links. Towe001, it shouldn't effect anti-squat/dive characteristics unless the height is changed to create more weight transfer. The watts linkage idea was just that, an idea. A panard bar is simpler but watts linkage works better but is more complicated i'm just giving ae71wagonater a few options. A car with cart-sprung rear suspension and no lateral movement limiting devices moves around heaps, left to right. Especially with horse-power. Read the book. Having a car too stiff in the rear may mean that you have less axle tramp but it may also cause undesired handling characteristics in other areas (over-steer/under-steer/rough ride ect). Also to my knowledge nobody makes a rear sway-bar that is a straight fit for the van/wagon (i could be wrong). However the sedan rear setup looks reasonably easy to fit to the leave spring rear end.

Sbox, instead of telling me i'm wrong read the book that i've been speaking about (which i have in front of me) and see what I mean. You don't have to drill holes and weld important suspension components just create new rear shackle links. Towe001, it shouldn't effect anti-squat/dive characteristics unless the height is changed to create more weight transfer. The watts linkage idea was just that, an idea. A panard bar is simpler but watts linkage works better but is more complicated i'm just giving ae71wagonater a few options. A car with cart-sprung rear suspension and no lateral movement limiting devices moves around heaps, left to right. Especially with horse-power. Read the book. Having a car too stiff in the rear may mean that you have less axle tramp but it may also cause undesired handling characteristics in other areas (over-steer/under-steer/rough ride ect). Also to my knowledge nobody makes a rear sway-bar that is a straight fit for the van/wagon (i could be wrong). However the sedan rear setup looks reasonably easy to fit to the leave spring rear end. P.S. The vans really neat man

the rear trailing arm bushes are all the same between all four link toyotas (or 5 link if u prefer), the only difference is the diameter of the hole in the sleeve in the middle of the bush, celicas run a bigger bolt than the rollas for example. the lower shock mounts in the rear are strong enough to support a coilover arrangment, the bathurst AE86's didnt have a reinforced lower mount and neither do i and ive been running coilovers in the rear of mine for about 12-18mths now with no hassles. also in relation to coilovers, if you measure from the center of where the shock would go (rear) to that thick bit of steel that was mention it is about 45-50mm which is more than enough (just) for a standard sized coilover (coilover diameter would be 80-90mm and which makes 40-50mm radius), so one of those shiny red coilovers in the pic would fit, but as has been said, you definately need to reinforce the upper shock mount in the boot. the only coilover that ive seem that is a true bolt in affair had a big, cast cone shaped top hat that rests against the steel cone shaped top mount and spreads the load evenly across a larger area, i can't remember where i saw it but it was waaaaay dear. or you could just make your own rear towers and put 200sx rear coilovers in like i did :fuzz: also, 8.8 bolts are not a size, 8.8 is to do with the tension strength rating of the bolts, 8.8 being fairly high 5 being low hopefully that lot helps someone

don't just stiffen or soften anything without reading that book, in dads van the rear was 2 stiff in the rear due to it being designed for load carrying, as i would assume the wagon is also. This means that u have to either make the front ridiculously hard to compensate for the rear or stiffen the front up a little and soften the rear a bit, then get some decent sway bars and stop the rear moving around on the leaves with a panard bear/watts linkage and have fun. theres also a way to make leaf sprung cars handle heaps better with a few bits of steel bar, make longer rear spring shackles out of the flat bar so that the front and rear eyelets of the leaf are the same distance from the ground, this dials out rear toe change under suspension movement and stops understeer. if u make a few holes in the strap u can play with different settings to get more understeer/oversteer or make the car neutral. putting equal length top and bottom arms in a KE70/AE86 rear has a similar effect have fun :fuzz:

how handy are you with a welder/mechanical stuff? my pa has a ke70 wagon and all he has done/wants to do is: softer rear leaves as the rear is pretty light and set up for load carrying figure out how to mount a panard bar off a sedan into the van mount an aftermarket rear sway bar bigger front sway bar replace strut tops (could go for adjustable camber ones but mainly just better ones as the standard ones suck) and above all, and before you spend any real money, invest in a book called how to make your car handle by fred puhn, its like a suspension guys bible, it'll save you a heap of money in the long run coz it will tell you how doing different things to your car will affect handling hope all that helps :fuzz:

why don't you just buy back the wreck and use the $1400-$3200 to get a cheap base model ae82 and put all your tasty bits in it?

when i wanted to put a 13bt in my ke70, the only way to do it was to get it regoed in a state that allows it, then keep it regoed there for 4yrs then u are able to just transfer the rego to any other state, id check with an engineer if i was you tho

they fit but the gaurds need flaring a little. I have them on my KE70 I'm not sur how to post a link and i can't be bothered figuring it out at the moment so just go to sr powered rolla in rides and projects to have a look, it was on page 2 last time i looked :)

the rally cars now pull quicker stage times so the speed thing isnt really the issue, they banned them because of the amount of spectator deaths/injuries.

Well the KE70 gets called lots of things depending on how shes behaving (both positive and negative) but usually "my girl" "basil 2" (after a mate of mine had a ke70, named basil, that copped more abuse than it had any right to, even for a rolla) or just "da rolla". The crown generally gets called "the lounge chair" or "land yacht".

car is running the complete nissan computer so the wiring is as nissan intended, i paid a guy that goes by the name of sideshow to wire it up for me. the crossmember is stock but i cut off the engine mounts and fabricated new ones to suit the sr.

I'll post more pics when i've got something to post, if anybody wants any particular pics let me know and i'll see what i can do. ca18de in a ke70: silvia diff is to wide and as CD_rollaman said, hilux is tuff as and andro0o, ben is likin the car, nothin has been done as yet (its been 3 days dude) but we're probably going to pick & payless next weekend to get a rear drivers window, some chrome window winders and some other bits and pieces. Hopefully the 5 speed will be going in in the next fortnight, but we'll see how things go. With he T-18 bumpers, its adeadset pain in the ass to make them fit a KE70, the easiest way would be to get the plastic end caps off the jap spec bumpers and modify the T18 bumpers to suit them. Still a pain tho.

sorry i havent replied but i havent checked this post for ages. i used a standard ae86 clutch master and the standard sr clutch slave, works well and its not to heavy (my nan can use it) UPDATES: fix front end (note to self, kangaroos suck ass :P ) get hilux diff and locright center ( as seen in zoom magazine) put longer top four link arms in rear convert rear to watts linkage get better g/box rose joint rear paint car all the same colour (tired of kids pointing at the "rainbow car") new coilovers allround speaking of which, can anybody recomend a good coilover brand? Theres freakin heaps around and I want to know which ones offer good adjustability, performance and cost, does anybody have any experiences they'ed like to share? also, does anybody in sydney have a front beaver panel they would like to part with? (stupid roos)

i havent looked at this for a while, my dads the one who sold you the shell, i didnt think you'd accually straighten that, nice work tho :)

definately a toyota, my tafe teacher used to have one (in crappy biege) i don't know to much about the car and it was about 6yrs ago, but it was definately one of them and his had sprinter badges too.

i just love modifying vehicles, be it a skateboard, truck or anything in between. When i was young(er) i made a few pushbikes and scooters (8 total) and me and my pa' designed a carbon fiber skateboard. since then ive done 3 cars for myself (2 that i finished) and helped with heaps of others. With cars i just love building an '81 rolla that has 4 different colours on it and owning the people who think the only way to go fast is to pay through the nose for imported parts :) next project (when i get funds) is a '47 harley knucklehead :P hate wood tho, thats what builders and carpenters are for :)

first of all, NICE!!! second, with the radiator, as an idea, ST165 celica is the same size (frontal area) as a sprinter rad but its double the thickness. Same mounting points and all, not sure about inlet/outlet positions tho. Also comes with twin thermos that bolt up and look nice and stock :P just a thought :)

I'm pretty sure tolulene is carcinogenic, but so is unleaded fuel, brake pad dust and a few other things in and around a car. Just don't drink it and you'll be fine :)

on mine i made up custom brackets for the rear, and the front is modified T18 brackets. the front isnt that difficult, the T18 has a set of holes that line up with the ke70 bolt holes in the chassis rail and the rest is just alot of stuffin around, hard to explain but if you go ahead with it you'll see what i mean.

does anybody know where i could get some late model sprinter (kouki) axles from, and for how much?

T-18 ones will fit but not easily, you need to rework the ends and modify the mounting brackets. Other than that AJPS.com.au might b able to get the JDM ones for you. this is what the T18 one look like when they're modified to fit. obviously there not chromed yet, they will b soon (i hope)

BTW teddy, have you managed to find those bumper bar brackets you were looking for?

The corona struts arent any longer than the rolla ones, people just cut them down so that the car can be lowered more. Jason is right, you don't need a bracket, you just need to space the hilux calipers 1-1.5mm's and file the calipers slightly (3-4mm's) and a spring made to suit the corona spring saddle and the rolla top mount, or convert to coil overs... This isnt hearsay btw, i did it :) :) spelling fairy says u = you

this is getting a bit off topic... in answer to your question, no i don't think it would b feasible, do-able yes, but not really worth the money... But then people said it was a waste of money putting an SR into my KE70 :) If you wanna make an AWD rolla, go ahead, but it would be cheaper and easier to just buy something else :D