78_7kRolla

Thanks mate. Same must be said for your two cars as well. Keen to see progress on the celica.

Thanks buddy. Funny you mention that because just today two cops in a divy van did a full head turning stare on me under load in second :lol:

Got some fresh shots of Graham today. Hope you like :lol: I spy extractors...

Thanks guys. Painting the bay is eventually the plan. Just going to get all this conversion stuff sorted then start saving again to do up the motor and at that time paint the engine bay.

Haha i saw this thing near Chadstone shopping center, we both waved and beeped. Really love your car and what you have done with it. Keep it up!

So.... Friday and Saturday were good for progress on all fronts of the conversion. During the course of the week i sent of my wiper arms to get polished and the plates on the firewall to get chromed. On Friday i sorted out the gearshift from the w56 gearbox. This involved taking off the sleeve/insulator then using the oxy to straiten the factory bend and then creating another bend further down, almost exactly the same to an original k-series shifter. I spent hours with the file, fine sand paper and autosol to get it looking nice and shiny. While i had the autosol out i also cleaned up my wiper motor. Also sent off the r31 diff to get shortened and my mounts welded on, and it should be coming back sometime next week. On Saturday (yesterday) i sorted out the hydraulic clutch setup. Did this by removing the clutch pedal and fabricating a bracket on the correct angle for the master cylinder. I cut the hole in the firewall for the master (using the original bolt holes) and bent up a steel pipe to join to the slave cylinder. Here are some progress pics :lol:

Haha thanks guys. Doogs - There is roughly 100mm difference between diffs and it definitely needs some shortening. Making for a very expensive conversion! Adam - The whole point of this conversion is to do just that :jamie: Evan - I'm gald you liked my cars, so sorry i didn't have the bit you were looking for.

Nah mate, used existing one as the shifter hole lined up perfect. I'm not sure how well you can make out from the photos but you can see two tubes/pipes going from the extension housing bolts to the gearbox mount that is also attached to the back of the gearbox via two L-shaped brackets back to back.

That was the plan all along. There was no way i was going to put a 4.11 back in. Plus we have to combat the close ratios in the townace gearbox. I know all the troubles sorrounding R31 rear calipers, as we still service a few of them. I'm going to order the caliper kits next week and do them myself, definitely not taking any chances on calipers that have been sitting around for ages! Clutch is a HD organic like yours, it was recomended to us by the clutch/brake people we use. Glad to hear someone else is happy with theirs.

Should be ok ratio but i'm yet to check mate. I can't wait to stop braking driveline components.

Your gearbox is most probably a ke70 5 speed as the shifter was further back on them. UPDATE! Got my new clutch yesterday and ta22 clutch master cylinder. Got a shetload of work done today :dance: Gearbox is pretty much mounted up and we have now sorted out the crossmember. Ended up making one out of flat bar instead of modding the old one as this will give much more ground clearance. Also begun work on part two of the upgrade. R31 diff ;) Here are some photos. Crossmember mounting... R31 diff deconstruction... Mmmm 28 spline.... Clutch Still to do: - Modify pedal box and firewall to carry out hydraulic conversion - Remove dummy fitted gearbox and fit clutch and clean up all the bits and pieces - Get a 3.7/3.9 center for the diff and LSD to suit - Get diff shortened and mounting brackets fitted - Custom tailshaft to suit all the above - Work out the braking situation (will cross that bridge when i come to it) That's all for this weekend. Matt.

Get it! That interior is awesome. Rear bar looks the goods too :lol:

Cuzzo - Because it is an actual townace gearbox the mount from factory is actually at the top of the extension housing and no mounting points are on the bottom of this particular housing. Si - No problems mate, when it's all done i'll put together what i did to carry out the conversion. I am trying to take pics as i go along :lol: JP - Peace of mind and reliability should be nice. Should be able to handle what i throw at it! In terms of updates there will most likely be little progress this week as we are short staffed at work :( Meaning little time for side projects aka my car.

Yeh Si, no mods have been made to the shifter hole in the body at all. Tunnel clearance is tight (as you'd expect) but nothing alarming. There wont be an issue of the gearbox touching the body if that's what you meen. The hardest obstacle is sorting out the situation for the gearbox crossmember. No progress today but i should be chipping away at it this week :P

That looks awesome mate! The mirrors and flares look like they were factory fitted :) Nice work.

Got a fair bit of work done yesterday in terms of fitting it up :) I dummy fitted the gearbox in and came to the realisation that it is huge and there is no way i'm getting a u shaped bracket from the top to clear. Ssince that is out of the question i'm now moving the original crossmember back (utilising extra factory holes in the shell) and mounting an old falcon auto mount on top, which will be bolted to two L-shaped brackets back to back going through the back of the extension housing. Then further ahead as an extra measure will be something similar to a tailshaft loop just for peace of mind. Here are some average pics off my phone as i began to dummy fit the box (you can see the orange jack) and then after, sitting as it will when completed i took a shot of the shifter housing location. Matt.

Thanks mate. All i know is that they are a BSA 5 spoke and the sizing is 16 x 7" as they were a present from my old man. I'll try and get some more details for you. Evan i'll let you know about the shifter but i'm most likely hanging onto it.

Not good news mate :) One thing i don't recomend is driving a car with a blown head gasket (especially hard) as water is most likely entering the combustion chamber/s. If enough goes in you can risk it hydraulically locking and bending rods and such. Just keep it aside until you can afford to fix it. Hope there's better luck for you in the future :)

Hahaha Si. "Biggest gearbox you can put behind a K" Makes me feel like a big person, doing big things :) But it's going to be a long and hard road and i'm sure i'll be shooting questions your way as always!

Thanks mate, but i'll try something like a U-Shaped bracket first up. I'll hit you up if i need it.

To me, if you don't have anything nice to say don't say it at all :) I love your tupperware Ben :)

Thanks for the offer mate but i wont be needing them. I got myself a present today (the first of many). A W56 from a kr42r townace. Main hurdles here are sorting out mounting to gearbox crossmember, electronic to cable speedo and hydraulic clutch setup (easy part!). Let it begin :)

Nah too hard to get a bellhousing. Going for a W56 out of a townace.

Lolz, i just realised what you did Evan. Smooth And Josh, the K50 i had before the K40 broke too!

That was the 4 speed :)