Davros El Davros

Looks like we will make a panel beater out of you yet dude!!

Thanks Alex and Paul, I'm back from holidays now and will be ripping into the car as much as work and the bank account will allow at this stage. First thing I decided to tackle once I got home was the brakes. Bending up the brake lines was something that I was a bit hesitant to start, because I wanted to do a really neat job and make sure everything was as aesthetic as possible, and as hidden as possible. Doing things like this is pretty easy at this stage though, cause I can just walk a few metres and have a look at Luke's car and see how he has done everything, and just either copy it, or tweak it a little bit to suit my OCD sensibilities. So, I am using coated steel brake line, and will be using mostly stainless steel fittings from Aeroflow and Proflow. I figure if everything else is going to be shiny, the brake lines and fittings should be as well.. The actual labour component of fitting the brake lines is probably the smallest part. It's the planning stage that really takes the time. Thinking about the best way to route it so it's hidden, avoids the engine bay, exhaust, and anything else that will squash or damage it. Bending up templates and finding that your initial ideas are no good any basically going back to the drawing board. I decided to make up templates from fencing wire first of all, so I wasn't wasting the steel line first up. I made up all of the templates and started bending up some of the lines before I ran out of time. I also made a pretty comprehensive sketch planning out all of the fittings and splitters etc that I will need for the system. It took a while and a lot of studying various parts catalogues, but I have my list of required gear now and will order it soon. I am looking at comparable prices for Aeroflow fittings and so far Rocket has been the cheapest surprisingly. If anyone has any recommendation of a good place to but stainless steel brake fittings please let me know. I haven't flared any of the lines yet, obviously need to wait for the fittings first. I also need to buy some more brake line because I didn't buy enough. Here are 2 flicks. The brake line in the middle has been bent up from the steel line and is one part of the back brake line. I pulled the brake line though a small hole drilled in a wooden block to straighten it before putting my bends in it.

Haha, LittleRedSpirit you must have wondered what happened to me. I just dropped off the face of the earth for a while. I meant to give you a shout and catch up for a beer before I left Brisbane, but moving interstate got pretty nuts. Anyway, thanks for the kind words, about the car build and about the career. I am pretty happy with how things are working out, although there has been more focus on the career of late and none on the car. I am working to correct that and get this thing going and match it to the vision I have in my head. OrangeLJ, you're damn right about the pedal box. As soon as I had it in there, I had a dumb grin on my face which seemed somewhat unjustified. Seeing the stock accelerator pedal on it skinny little arm next to the big beefy machined aluminium tilton pedals had already got me thinking about machining up something to suit, and then getting it anodised black. The film project that I had aired on SBS recently was called RYOKOU. It's a 30 minute doco based on Australian World Champion track cyclist Shane Perkins, and how he travels to Japan each year to compete in the Keirin Track Racing league, which is essentially like horse racing or greyhounds, except with 9 guys on bikes on these brutal concrete velodromes. All combined with crazy Japanese culture and tradition. You can check it out in 5 online episodes here: youtube.com/chasingtheglory You can also see more of my work on my vimeo channel: vimeo.com/eldavros More car updates coming soon, but probably not as soon as I liked. After just getting started again, I am taking some much needed holidays for a couple of weeks.

And I decided to get straight into it and tackle a pretty challenging project to kick off the work on this thing again. While I was still in Brisbane I started to mount the Tilton pedal box, but was hitting a few dead ends in regard to getting the pedals sitting in the right spot, and as close as possible to where the original factory pedals sat. It was something I was actually a bit hesitant to tackle, but once I stopped and thought about the process, it was actually quite easy. To start with, I made up a steel guide that mounted where the stock accelerator pedal mounted to the floor. The guide showed exactly where the pedals hung, and indicated the right height for the ball of my foot on each pedals, plus the spacing of the pedals in relation to the steering column. Once this was made up, I pulled the stock pedal box back out and took a good look at how it was mounted. I was originally planning on hanging the pedal box down from the brace underneath the dash, but was concerned it would give too much flex. Then I had the realisation that the original pedal box bolted up to the firewall anyway, in a double thickness section between drivers side the strengthening gusset. So, doing what was obvious all along, but I hadn't seen it, I made up a braket to hang the Tilton pedal box from the original mounting holes in the firewall. This way turned out to be the best, and the new bracket I made up turned out to be much lighter and simpler than the previous bracket I had been making years ago. It's amazing what a bit of time away from a project can do for your engineering brain. I am finding I have so many different approaches to things I had previously wanted to do with the car. I used the steel guide I had made up to position the pedals and determine the right height. It's tacked together now and bolted in place, will be fully welded and painted once I know it's there to stay and not in the way of anything else.

After picking it up from the panel beaters a few weeks ago, it's not found a happy home in Luke's (drift freak) incredibly well equipped garage, alongside his beast of a KE11 Beams project. I have decided to keep it down the coast and not bring it back to Sydney, because my garage here in the rental flat isn't ideal for welding, grinding and making a lot of noise. Plus it's rad to be able to hang out with mates and work on the car. Here are a few flicks of the car post-panel beater. It's super smooth, but in all sorts of different paint until I get all of the mechanics done. While so much is getting done to the car, I've decided to change the colour completely as well. I've chosen a colour, and got a mate to mix up a sample pot. The colour is Ford Mercury Silver, with a small amount of coarse alloy fleck in it for a bit of sparkle, but not too much. My panel beater did a test spray on the inside of the front guard, and this is what is looks like:

OK, I am digging this thread back up from the dead. It's been a pretty manic few years since this build was making good progress, and in that time I have moved back to Sydney, traveled half way around the world filming, had my first major film project screened on SBS and successfully transitioned to directing for film and TV. And, neglected the hell out of my KE10. So, that's all changing now, with the prompting and support of a few good mates. I finally bit the bullet and decided to outsource the last of the rust work, which was probably one of the best decisions I have made with the build so far, as it was getting out of hand with more and more discoveries. I am probably repeating previous posts from a couple of years back, but we found out that the car had actually been hit just behind the passenger C pillar, and had a whole new rear quarter (badly) stitched back on to it. The passenger door was hanging incorrectly, and a lot of re-aligning needed to be done. With my current commercial work rate, this all would have taken me forever to fix, and even though I am pretty decent with the TIG these days, I certainly ain't no panel beater. So, to cut a long story short, on Australia day this year we packed the car onto a trailer and shipped it down to Nowra to get the rust done. It's just come back, COMPLETELY RUST FREE and straight as an arrow. After watching my heart sink with every new rust discovery over the last few years I am absolutely stoked to see it back, and am really motivated to get the rest of the engineering and fitting underway. Here are a few random photos from the rust repairs. Chrome trims and badges have been shaved, door handles etc remain.

Mate, good see to see you're back on the car. Hope little Jasper is getting used to the sound of the angle grinder! I'll give you Wayne's number if you want to outsource those rust repairs! Also will drop around the spare wheel well when I'm down next..

Mate, have just read through your thread - wanted to say congratulations on the massive effort over a sustained period of time. Being a few years into my project, which sounds similar to yours in being riddled with rust and previous dodgy repairs, I'm inspired by your patience and the work you've put in. You've done a great job on the car and definitely deserve the 2012 Car of the year title. Look forward to seeing what you do with the car from here!

Hey Luke, Have just read through your whole thread mate - nice work. Looks like you have been a busy boy. This is going to be an absolute weapon when it's finished. Would love to come down and check it out at some stage. If you need your trans tunnel welded up, maybe we can smash it out soon. Dave

Wow, at least 6 months since I posted in this thread. Never fear - work is still continuing but has been delayed pretty heavily by the massive workload I have been under and the amount of projects I have been working on. Ended up getting my hands on a decent shell thanks to PMP16 (Joel). Have cut all of the bits I need out of it and am starting to cut and paste them into my KE10 body. Have been some more rust discoveries which is a bit disheartening, especially given how long it's taken me to get the current rust done. I am making some nice progress and doing some complex rebuilding and fabrication which I would never have imagined being able to do a few years ago. During all of this I have also relocated to Sydney, and managed to find a place with a decent garage relatively close to the city for work. I am still getting my garage sussed out (it's currently full of crap from the move) but as soon as it's all in order I will be ripping into the car... PIcs will follow..!

Sweet I will do that for sure. It may be better to just send some pics with indication of the exact parts I need. I am in transit until next week friday, so I will get some pics up after that. If I was in Sydney I would definitely be hitting you up about that shell you may sell, but Sydney to Brisbane with a shell is a bit far..

Hey Jordain, that shell sounds good, but I probably would be looking for something closer to Brissy. Unless of course you would be happy to cut sections out and post them up..:) How many projects have you got on the go? The rust and dodgy repairs I have found in mine is a pain in the ass, but not the end of the world. However, it does feel a bit criminal taking strip discs to what looked like perfect paint and panels.. The car will now be undergoing a major overhaul of the interior as well, because I have had to pull everything out to get to repairs. This means that the whole colour scheme will be changing too.

Not a lot of updating to this thread, but work has been continuing. I am currently bogged down (no pun intended...) in some serious rust repairs that have been quite a surprise. As much as I have wanted to keep the car very intact and faithful to the car that I purchased, I have been forced to strip out the entire interior, take out all of the glass and go hunting for rust and dodgy repairs. Today we pushed the car out of the garage and hit it with strip discs and found some interesting stuff that will have to be added to the list in terms of work that needs to be done to the body. I took a bunch of pics of the worst areas, which I will post up this week. I wanted to be able to assess exactly what needs to be done to the body, and at this stage it's a lot! I will be hunting for a donor car, so if anyone out there has a decent Ke10 shell that they want to get rid of, hit me up. Pics of the latest work coming soon. There has been a lot of metal fabrication happening and a lot of welding. My TIG welding is getting pretty tight.

No cutting at all anywhere in the process of getting the 4AGE in the engine bay. The front bonnet catch support can be completely removed by undoing a few bolts. Only cutting people do is to trans tunnel if fitting a bigger box, or to firewall to get the engine sitting back further in the engine bay... Jordain, as HIgh Roller said, POR 15 is the business. It brushes on but settles to a smooth glossy finish. You can even get a product that has metal particles in it which helps fill gaps and imperfections in the metal. It does add some bulk. it's not the thinnest stuff out there but for floorpans, inner guards, underbody etc its probably one of the best things to use against rust. There are a list of dealers on the Australian website - check it here I got mine in Brisbane from a panel beating paint supplies place. It's about $100 per litre, but goes a long way. They also recommend getting the proper metal prep and conversion stuff top get the metal ready for painting.

Jordain, that rust is a bummer man! Especially when it all looks sweet from the outside. I have been digging around other parts of the car and have found a few more 'surprises'. Unwanted surprises that is! I have finally finished the floor pan and it's all painted with POR 15 Rust preventative paint. I can't believe how much work this has been, but once I got started I had to do it properly, and I am pretty darn sure that this floor ain't going to rust again. The POR 15 requires a massive amount of preparation to get a clean surface for the paint to adhere to, but it sticks really well and dries to be incredibly hard. The paint itself is pretty coarse. I strained it before applying but it still finished quite rough in places. It's not too much of a concern however, as I will be applying sound deadener/resomat or something similar, then carpet will be going over the top. Instead of uploading still photos, I got inspired and shot this time lapse video of the floor being prepped and painted. Have been trying to embed it on this site, but best I can manage is a link to the video. Check it here Next step is to seam seal the whole floor pan and then paint with primer. The POR 15 is not UV safe, so will fade under light. I'll eventually paint the floorpan with the chosen colour for the whole car, which I haven't work out yet!

OK, time for some more updates. Work has been slow but steady chasing and repairing rust. Since Beerhead peered underneath the sound deadener a few months back to rip up the old wiring, a lot has happened. As per the previous post, a lot of time was spent chipping back sound deadener and removing every single trace of deadener, asphalt and paint from the interior floor pan. Using a wire wheel on the grinder and an old screwdriver I went prodding and poking to find any areas of weak metal or full rust holes areas. Found a few unpleasant surprises and a few previous dodgy repairs. This included a bad repair section in the passnegers side sill near the door pillar which will have to be completely rebuilt. Also found some nice holes in the rear window turrets that were layered up with about 20mm of body filler, plus rust in the rear quarter window surrounds. I ended up finding rust in the front driver's side and passenger's side sills, around the accelerator pedal mount to the floor, in the rear driver's and passenger's footwells, and a few other little bonus bits here and there. Where possible I used replacement sections I pirated from another KE10 shell (thanks Joel..). However, in some places I completely rebuild sections using 2mm plate. I did all of the welding with the TIG. I am starting to get some nice neat results, and if enough time is spent on getting the fit up right, I don't even need much filler rod. I decided to cut out some previous repairs to the rear footwells which I wasn't happy with. Probably added a few days work on to the job, but I guess that's what I get for being a bit of a neat freak. Spent a fair amount of time smoothing, filling small holes and using the hammer and dolly to get it looking good. It's not perfect but it's pretty good. The bottom of the car will be getting a layer of stoneguard and the interior is getting prepped and painted with POR-15 to prevent rust in future. Then down the line the floor/interior will be getting painted the same colour as the rest of the car. Here is some pics of the final result. Looks so much better than what we started with. I also reinforced the spot welds on the seat mounts as a bit of future proofing. Discovering this must rust has been a pretty big setback and occupied my time for a while. It means that I now have to go over the car with some strip discs on the grinder and chase rust in any crucial areas. There is no telling how much has been covered with body filler and painted over... Grrrrr! I am stoked to have the floor done though. Looking forward to getting the paint in there so I can move on, and Beerhead can come over and get the wiring done, which has been held up due to all the heavy work going on in the interior of the car.

What will look the best is pretty subjective, and of course depends on what you do to the engine in terms of styling, mods, bolt on eye candy etc. In terms of time, budget and simplicity for the car you have, I would definitely recommend keeping your engine in the K series - a worked 5K or 7K with nicely tuned carbs or EFI will get you plenty of power and will make that light little beast really move. If you want to go CA18DET, be prepared to spend a lot more money than you would on a K Series engine, and have a lot more hassles. Once you put something like that in there, you will be needing to upgrade gearbox, diff and brakes. Opens up a big complex project. If it's raw power you want, then you can't go past CA18DET, rotary or 4AGE, but they come with a whole bunch of issues as well. There are Ke10s and Ke11s on this site that have, or are getting those conversions done. Read a few of the full threads and find out how much pain you want to create for yourself! Good luck, and let us know what you decide..

Thanks for the props. The old beast is coming together slowly! In regards to the slave cylinder hitting the steering arm, I went through a few different options - one of which involved trying to offset the clutch slave and then offset a strike plate that bolted to the clutch fork. This didn't work at all, so I finally bit the bullet and purchased a Tilton hydraulic clutch throwout bearing, which basically removes the need for an external slave cylinder all together. The hydraulic throwout bearing mounts insid the bellhousing. I haven't fitted it as yet have been bogged down in the floorpan repairs and running a startup graphic design studio. Ha. I'll looking at the clutch and the brakes as soon as I am done on the floorpan.

Just be careful if you get your tyres engraved and white-walled. You will probably need to continually apply paint to ensure the white walls stay white. I had a set of tyres done a few years back, and because the tyres were relatively new, the whitewall gradually discolours down to brown. You can get new tyres with white walls from places like Antique Tyres in Melbourne, or try your local tyre shop. You can also get insert rings which go between the tyre and the rim and sit tight against the tyre when you blow the tyre up. Also, check with the RTA about legals. I have heard talk of tyre engraving/whitewalling becoming illegal to do on non original whitewall tyres.

OK, as promised here is an update with what I have been up to. As mentioned previously I have had a few major discoveries that have added a bit of extra work to the build. I guess it's to be expected in these old cars. I would rather find it all now than later when I have new paint on the body. So, the first discovery was a nice big crack/hole around the accelerator pedal where it mounts to the firewall. KE10 firewalls are paper thin, so little wonder they crack so easily. The accelerator pedal mount was screwed into a thick metal plate which was screwed to the body and also glued in place. I ripped all of this out and cut back around the crack until I was back on solid metal. I ended up taking about 8-10cm of steel out around where the acc pedal was mounted, and then cut a 2mm mild steel plate to go in there. I didn't get a flick of the hole before I started welding which is a bummer in terms of before and after documentation. Welding this sucker up with the TIG was fun - I have been getting pretty savvy with the TIG on thin body welding, but the awkward positioning of the area in the engine bay and up under the steering column made welding rather hard. I finally got my settings right - not using the foot pedal on the welder cause I was lying inside the car up under the dash, and ramping the current right down so I wouldnt burn holes right through the thin steel. After a fair bit of fiddling around I ended up with a decent finish, that will come up fine with some bog and sanding back. While I was welding up the crack, I also decided to blank off the hold I had previously cut for the firewall mounted clutch master cylinder, which is redundant due to the pedal box setup I am running. I welded in some extra steel as reinforcement. I will have to re-drill he holes for the accelerator pedal. Next up I have tackled a small spot of rust in the front guard that I neglected for too long and was spreading. This was a nice fix - was a fairly localised area to cut out. I used some filler metal from the pile of metal I cut out of LittleRedSpirit's donor car ages ago and bent it to fit the contour of the guard. Clamped, tacked and welded in place. I am loving the adjustment of the TIG with the footpedal. I have been able to weld with such little heat and good penetration that the paint within 2-3cm doesnt even burn off. While I was welding inside, I decided to reinforce the trans tunnel, and blank off the hole from the previous K50 box. Bent up some 2mm steel plate to match the contour of the tunnel, and filled this in with some nice clean welding. And finally, the joys of discovering unexpected rust in the floor pan. I have spent ages chipping back the sound deadener and cleaning the entire floor pan, so I can work out where all of the rust is. I'll fix it all in one hit, and potentially fix up the dodgy repairs that I discovered as well. The last flick is a bit blurry but shoes some of the rust holes. It's not super extensive, but enough to warrant a full inspection of the entire floorpan. Have been chipping the brittle sound deadener off with a block of wood and an old screwdriver, then cleaning the whole area with a wire brush on the grinder. This is probably the most unpleasant job so far! And that's about it for the moment. I'm looking to devote more time to this project in the coming months and make some solid progress. The next tasks are: Weld up rust in floopan Address surface rust and minor holes in the window sills Mount pedal box Mount hydraulic clutch throwout bearing.

Well, dragging this thread up from the depths here.. While updates have been few and far between, and I have working/traveling quite a bit, work on the car has been continuing. Mainly taking care of some unexpected rust in the floor, and continuing to get rid of very stubborn sound deadener, so I can be sure I am getting all of the rust in one hit. Update with pics will come this week.

I am not getting into the power/psi debate, cause that's not really my area of expertise, but I will offer my thoughts on the brakes. I would absolutely recommend a front brake kit from Hoppers Stoppers. I have the kit installed on my 4AGE KE10. The Hoppers kit was specifically designed for a KE20 (one of the guys who works at hoppers used his KE20 as the test car when they developed the corolla kit) and are really well engineered. I went through a few different variations of brakes before I decided to stop wasting my time and buy the Hoppers kit. You need to make sure you have the right master cylinder bore size to push enough fluid to the calipers and you have to run 15s to clear. Diff wise, I have a shortened R31 skyline diff in mine, currently with a standard centre. As RadRollaz said, the borgy diff suits the shape of the corolla body quite well. Plus the disc brakes are standard on these diffs, p[arts are cheap and a good range of LSD centres are available (although they are rather expensive..). I don't have a big power engine, and the car isn't running as yet but everything fits well. Sure it adds a bit of weight to the back end, but I think with a 710kg car I can get away with it.

Thanks! We will keep updating the site with new work as it's completed.

Hey Rolliac, Well as you have seen, updates have been few and far between lately. I've been flat out with work, and setting up a new motion graphics/post production studio in Brisbane. Its called Studio Breeder and peeps can check out our website here: www.studiobreeder.com Check out the showreel. Turn the sound up. Even though I've been pretty slow on the updates to this thread, work has been continuing on the car. Trans tunnel strengthening is all finished, as well as the repair to the hole in the firewall. Small rust spots in the front driver's guard have been repaired, and now I have moved on to some rust that Beerhead found in the floor when pulling up the old wiring loom. Chipping 43 year old sound deadener off aint much fun! After these rust holes in the floor are fixed, Beerhead can get on with the re-wiring of the whole car. Then I'll move on and get the pedal box mounted. I have a bunch of flicks to upload, so I'll get them formatted and up soon. Ha. We have heard that one before!

Hey Mate, KE10 4AGZE. Nice! I have plans to go turbo with mine down the track, and have a spare 4AGZE engine in my garage for when that day comes. I'll definitely be following your thread closely - looking forward to seeing progress. Hopefully you will be able to get your up and running in quicker time than mine has been underway. I have had to do quite a bit of problem solving, so if you run into anything that you can't sort out, give me a shout and I'll see if I can help. And a word of advice, don't start polishing anything! I started and realised I couldn't stop at having just one thing polished. Now I have an engine bay full of shiny alloy that will require a lot of upkeep. Good luck with the conversion... Davros