altezzaclub Posted April 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 I'm tackling the odd jobs before I take it up to Cairns, so the extractors got some sealant where they join the pipe, the lights got sorted to give full-beam again, and the wheels got balanced. While I had the column apart chasing the full-beam lights, I fixed that damm bit of plastic that goes brittle and cracks. The one under the ignition key, where the screw retainers all break off, and most ones in the wreckers are like that. I filed the plastic flat, sanded it here and there and Araldited washers and nuts (for spacers) onto it. Now its back in and doesn't rattle. Passenger seats out next week & loaded with building and camping gear. A couple of months in an empty house amidst renovations means microwave, beer fridge, kitchen stuff, a bed, clothes, as well as a ladder, painting gear, carpentry gear, cleaning gear, gardening gear... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted July 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 (edited) Well, back again! Three months in Cairns with no internet except the local library was very trying! It took that long to strip out the rental house I have up there, a typical 1980s concrete (Besser) block home that I've never touched, then start by painting ceilings and then walls. New lights throughout, new kitchen, new shower, new tiles here and there, fake wood on the lounge floor, new carpets in the bedrooms, new wardrobe doors and even some repairs.. Then some outside stuff. Waterblasted the roof and house, re-did stormwater drains, painted some walls, cut out 5 trees and enough greenery to full three large trailers and replanted the back lawn and the flower gardens. Its currently up for sale on here if you're a house freak, although it will vanish in a month- (hopefully SOLD!! ) Edited April 7, 2016 by altezzaclub Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted July 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 I'd taken the passenger's seat out to fit in a fridge and a stack of house-building tools & gear as I knew I'd be camping out in an empty house, and after the photo was taken I started adding kitchen equipment, food, clothes, a bed & sleeping gear... it just filled right up! Then in early April I headed off at 750km a day. The Rolla ran perfectly and the SUs ran at 18 to 1 on the fuel mixture display, even squeezing the accelerator down and going up slight hills before richening up to 14.7 to 1 when the accelerator went down further. After a couple of days of starting driving at 6am you realise how big Aussie is! Luckily I'd taken the metal plate out from the base of the driver's seat and actually fixed the seat suspension with webbing before I left. I was fooling around with the laptop and the webcam getting up through the emptyness of Clermont to Townsville, and I came across a couple of young girls standing beside a Barina with the bonnet up. After 20minutes I'd figured the head gasket was custard and it was not going anywhere fast, so I left them to crawl back to T'ville putting water into it while I went on up to Cairns. Ever since I've wondered why I didn't volunteer to change the head at their flat.... I only noticed the camera running when I got back in the car and ran off a commentary, I'll see if I can upload it, it amused me at the time! Ah no, I can't load .wmv, shame- they were hot girls! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted July 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 After finishing the Cairns house it was South again, down the coast this time as I had to go to Kingaroy and sort out another rental there. This time it was tear down the pergola, take off the gutter along one side of the house, reposition all the hangars to get good fall then reassemble everything in a better way that caught more water for the tank. Its on 10acres out of town, so the only service is rubbish and water/sewerage is a private affair. Luckily the tenant has a boyfriend who is a tree-lopper and he is scoring points by clearing the 10acres with chainsaws and a tractor-slasher, so I'm rapt! A few more jobs inside and a week later I headed out to meet my brother in Coolangatta, then back to Orange. I kept fuel figures on the way up, but then got keen and kept more data on the way back. You can see which fuel I used for each section just before I filled up. I will say that 640Km is a stretch, and 44.1L into a 45L tank is a worry! Still, all that was at 100kph, which is 3300rpm with the tall tyres I was using, and the car was loaded to busting! It's cheapest along the coast as hills make a difference, and getting into Kingaroy is uphill on winding roads. Surprisingly, the octane didn't seem to matter, I suppose you have to carefully tune the timing to get the most out of each fuel. That "done on" column shows the fuel in the tank before I filled up, so it is the fuel that I had already used for that day's run. The 32.94litres in the first line coming back is the United 91 I put in after running down from Cairns on 98, I didn't full up with Shell 98 at Ayr. So, the Girl's KE ran without a problem and after an oil change its set to go anywhere again. A rebuild on the 5speed would be nice to get rid of the whines, but not crucial. It hasn't got a radio at all, so maybe some sort of sounds would solve it! Now to fit the little 13" rims back on and get some round-town acceleration again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snot35 Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 Sorry Altezza, I just realised that you asked me a question and I didn't respond. I measured both sets last night and they're around the 17.2mm mark. I also have 3 other rogues that came with the car which I didn't measure 'cause I would have had to move too much crap :) All mine have slightly different offsets, but only by a mm or two. So you're running normal wheel nuts then? Do you run longer studs? I test fitted mine and I don't like the amount of thread engagement with normal nuts so I was thinking of getting longer studs and maybe some hub centering rings. I'm not sure how that's going to work on the front though, because I need 3mm spacers to clear the caliper :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted July 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 Yes, I have longer studs. Whipped partly out of Ford 4WD Ranger rear axles and partly out of Toyota Landcruiser I think it was, whatever the wrecker had with the right pitch and diameter. They're about 10mm longer and bring the free stud length back to stock, and the stock wheels still fit on them as well. I checked the tightness every stop for the first couple of days, but they have never given a problem and have been well pounded about on NSW's crappy roads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snot35 Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 It's a pain, the only way I can see to get that 17.2mm fitting seems to be to convert to Ford or Holden studs with some thread pitch that's Imperial. My brain doesn't work with imperial! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted July 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 Few piccies- I saw hour after hour, day after day of enormous Australia, and occasionally something quite startling like this- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted July 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 or even more startling, somethng like this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted July 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 (edited) You can see the revs fo 100kph with 14" tyres and a 4.3 auto diff, and its running at a mixture of 19 to 1 at that speed. You can also see the temperature of the incoming air!! 30deg with no aircon.. Edited July 14, 2012 by altezzaclub Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted July 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 One day I had lunch in Lightning Ridge, I hadn't been there for years, from back in the days we hunted opals and gold and sapphires and topaz and rubies and... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted November 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2012 Well, I had a friend of The Girl's stay with me in Orange, with his rally RA40 Celica, navigator & his Dad.(Who pays for it al of course!) Dad & I did service on the Orange Rally, then I went up to Tamworth a week before Uni holidays and stripped the Celica before bringing The Girl back for the holidays. Since then I've been up again, so the Km are racking up on The Blue Streak, sometimes with 14" tyres, this last time with 13". Seeing I'm building a new in-boot fuel tank for the Celica I emptied the fuel cans of 98octane into the KE70 and it returned 6.3L/100km over 650km blasting up & down the Bylong Valley route, one of Aussies best roads ever! 25kph corners up a cliff, lots of 65kphg bends and very little straight road, nearly all without white lines on the road! I'll do a build topic on the Celica later, it was a real mess when they bought it as an "almost ready to go" rally car, so now we have 6weeks of 12hour days fixing and preparing it as it should have been to start with! Everything from collpased chassis, old accident damage, rust and racing shock absorbers that pull the car down into the dirt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snot35 Posted November 4, 2012 Report Share Posted November 4, 2012 Ah rally cars, they can always tell a story! Look forward to seeing a bit of info about how you do your prep! Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted December 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 Well, not a lot done to the Girl's KE70, but a massive rebuild of the Celica rally car to have it ready for Dec 1st. A couple more photos and I'll put up a complete build thread on that. I've Corolla'd up and down to Walcha three times now, 580km each way and last time on the 13" wheels which gave 6.4L/100km going up and 6.3L/100 coming back.. One thing I did find under the spare parts Celica I appropriated on permanent loan instantly... So we've gone from stock KE70 sway to Celica sway to aftermarket Celica sway. From 13mm to 16.5mm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted December 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 Then for my birthday Steve rocked up with a 4.1 diff he'd thrown in the back of his Corona and suffered the oil leak all the way down. We pulled it apart and found no cage on one wheel bearing at all and the oil looked like metallic paint. I said I'd pass on the diff thanks, and while we were collecting springs for the rally car at the wrecker I grabbed photos of the diffs in a couple of Celicas. For $100 I can have an RA40 4.1 or an RA60 3.9. That will get me out of Borgies and into banjo style cases, and if I grab all the arms they will go into the rally Celica when the current bushes are knackered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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