Sloths Ke70 Track Car

[Sloth]

(As with most of my ride forum posts you might want to grab a coffee/tea and settle in for a long one...)

 

The Story

 

As many of you know, I previously owned an 86 which had a 20 valve silvertop installed (http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/34331-sloths-ae86-project-car), unfortunately though, it was damaged beyond repair in an accident.

 

Since the AE86 was my daily I needed something to get me around. I looked around for a while, as my previous daily was the 86 I wanted something else that was fun, something that I enjoyed driving (that wouldn't make me feel depressed as I drove to work every day). In the end I managed to find a purple 1996 Honda Integra GSi. I was cheap, the interior is in good condition, it came with a stereo and sub, was roadworthy and had that sporty feel to it (although it sadly isn't the VTec model).

 

The Integra is a great little car, but at the end of the day it's not really something I'd take to the track (and it's FWD). I could modify it etc, but my heart wouldn't really be in it. As I had so much fun with 86 on the track and skidpan, I needed something to replace it for the track. To keep the spirit of the AE86 alive a friend suggested buying a KE70 and transplanting the Silvertop into it and making a dedicated track car. And so began my hunt for a KE70.

 

I started checking carsales, allclassifieds, rollaclub etc every day for a decent condition KE70 at a decent price (around $1000). It was hard as most of the cheaper KE70s were covered in rust and any that were in good condition were too expensive (and most already had a decent engine conversion done already). I found some possible candidates online, but they were either not quite right, or in South Australia, Newcastle or god knows where (the Canberra car market can be quite bare).

 

Then one night I got a message from a friend (KENut) who told me to take a look on allclassifieds at a KE70 that had just gone up. The car was a little more expensive than I was hoping (though I hoped to barter down the price a little), but looked in decent condition and was roadworthy. So I called up the owner and organised to take a look. Two days later I dropped by with another friend (J Riftin) to take a look at the car. It was in fairly good condition: the paint wasn't faded, it looked well maintained and had a stereo and clean interior. There was a little bit of rust around the rear wheel arches (still fairly good for the age) and one side had been fixed with bog. The bonnet was a little dinted in from a previous owners accident. Overall it wouldn't have been a bad first car for a P plater, but it was a little more expensive than I wanted to spend for a dedicated track car. It was probably worth around the asking price, but all the things that made it worth it (the decent paintwork, good interior well maintained engine) were things that weren't needed for my track build. I didn't really tell the owner I was just looking for a KE70 to gut for a track build (as I didn't want to seem like someone who was just going to destroy their car), but he clued on pretty quickly (the fact that J Riftin showed up in his track ready turbo 86 covered in stickers and we both seemed to know what were looking on the 70 was a bit of a giveaway). The owner told me that his brother was selling a KE70 that wasn't in as good condition, but would probably be much cheaper and a decent base for a track build as the body seemed ok and the engine wasn't running. So I called the owners brother and drove over to take a look at another KE70.

 

When we got to the house where the second KE70 was located we were greeted by a driveway full of cars, each in slightly worse condition than the last. At the very back of the driveway was the KE70, looking like it was about to be engulfed by the garden. My first though was "It's red", my second thought was "that looks like shit". The paint was all faded (and some panels looked like they were different shades), it was covered in dirt and cobwebs and looked like it hadn't moved in ages. The owner went on to tell us that there were some problems with the clutch/gearbox and they couldn't really be bothered to fix it. We started to take a closer look at the car and were surprised to find that under all the dirt, cobwebs and faded paint the body was actually in decent condition. As with the previous KE there was a little spot rust around the rear wheel arches (but it hadn't gone all the way through like the first car). The panels were quite straight.

 

The owner told us that the car started and drove, but because of the issues with the clutch it didn't drive very well. The rego had expired, but the last time it went for a roadworthy (around 2-3 years ago) it only failed on some fairly small things. I looked at the car and imagined what it would looked like with a wash and the interior removed and basically decided it was perfect for my track car. J Riftin had the same idea we exchanged some glances and words like "this is pretty good", trying not too seem too keen to the seller. To top it all off it even had a 5k in it (that it had been previously registered with). J Riftin the asked the owner how much he was looking for. The answer sealed the deal... $250.

 

We tried to start it up, but the battery was dead. This then led to trying several different batteries the owner had and trying to jump start it with another car, all to no avail. So we decided the best option was to push it onto the street. This lead to a class "Castle" moment where the seller said something like: "I'll have to move the Pintarra so I can move the Magna and take out the Falcon". After playing musical cars and organising a cheap tow via a friend, we pushed the 70 onto the road and then got it towed back to J Riftins place.

 

Once back a J Riftin's with all the other project cars we began looking over it and trying to start it, confident we'd picked up a good bargain and a great base for a project. We still couldn't start it, but almost got there a couple of times. We realised there was a spider, ants, mould/fungus and god knows how many other organisms living in the car; "You've got an entire eco-system in that car!" J Riftin commented. We realised the cloth seats inside weren't stock, but were in quite good condition. On the underside of the bonnet were two stickers, both for a 4A (not a 4k as the car had come with stock). "This car must've had some life" J Riftin commented (in reference to the installation of the 5k and AE7x bonnet) and we btoh smiled, knowing that it's real life was only just beginning.

 

Pics!!!

 

 

And one of the Integra just for good measure

[B.L.Z.BUB]

Sad about the 86 bro, but good you were not hurt.

 

Onwards and upwards aye? KE70's are good fun too.

[Sloth]

She's alive!!

 

Jojo managed to get the 5k running (after some taps to the starter motor). The clutch is rooted, but it still just drives. Apparently the engine runs quite nicely.

 

Plans

 

The first step is to see what exactly I've bought. What works, what doesn't and what I will need to do to get it running (and eventually get the silvertop in).

 

Next step is to look at getting it roadworthy/registered. This will give me the chance to take it on the skidpan and enter it in the local motorkhana (both of which require the car to be registered). I might even look at doing some hillclimbs with the 5k.

 

When we are ready we will start prepping it for the track. This will involve stripping the interior (and anything else that isn't needed) and dropping in the silvertop and any other bits we can salvage from the 86. The Silvertop will also get a little bit of TLC at the point (probably getting some new extractors and a set of velocity stacks). Luckily several of the local rollaclub members have offered to help out (as I'm rather useless), these include: Jojo - "J Riftin" (who is graciously letting me use his house as a junk/storage yard and garage and has started hunting down what I'll need for the conversion), KENut (I'm pretty sure he offered...) and Seabiscuit.

 

After that I'll start trying to get out to the Canberra hillclimbs and maybe attend a track/drift day here and there at Marulan and Wakefield.

 

The overall goal though is just to have fun and enjoy myself!

[parrot]

I reckon if you hit it with the buff, it will come up real nice!

[Sloth]

I reckon if you hit it with the buff, it will come up real nice!

 

Yeah, me too. The pictures make it look better than it is, but if you were to clean it up and spend an afternoon doing a cut an polish it would look awesome. So happy that I found it.

[J Riftin]

All of the above is very true. We have found the perfect car for what Sloth needs. The body is very straight, next to NO rust, smooth running 5K (not that that will be in there much longer). After checking it over, I found the starting problem being the starter motor. As usual, give it a few good wacks, and she's right to go. I was very suprised to find that the motor ran very smoothly, especially after it hadn't been started for quite some time. It warmed up nicely, so it was now time to see if it drove. Straight away, I new the clutch was f@$ked. I could still drive it, so I took it to the end of the street. I called Sloth straight away to give him the news....

 

To be continued.......

[Scott_87]

Nice find, and at a nice price to. Great this is like the last episode of a tv show. How long do we have to wait?

[ke70dave]

nice to see another thread that has a decent story included! rather than just a mod's list.

 

enjoyable read!

 

look forward to seeing progress.

 

edit: i had a good laugh at the "castle" reference.

Edited March 23, 2011 by ke70dave

[Ben-89]

Yeah, me too. The pictures make it look better than it is, but if you were to clean it up and spend an afternoon doing a cut an polish it would look awesome. So happy that I found it.

My ae71 was same colour like that and came up beautiful after a good cut and polish, and like yours it died prematurely. But you do appreciate something which is a little more modern for a daily.

 

Keep up the good work mate.

Edited March 24, 2011 by "The Mint KE70"

[ae824ate]

Will be an interesting project to watch. Reckon itll piece together nicely. Shame about your AE86 though. Good luck man.

[Sloth]

Step 1 - Stripping the interior.

 

Summary (thought I'd give a quick overview before the big spiel)

 

Decisions made: Strip the car for track use (no rego).

Out: Seats, Door cards, trim, carpet, spare tyre, dash.

In: FTO Seat (from Sprinter).

Injuries: Cut myself twice (once on some sharp plastic, once on a piece of glass).

Profit: about 4 dollars in change found on the ground and under the carpet (Including 10 pence and 5 Argentinian Centavo).

Issues found: A little bit of rust and water under the plastic strips along the door caused some of the paint to peel :(.

Parts required: AE71 Pedal Box.

 

Detailed Explanation and Pics

 

The day started out with me and Jojo discussing whether or not to try and roadworthy and register the car. There was a lot to consider. Some of the events in Canberra (Motorkhana/Skid Pan) can only be attended by road registered cars. Having it road registered also makes it much easier to move around. On the other hand, getting it ready for registration would mean extra time and parts. It would also mean that once we drop the silvertop in we would need to get it engineered (to keep it legal). It also means that we might not be able to make certain modifications that we could make if it was a dedicated track car. In the end the decision was made to keep it as a track car and not bother registering it. The car was bought by the previous owner from auction as a repairable writeoff (and not re-registered) so that would mean extra scrutiny if we had tried to register it.

 

While doing this we started up the 5k. The started motor on the 5k and battery are dead, so it took a little bit of time and patience to get it going, but once it had started it ran fine (only a little trouble warming up/idling).

 

 

I then took some photos of the interior (mainly the seats) before we stripped it (hopefully there will be someone local interested in some decent condition cloth KE70 seats). While doing this we continued to exterminate the various creepy crawlies living in the car.

One of the various spiders living in the car.

 

Next we took out the seats. Putting them in the back of the AE86. And began taking out all the interior panels and dash.

 

After a while all the panels were out. Next step was to take out the carpet. When we did this we found a whole heap of change (haven't totalled it up yet, but my guess would be around 4 or 5 dollars). This also included a 10 pence coin and 5 Argentinia Centavo.

 

 

Once this was all done we removed two of the plastic strips from the side of the car. The first one came off fine, but while doing the door some paint peeled off. When we looked closer we could see it was actually wet there (water had pooled under the strip) and there were rust bubbles. We prepped this area with some fish oil. Hopefully there isn't too much of this elsewhere on the car. So far though there has been very little rust for a car this age (someone today said in reference to KE70s: "if they say the car has no rust they are either a fool or lying").

 

 

We then put the drivers seat from the sprinter (an FTO seat) in the car.

 

We put the car back into it's temporary parking spot, and could notice the difference that the weight reduction had made to the ride height. New suspension etc should lower this greatly to something a little more suitable for a track car (note the potential new rim on the front).

 

Overall it was quite a good day and we got a fair bit done. The next step is to track down an AE71 pedal box (as the KE70s have a cable clutch and the sprinter/silvertop uses a hydraulic setup. Hopefully this won't be too hard. The extractors on the silvertop are also cracked and will need to be repaired or replaced. The stock ram tubes on the silvertop are also cracked and will need to be replaced (probably with some aftermarket velocity stacks).

 

It was a pretty tiring day, and buy the end we were pooped.

[Sloth]

Step 2 - Sort out the Wiring

 

This weekends task was to start getting things ready for the engine conversion. This included removing the ECU, Coilpack, radiator, battery and disconnecting the aircon and as much wiring as possible. We made sure to label all the wires as they were disconnected (hopefully we can put it all back together).

 

Glove box out, with ECU removed

 

Engine, complete with labels

 

Radiator

 

Jojo hard at work

 

ECU and spark plug lead cover

 

Coilpack

 

Some of the disconnected wiring

 

The KE70, eagerly awaiting it's new engine.

[abbott]

great progress! keep the updates coming!

[Sloth]

great progress! keep the updates coming!

 

Thanks dude, just about to post another update (once I get the pictures off the camera etc). It's all falling into place.

[Sloth]

Last weekend we took the loom and driveshaft out of the AE86 and then removed the engine and gearbox. We found out that I'd cracked one of the engine mounts on the 86 :o

 

In the end we decided to stop work on the KE70 and instead put our effort into the 20v powered shopping trolley! The engine is already mounted and it's got 18inch rims.... sweet!

 

Edited April 12, 2011 by Sloth