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The Dream Lives On - A Memorial Build


Zetai

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[iNTRODUCTION]

 

Hey all, my name is Ethan and I'm from Railton, Tasmania.

 

Depending which way you look at it, I'm either fortunate or rather unfortunate. I was 'fortunate' enough to have inherited my KE70 from one of my best friends, the 'unfortunate' part is that he had to pass away for me to get this opportunity.

 

We bought this KE with the intention to build it into our own little drift pig purely for learning the basics and getting some sideways action.

 

He was the purchaser, it was his legally, but it was realistically ours, I had intended on doing a lot of the mechanical work with him, because we were best mates, it was our passion and our project.

 

Sadly he unexpectedly Committed Suicide on the 12th of December, 2011.

 

His mum knew our plans and wanted me to continue the project in his memory, it's what he would have wanted, and this is his Memorial Build Thread.

 

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[THE HISTORY|

 

- We purchased this KE70 for $1500, in Launceston, Tasmania.

 

- Sadly, it was a little worse for ware, it had not been garaged a day in it's life by the looks of the exterior, however it was completely granny spec, rocking almost 300,000kms, and as far as we could find out was only owned by one person for 28 years of it's life, it was then passed down to the original owners Grandson whom fortunately for us, did not understand the amazing machine he had been given and sold it.

 

- The bloke we bought it from had purchased it off said Grandson and was a local drifter, he had bought it for the same reasons as us, and therefore fully knew what he had, hence the price tag we paid.

 

- Jono and I were both working full time, so $1500 was not much in the grand scheme of things.

 

- Jono also owned a 96 Toyota Supra and he had bought the KE as a daily while he was doing some work to the Supra for a few weeks, unfortunately within weeks of us getting the KE, Jono passed away.

 

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[THE STORIES]

 

- One day Jono, I and a couple of our mates decide it's raining and we wanna go and do some 'spirited driving', Jono and I took the KE, our mate Tim took his SC400 Soarer and Matt had his R31 Skyline. We get but 2km from Tim's house, which was the last stop before skids! and Matt and Tim, being obviously faster stop ahead of Jono and I on the side of a backroad, Matt was just explaining to Tim that where we were going often had a nest for cops and to just be careful, it was about this point Jono and I come up behind Tim and Matt in the KE doing about 40km/h and rip the handbrake while on the grass, unfortunately for us, there was a slight bank and the rear wheels slid down the bank faster than the car was actually going, turned the car completely 90' and slammed into the back of the Soarer. This was Tim's baby and the damage which we found to be worth about $700 completely killed the mood of the day and we all just went our separate ways.

 

The KE and the Soarer seemed to fuse themselves together on impact and required the Soarer to drive away to disconnect the two, surprisingly, the rear left hand side of the Soarer rear bar was almost undamaged, the bumper itself was fine, there was some paint missing and the light was smashed, however the KE was in a right state. Jono didn't look at the KE at the time, he was more worried about getting his head punched in, so as said, we drove off, on the way home I asked him if he saw the damage to the Corolla, he hadn't, so he stopped and looked at it, it was pretty bad, the light was cracked and the entire left rear quarter was caved in. SO what does Jono do? He pops the boot, jumps into it and starts kicking the shit out of the panel from the inside, he even used the tyre iron from memory, the results were surprisingly satisfactory (see pics below), unfortunately I don't have any pics of what it looked like immediately after the accident.

 

Looking back now, it was a hilarious afternoon and a memory I'll have forever.

 

IMG_1031.jpg

The above pic was taken as we were pulled over as aforementioned,

not a bad effort for a roadside job, wish I had one of the panel before the 'beating' haha.

 

- Even on 300,000kms with equally as many km's making themselves known on the chassis, this little Sev was bulletproof, we took it out into the harsh Tasmanian wilderness and gave it a right flogging, just abusing the crap out of it, but it seemed to just love it, the engine would flood and stall, we'd give it a minute or two and it would start right back up without a problem, even with the open diff, it loved the dirt/mud/gravel.

 

- More stories to come later.

 

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[THE CAR]

 

The car is a 1983 Toyota Corolla KE70, featuring the factory 5 speed manual, 4K-C motor with 297xxx kilometres on it.

 

The exterior is poor with rust spots in some places and the paint has almost completely worn, but I have ways of fixing that.

 

The interior is 90% perfect with an aftermarket steering wheel and a small crack on the dash, presumably caused by the vinyl shrinking in the direct sunlight, as mentioned, I don't believe it's ever been garaged.

 

The registration papers say the car is 'mauve', but I don't think it ever has been, especially at this stage (see pics below)

 

IMG_0984-1.jpg

 

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IMG_1009.jpg

 

IMG_0990.jpg

 

IMG_1008.jpg

 

IMG_1003.jpg

 

 

 

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[THE DREAM]

 

Jono and I spent many, many hours before even acquiring the Rolla talking about what we wanted to do to it. I wanted bolt on flares, he wanted bonnet mounted mirrors, we both obviously wanted the sweetest dish rims we could find with stretched tires and to have the meanest stance we could.

 

The ideas kept coming for ages until we were finally able to get our KE.

 

We were both big fans of the infamous Lloyd Smith who as many on here would know has the amazing 1UZFE powered AE71 (found here for those who don't know), and thus Jono wanted to put a 1UZ into the KE70, he loved the idea of drifting N/A, whereas I'm more of a boost man and would prefer a SR20DET or C18DET swap.

 

He would always say "YOU CAN'T PUT THAT NISSAN SHIT IN A TOYOTA" (Keeping in mind he also had a Series II Mark IV Supra)

 

I was lurking around Rollaclub forums the other day and stumbled across this absolute masterpiece.

 

IMG_1245.jpg

 

My jaw dropped when I saw it, it was everything Jono and I had talked about, and I knew this is what I wanted ours to look like in the end.

 

I'm not certain who this Rolla belongs to, or what it's running under the bonnet, but if anyone knows, please point me in the right direction.

 

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[THE PLAN & THE PROGRESS]

 

I expect, money permitting, the entire build to last anywhere between 24-36 months.

 

I and some more of Jono's friends will be doing the majority of the work on the car, they've all humbly requested to work on the car as much as they can in order to see this car reach it's full potential.

 

It's still early days just yet, and I'm still not 100% sure what Engine Swap or Suspension/Handling mods I want to do.

 

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[WISHLIST] - Updated 9/1/2012

 

- Twin Round Headlights

- Bonnet Mounted Mirrors

- Bolt on Arch Flares

- 15*9" Rota RK-R's, Rota Shakotan's or Watanabe RS

- SR20DET + associated components

- Front and Rear Coilovers

- Rear Differential Mini Spool or Weldy

- Upgraded Brakes

- Racing Buckets w/ Harness

 

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[CONCLUSION]

 

As mentioned many times throughout this post, I'm doing this for my mate Jono, it's my memorial build for him, it's my last gift to him and I want to do him proud.

 

If anyone would like to recommend anything to assist me in the build, or even contribute/donate any parts I would be very greatful.

 

I hope you all enjoy reading about this build as much as i'm going to enjoy actually doing it.

 

Regards,

Ethan.

Edited by Zetai
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