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Haz's Ke15 Sprinter


1969 SPRINTER

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Decided that, upon viewing how active the blogs section was, a forum was the appropriate way of doing things?

 

I reckon this forum will be pretty much a "from this point forwards" sort of thing.

Current date 26-9-2016.

 

You can find my blog here should you want to have a look: http://www.rollaclub.com/board/blog/84-the-kids-ke15/

 

But before I start this forum off, I'd like to tell the story of how the car has progressed to the stage it is at now.

 

-From the beginning. From the very beginning, with every detail I'm willing to expose publicly. It's a pretty personal story so don't be surprised if there's sappy bits.

 

(Hope you like reading! :P)

 

Storytime:

 

So, currently being 16 years old, you'd wonder how I'd be in posession of a ke15, if a car at all.

Truth is, I got the car at thirteen years of age.

 

How?

 

Well, as much as I don't like to flap my mouth about it, in 2011, i was fortunate enough to recieve a randomly drawn prize at a fishing conpetition.(Back to Pedder 2011) At 11 years old, I had won a small dingey with a merc outboard and some bits and pieces. (Lucky bastard, I know.)

 

So, after about 3 months of "what the hell do I do with this" my dad and I decided that it would be a smart idea to sell it.

Good move.

Got a fair amount for it, and sat that arpund in the bank until one fateful day in Adam's driveway.

 

My dad and I were dropping off my Honda Z50 minitrail, my first bike, off at my dad's good mate's house as payment for work he'd done to my XR100R. (Yes, I'm a dirt bike kid too) being a thirteen year old, i wasn't paticularly interested in 'adult conversation' and my attention drifted to the red car sitting in the garage.

 

"What is that? That looks cool."

The conversation eventually shifted to the car itself. I soon found myself walking circles around it like a wedge-tailed eagle to a rabbit. Sitting in it pushing all the buttons and pressing all the pedals, pretending to run it through the gears etc. (I was thirteen, who could blame me?) I loved the thing. Adam fired it up for us. Sounded damn good to my ears. At one stage adam needed to go inside for something, and as me and my dad were looking into the tiny engine bay, he poked me and held up four fingers; mouthed the words "four grand". I was dead keen. What's more, so was dad. He was letting me buy it! (Ha!)

 

Subtly easing into the idea of actually buying it, we asked what he'd expect as a reasonable offer to be.

"Oh.. I don't really know to be honest."

"How does four grand sound?" I said.

...

 

 

Lots of waiting, lots of indecision. :)

 

Long story short, the car became properly mine in the June of 2013.

(Took it home on a quad bike trailer!)

 

I was very excited. So excited, that I decided to drive it up and down our 100m driveway. A lot.

(This was probably not the greatest thing for the car, but hey, it taught me hill starts and better clutch control.)

 

Aside from doing basic things like oil changes and radiator flushes, installing ariels and radios, not a lot of work was done to the car itself for quite some time.

 

I spent a lot of my time at school of course, working at Braaap motorcycles (yes, yes, gross isn't it?), the Royal Hobart Show, and now Woolworths.

 

Slowly gaining funds for her.

Emphasis on slow.

 

Given that I was REALLY into dirtbikes too, I'd spent a lot of money on those.

It was mid 2015, when I made a REALLY poor decision to trade my newly rebuilt CRF230F for a KX250 2 stroke. (A kx250 that probably hadn't been rebuilt in years. Or even had an air filter/oil change)

 

Stupid kid I was.

 

Long story short, this is a corolla thread after all, I lost about $4,500.

At the same time my job at Braaap went down the gurgler.

 

Was a pretty tough time for me at that stage. It was at that same time I started experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Things became really rough and many a time I had considered selling the car because I pressured myself into completing it, etc.

 

But, somehow amidst the cluster-ʞ©$ɟ of pretty much eveything going wrong, i managed to do at least one thing right and KEEP THE SPRINTER.

 

My first car, hopefully my last, too.

 

Moved the car to my mum's and made a bit of an effort at starting work. Took a lot of the chrome off, badges etc.

 

Truth be told, I probably spent more time driving the thing around the house than I did actually working on it.

 

Depression is a hard thing to cope with, and the Sprinter has always been a good outlet.

 

(Got the sads? Thrash the sprinter about.)

 

Took her for a spin down the road a couple times, too.

 

 

 

We finally bit the bullet and handed the car over to a panelbeaters to have the front stonetray and panels etc straightened out.

$1500 later and the front end was pretty overrated.

 

Once home;

 

More or less just more driving and tinkering with small things...

 

Took it back to dad's just a few months ago now.

 

Since then, we've started some serious work. The car is now on the right track and looking as though it could be resprayed early next year, potentially even this year.

 

Once the bodywork is done, the car will rapidly progress. It'll go back together. Fast.

 

I can't wait to see it on the roads.

 

And while I'm still having trouble with my mental illness, one thing's for sure.

 

I don't want those keys belonging to ANYONE else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

post-19257-0-55026100-1474893658_thumb.jpg

(July, 2013.)

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Great story mate!

Keen to see this take shape. :y:

Chin up through the tough times, most of us have been there. All the more rewarding when the car and project have been there through it all.

 

Thanks dude, you're absolutely right. The car will mean so much when it's done!

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Great write up Harry. I have kept an eye on your blog, but being a bit old (and old fashioned) I couldn't work out how to get involved in it.

 

I've had my KE15 for quite a few years now, and whilst I am yet to proceed on any actual work on it, I know I will be quite soon at last. Like you, I know it's there, and that matters to me.

 

I work in health, and can tell you that depression and anxiety are far more common than you realise. It wasn't until I had my own brush with anxiety a couple of years ago that I realised just how overwhelming it can be. All enjoyment in life just evaporates, and you can't bring yourself to enjoy the things you enjoy.

 

But it does get better. It's about realising that you have consciously put your perception of bad things aside, and that even when things seem as bad as they can get, there is far far more in life that is great.

 

My way of diverting the dark thoughts is to tell myself that I'm not going to think about that, instead I'm going to mentally rebuild my little K engine. And so I do, and the cloud lifts. I've built that little beast about a thousand times.

 

As always, I'll be looking forward to your updates!

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Bit of work today and yesterday taking off some more paint and rubbing back little bits that needed it.

 

post-19257-0-99735000-1475037603_thumb.jpgpost-19257-0-05694400-1475037644_thumb.jpg

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Absolutely overrated couple days weather-wise.

post-19257-0-84135600-1475037849_thumb.jpg(being a dork for the camera)

 

Then came lunchtime! When we decided we were in need of a bit of a break from boring old bodywork to have a bit of fun :P

post-19257-0-74107700-1475037953_thumb.png

post-19257-0-40357600-1475038022_thumb.jpg

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Apparently Rollaclub changes ' M-I-N-T ' to 'overrated'? Haha.

 

Sanded behind the grille area yesterday and removed the driver door hinges as they were slogged out. Last thing I need with a new paint job is having the door hit the body where it shouldn't be! Going to try putting in new pins ourselves, but we'll see what happens. May be a shop job.

 

Was tinkering with my spare engine, decided to tear it down and have a look at the barrels and pistons etc. Grabbed my 14mm and had a go at the head bolts, very tight obviously, but got two off. Got to a pretty difficult one and ruined my socket :/ eh, that's fair enough for cheap tools I suppose. Grabbed my dad's instead, being Kinchrome it should be alright... -snap- guess not.

 

 

We've also made plans to repair my wider set of steelies. (They're the white ones that came with the car.) Sand blast them, and spray them the same colour as the car's body and run them with the centre hubcap and perhaps a chrome edge.

 

 

 

 

 

behind here is a pretty nice red!

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bit more work yesterday with some bog finding it's way onto the roof!

 

A few small dents around the place here and there, with the exception of a small high spot above the left side rear seat? Where some poor bugger has head butted the roof maybe :P

 

Had a couple nasty dents in the rear, just below the bootlid, behind the bumper more or less. A few unorthodox techniques soon sorted them out :)

 

Bit of bog on those too where it was needed and the overall result is quite good!

 

post-19257-0-36511800-1476575774_thumb.jpg

The roof, where you can see each spot.

 

The rear end, where theere was an outwarfs facing dent close to where the camera is, and where the car must've been rear ended and pushed the bumper inward to the car.post-19257-0-03235700-1476575913_thumb.jpg

Outside view

post-19257-0-06002900-1476575955_thumb.jpg some birdbrains!

post-19257-0-15694800-1476575817_thumb.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Right! Had a spare moment after work experience today, so I swung around to Craig's bodyworks in Moonah. Hadn't had a chance to look at my driver door hinges at all. So, apparently that'll be next week.

 

Anywho, I've spent the last few hours in the garage tinkering.

 

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Sitting nicely in the garage all nice and dry. Bet she misses the street :/

 

post-19257-0-03083300-1479895639_thumb.jpg

So I've removed my dirty old philips speakers, making way for my new ones coming this christmas >:D they were wired poorly and were pretty old, so a fresh set should do well with upholding to my music addiction.

post-19257-0-36089100-1479895761_thumb.jpg

 

Also removed my seatbelts. They didn't match, and probably would not pass the pits anymore. I'm unsure where to acquire new ones, but a good mate assures me Repco does them??

 

post-19257-0-38386700-1479895863_thumb.jpg

Underneath where my speakers sat, this would be a great spot for a small light to be. Maybe if I wired in a switch that's activated when the bootlid opens and have it automatically come on when it's up? That would be pretty neat.

 

post-19257-0-17725700-1479895977_thumb.jpg

 

In other news, I got my motorcycle licence a few weeks back. Did the course on the weekend, got my licence on the monday, caught a bus and rode my bike back from launceston on Tuesday, went for a ride with my mates to the top of Mt. Wellington on Wednesday. :)

The freedom is great. Will be even better once I can get around in my sprinter :0

 

 

Waiting on those door hinges. Once they're back, dad and I will spray inside the door frames and put them back on. From there, more paint!!

 

Exciting stuff!

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Be careful on the bike. Virtually all my mates had Ducati's in their time. Only one still has his. All of them have pieces missing from their legs though.

 

A good option for period "factory" light can be found under the bonnet, or much better in the boot of Crowns, or some Cressida's. The earlier ones have a glass lens and are rather nifty. Later are the same basic design but plastic and more 80's

 

 

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Be careful on the bike. Virtually all my mates had Ducati's in their time. Only one still has his. All of them have pieces missing from their legs though.

 

A good option for period "factory" light can be found under the bonnet, or much better in the boot of Crowns, or some Cressida's. The earlier ones have a glass lens and are rather nifty. Later are the same basic design but plastic and more 80's

 

 

post-4909-0-85517900-1479897250_thumb.jpg

 

That's pretty neat, definitely a good option to consider!

I'd personally thought about something pretty newish and maybe even coloured? Dunno. I imagine the small details such as this will be a little while off anywho, haha. Bodywork and paint is current priority :/

 

Yes, dead careful on the bike.. have already had people pull out in front of me and cut me off etc..

This little thing has about as much horsepower as a lawnmower though! (Keeps parents happy)

 

No wheelies for me..

Edited by 1969 SPRINTER
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