Hi Guys. I bought a 1979 KE55 (according to the vin) and trying to figure out if I have a hybrid KE30/KE55. The front nose has the round headlights of a KE30 and the Corolla SE emblem on both front fenders. I haven't been able to find where on the engine it is stamped 4k-c or 4k-j but guess it doesn't matter as it could of been swapped out over its life. Is there any way of telling what i have so i can find parts accurately? Thanks

 

Hi Tim,

            Lovely little Rolla you have scored there, that looks like it has been well preserved.  You haven't said where you are located.   I've tried to zoom into your pic, but the resolution is too poor to work out whether it is LHD or RHD, what the number plate is, or what is written on the sign board in the background.  Are you in Australia ?

Lots of things can get changed on a car in nearly 38 years, but there are ways of telling, by carefully reading the plates attached to the rear engine firewall.

If it was assembled & built in Australia, it will have a plate saying just that.  The 4K-C engine was the most common around that period.  There were  Rollas built around that time that could accept either round or square headlights.  I had a KE55 coupe with honeycomb grill & square headlights, but the attachment & mounting points were still there in the body for round headlights, although they were not shared by the square headlight mounting requirements.

Tell us where you are located, & post some more pics, of interior & engine bay in particular, & we should be able to narrow it down.

P.S.   Does it appear that the car has ever been resprayed, or possibly had a front end panels fitted at some time, as a result of an accident or rust ?   Has the body got any rust in it.

Look forward to more info & pics.

 

Cheers Banjo

Hi Banjo

 

Thanks for the quick Reply. yup I'm here in Sydney Australia. Its RHD. Its a no rust car and looks to be all original paint no signs of damage or respray anywhere. I will take some more pics this weekend when I pull the cluster to fix that pesky voltage regulator and smarten up my dash (as you can tell i have been reading the forums).

 

Cheers Tim

Early KE55s were round headlight with the square lights coming in the '80 facelift.

1 minute ago, Hiro Protagonist said:

Early KE55s were round headlight with the square lights coming in the '80 facelift.

And it has rubber end caps on the bumper not full chrome

7 minutes ago, Taz_Rx said:

And it has rubber end caps on the bumper not full chrome

I had a square-light '81 KE55 with the rubber end caps, but it was only an SE

The Princess' KE55 hardtop is a 1980 model with square headlights and full chrome bumpers. It is a CS. There are mounting holes in the front guards and rear quarter panels that accommodate the mounting brackets for the extended chrome section. I have seen some late 55s with early bumpers on and the holes with bungs in them. looks ordinary.

Hi Tim,

           Good you've lots of feedback !    Is your fuel gauge U/S, or very inaccurate ?  Is that why you are zeroing in on the 7-8 volt regulator, on the back of the dash ?

I think I posted something on here a short time back, when I replaced my regulator on a KE30.  There were basically two types of regulator.  Solid state & vibrating contacts with heated contact.  Both horrible things !

Looking forward to the pics.   What do you know of the history of this car ?  Does it have relatively low klms ?

It really is iconic looking, of the late 1970s with the white walls.  I'll bet it is a head turner, when you are driving it around.

Cheers Banjo

4 hours ago, Hiro Protagonist said:

I had a square-light '81 KE55 with the rubber end caps, but it was only an SE

I was more do getting at that it's a 55 not 30 going by the bumper. 

3 hours ago, Big G said:

The Princess' KE55 hardtop is a 1980 model with square headlights and full chrome bumpers. It is a CS. There are mounting holes in the front guards and rear quarter panels that accommodate the mounting brackets for the extended chrome section. I have seen some late 55s with early bumpers on and the holes with bungs in them. looks ordinary.

Yours has obviously been swapped out for the better looking full chrome but original had the wrap arounds.

17 minutes ago, Taz_Rx said:

I was more do getting at that it's a 55 not 30 going by the bumper. .

Gotcha.  I think the fact that it's a KE55 isn't in doubt (since it's a '79) though

As far as I know the bumpers are the original ones as I bought it from the second owner. Maybe that was some of the cosmetic differences between the CS and the SE models as Hiro noted. 

1 hour ago, Big G said:

As far as I know the bumpers are the original ones as I bought it from the second owner. Maybe that was some of the cosmetic differences between the CS and the SE models as Hiro noted. 

The bumpers look right for a pre-facelift KE55, from what I remember KE30s had short all-chrome bumpers, 78-80 KE55s had short chrome with rubber end caps, and 80-81 KE55s had long chrome with rubber dagmars.  Either mine had been changed or the 80-81 SEs kept the round-light bumpers

Thats how you could tell the difference between a 30 and a 55 at a glance in the days when rollas roamed the streets in herds. 

And...the xx KE55 came with colour coded bumpers that are the extended type.