My Little Ke55...

[Guest Brad]

Nice work the Corolla looks horn with those wheels on it! Keep it up!

 

Bradelz

[Hiro Protagonist]

Just thought that I'd add that there are more pictures HERE, although the focus is on my 102 rather than the g/f's 55

[Hiro Protagonist]

OK, time for some updates, as a lot is going to be happening for the old girl in the coming weeks (I might as well do it, even though it's technically the g/f's car and she drives it 90% of the time, I bought it and do 99% of the work, as well as take the photos and hand over the folding)

 

Firstly, bought an old rusted-out 79 KE55 the other week, mostly for spare parts for $200. Body is more rust than metal now, but engine/gearbox still work fine, and the dash was in good nick along with a new uncracked dash-pad, and a much sought-after front left rubber bumper cap. Main use she'll have for the next few weeks will be my test-bed for trying out the electronic dizzy, as well as the Gemini Nikki carb I've got lying around, and ripping off the emissions spaghetti maze of vacuum pipes to see what can actually be ditched

 

Here she is in the g/f's backyard getting some parts pulled out of her

 

And the rust.........ohh god, the rust....(note, these pictures show just two of the countless areas of terminal, blue-slip impairing rust that the car has. Also note that the bonnet hinge has actually rusted OFF from the bonnet)

 

 

 

She's called Pineapple, partly for the colour but primarily for the reason that she's going to get crushed once we're finished stripping it............get it? Pineapple Crush?........didn't think anyone would.. other options included Lemon (for lemon squash) and Banana (for Banana Peel, as we're peeling it apart, or Banana Split for also obvious reasons).

 

Fascia panel

 

Almost-perfect dash pad

 

 

As an unexpected bonus, I also acquired a (almost) complete electronic distributor out of a 4KEU. This confused me for a little while, as all documentation I could find suggested that 4K electronic dizzys had external igniters, and the 5K/7K ones were internal. Mine was very obviously a 4K one, and also very obviously internal ignitor. The reason that this was an issue was because I didn't get a rotor with the dizzy (hey it was free, who can complain?), and the standard 4KC points one was waaay too big, as was the dizzy cap. Went trawling through parts catalogues, cross-referencing the ID number on the dizzy as well as looking at pictures of distributor caps and comparing it to the spare nipponDenso one I got with the dizzy, and finally found out that the dizzy seemed to be identical to a 5K, which meant that off-the-shelf rotors and caps could be attained. These were attained.

 

Distributor and coil, clearly showing it has an internal ignitor

 

ID plate clearly saying that it's from a 4KEU

 

 

New cap and rotor obtained for the princely sum of $23

 

So, whats coming up........went around getting quotes for the rust to get cut out of Billie and fixed up, best I got was $750 to cut out, plate and prime the holes in the A-pillar, around the tailights and in the back passenger sill, leaving me to bog up the ones in the guards. Seeing as how I'm not flash with a welder (and don't own one), this seems to be the likely option. Most of the places were quoting in the vicinity of $4grand for a full exterior respray, which I couldn't justify either, so I'll be forking out for a decent air-compressor and gun set, and then painting the bloody thing myself. Can't hurt right? Hopefully that'll get done in the Easter holidays, unless I get more work in which case I'll have to try and fit it in on weekends......

 

Like I said, things happening

Edited March 21, 2007 by Hiro Protagonist

[Hiro Protagonist]

OK, been a long time since I've last updated, so I think it's time for a re-fresh

 

pre-firstly, rust has been cut out (has been for a long time), drivers seat has new mounts welded in, and now slides more than half-way back (one of the bolts connecting the rail to the seat was loose and jamming the rail), parts car Pineapple has come and gone

 

Firstly, Hotwires are now sold (finally)

 

Secondly, electronic dizzy is IN, all working fine too and seems to have slightly more power than when on points (points probably needed changing)

 

Thirdly, got me some sparkly new headlights the other week, installed them last weekend and boy do they make a difference.

 

 

 

 

Down at the foreshore with Charlene after a good hard clean

 

Fourthly, FINALLY got a tacho (although not got around to installing it yet). Now I can finally tell how fast the engine is going, replacing the old loud-very loud-deafeningly loud-shift system that we've been using up until now. Cheers to hymen-rob for the tacho

 

[JiP]

Hey, looking good. Love the headlights!!

[Hiro Protagonist]

Hey, looking good. Love the headlights!!

 

They do make a huge difference, even as misaligned as they are at the moment

 

Next stop is installing the tacho and giving the wheels a long awaited polish/clean

[LittleRedSpirit]

Thats a pretty cool GF letting you strip cars in her yard. Mine would flip! Also, I really like those rims, just not on a car with as many curves as a ke55. They seem a little modern for the shape IMO. Otherwise, fantastic little car. ;) :D :)

Edited September 9, 2007 by LittleRedSpirit

[ke55_sr20turbo]

Hey,

I found it.

I only relised your from Newcastle.

I'm from Picton.

Well actually Tahmoor. :lolcry:

Cruise sounds good.

My boyfriend gets his licence back in like 26 days.

and I don't get my L's till December (if I pass)

But He's got a KE55 1979 Corolla.

It's hot as. He's putting a 4AGE into it at the moment.

But I get his exhaust, it'll bolt straight off and on to mine.

 

Do you know anywhere thats good that I might

be able to find 15 inch" Simmon look alike rims?

Having trouble finding any nice 15's at all.

 

Well, Keep in touch.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Well, long time without an update, but thats mainly because not much has been going on. Since last post, some rust has returned (hasn't been addressed), some new rust has appeared, engine runs hot and cold (noise/performance-wise, not temperature), exhaust hangers have snapped off the muffler, and there have been some unpleasant noises coming from the front wheels.

 

So, things that have happened. Firstly, finally got around to installing my nice shiny un-cracked and un-scratched dash-pad, replacing the old crappy grey/purple dash-mad and severely split/cracked dash-pad. This was not too much of a bother, as I could see on the spare dash where the nuts and screws were that I had to undo. However, the screw on the inside of the pad just above the passenger air vent is an absolute bitch to get to, especially with my gargantuan hands and the stumpy screwdriver that I had (it was the only one that could fit length-wise). Looks heaps better now, and it seems to creak less than the old one which is also a good thing.

 

Secondly, the clunking noise that appeared to come from the front wheels turned into a grinding/scraping noise under brakes, so I decided to see if the pads needed changing (probably should have investigated this earlier, but didn't have the time to do it myself or the money to send it to a mechanic.

 

Here's what I found.

 

 

And in comparison to the replacement VN Commodore pads I bought (which fit and are slightly thicker)

 

In short, ouch. Considering the state of the rear drums (probably not much more meat left on them, which kinda explains why the handbrake is so crap), it wouldn't have been long before I had next to no braking ability whatsoever. So I shelled out $60 for some new Bendix pads off the back of a VN, $15 for a pad spreader/piston compressor, and set about changing my first ever set of brake pads. 4 hours later, I had the pads done on the front left wheel. 15 minutes after that, the front right wheel was done......it's amazing how much a little experience can help. Took it for a test spin, and no more scraping noises, and a bit firmer brake pedal too.