G'day fellas.

 

As alot of you might already know, i've slowly been building up a KE55 Coupe for Junior Sedans for the last 6 months or so.

When I started, I didn't realise that there would be so much effort into building the car; I started off with the typical young bloke mentality of it being a simple, quick, overnight task... Which of course, it definately was not!

I'm glad that I chose to build it. I was offered the chance to buy a few seperate cars; in fact, i had the offer for a car to be bought for me. But I knocked these offers back, because I really wanted to gain the experience of building the car for myself.

 

Thanks to a friend of my dad's, I scored a '79 KE55 Coupe for a bottle of bourbon. It was a rusty car, with a pretty much stuffed interior and motor, but it was perfect for what I wanted to do.

 

It started off like this;

 

Pretty shortly afterwards, I had it at this stage, nice and stripped out, ready for the major work to begin;

 

Then I hit a spot for a while, when I was busy on the other cars that I had, when I didn't do anything to the blue machine for a while. Then, I gained a bit of enthusiasm and went back into it with a force... the result ended up like this;

Note the stripped out interior, no front end, no doors, no glass, no whatsoever left in the shell except for some of the shit behind the dash.

The other car that I had been working on during the process, was an ex-speedway JS car, which was kindly given to me by a friend of my dad's. Ended up costing me around 200 bucks in fuel (was in Augusta, and had to pay for the fuel-guzzling truck we borrowed to get it :P ).

Some pictures of it are here;

 

Cut the roof off;

The other car that I had been working on during the process, was an ex-speedway JS car, which was kindly given to me by a friend of my dad's. Ended up costing me around 200 bucks in fuel (was in Augusta, and had to pay for the fuel-guzzling truck we borrowed to get it :P ).

Some pictures of it are here;

 

Cut the roof off (looked like a ute, don't ya reckon?);

 

Then got the cage out;

 

And left it in front of the cars for a while...

 

I was pretty pleased with the result, to say the least. I pretty much got all the big bits I need for the buildup off that car!

Now, we get the car up to the current stage. I set up a little bit of a workshop area for it with some cheap gazebos and a bit of bobcat work by the old man. Much better than working on the sand in the sun... if I wanted to work at the beach, I'd be there.

 

I spent 15 hours on getting that rollcage to that stage, so don't go telling me I missed a spot :P

That gets us to the stage that we are at now!

 

I still have probably another 4 or 5 hours prep work on the rollcage (providing I don't listen to my old mans 'she'll be rights'). The next thing that I'll be doing is spraying it in some 'Septone Anti-Rust Coating' in the satin black colour. It will (hopefully) prevent any surface rust from popping up once i've put the final coat on.

The only problem with this, is; on the tin it says it is not suitable as a undercoat for other paints, due to the nature of the product providing a waxy coat. I'll spray the cage, and hopefully it will look good enough as it is without needing a top coat. Currently, the roof is off the car, ready for the rollcage to go in, which will be a blessing.

 

Once the rollcage is I plan on fixing the fibreglass front end onto the car, and spraying the car in satin black. I can't see that being in the next fortnight/month though.

 

Will keep this thread updated, cheers for any comments people...

 

Dan.

Thats awesome work man I love your project! I'm following this to death!

 

Brad

lookin good dude!

if you decide you do wanna paint over the septone you can always just use a product called penetrol, which is itself a rust preventor. but lets you put paint on anything :P

 

can i ask how you get the cage into the next car? :S

Well, I cut the roof off (already done), drop the cage in, tack it in, weld roof back on, and wa-la, one rollcage in the car. Its a race car, not a show car, but i'll clean up the welds well enough. Cheers for the heads-up about the Penetrol, where can I get it?

 

Cheers Brad...

 

Dan.

Edited May 31, 200620 yr by Dan

paint places

nice to see some progress

Just thought I'd better add this on before I go to bed...

 

I'd like to thank all the people that have helped me out so far, in particular Xany and 2TGEU KE35, and all the people/members that have purchased parts off me, you've all contributed to me being able to do this, I've still gotta pay for my safety gear yet :P

 

Thanks heaps, fellas..

 

jesus my old girl is lookin overrated. ahhaha

 

shame shes soo f@$# rusty..

 

 

hows the 3k comin along dan??

 

got it in the coupe yet..

 

I'm lovein the 20v..hehe..

 

pce

Good stuff Dan...Do you still have any of the glass left out of the coupe?

mmm rolecage. Got qouted $800 for a cams and adr aproved one up here so that was a score you got the lil boi.

 

A quick in/out overnight project aye? 6 months later you'll be at the stage i am (aka...not running) AND YOUR MISSING HALF THE SHIT YOU STARTED WITH :P

 

Anyway good luck, ive got a 3.9 center to suit a borg if ya want it :S dunno how itd go in the speed way tho. Oh, can you lock em in JS?

G'day!

 

Haha yeah... shame about the rust.. wish it wasn't there, would be a beastly little car otherwise. 3K is sitting on an engine stand in the shed, waiting for me to decide exactly what I want to do with it...

 

Yeah, I still got all the glass out of the coupe, but couldn't find anyone that wanted it, so its waiting to be thrown away.. if anyone wants it, give me a holler.

 

800 bucks for the cage? Damn, thats a bit of money. I can get a second hand one right now for 150, or an brand spankers assembled one (not put in) for 600...

About the diff centre, yeah, we can lock them, just welded... ain't got no funds for a 3.9 mate :S but if ya wanna throw one my way :P

 

Anyway, this is what I did the other day;

Before!

After!

 

Ran out of paint and havent had the chance to do the rest yet, but it will be done.

 

Dan.