Convert

Convert Vic & Nicholas (son) Ke35 Red convertable with 12a Rotary. Sydney

That last one is a Leyland marina. The door handles give it away and oh yeah the paint.

Hi Elwood, I have one. I was told that it had been reconditioned recently. $30 I am in Sydney. SMS me 0417 677 003 Vic.

The chassis is completley hidden. I removed the door sills from the rear of the front guard to the front of the rear guard. Inside I laid I think 4 steel rectangular pieces starting with a piece of 6 x 3 then 4 x 2 etc till I created a half round beam. Everything is stitch welded (mig) to avoid twisting. I had the sill remade out of a piece of 3 mm plate rolled into the correct shape. There is a foot in the inside of the rear guard. A 6 x 4 member is welded to the member inside the sill vertically behind the door striker plate. (I had intended to make a removable roll bar but it came in handy to locate the retractable seat belt reel). From here there is a member welded at right angles across the top of the rear guard and through to the boot where I fitted another member behind the rear seat. This facilitated the need to relocate the fuel tank rearward by about 3 inches. I think the reason the car handles so well is that it has most of the weight is down low and at the outside. Also, the gearbox is the heaviest bit of the drive line (which is toward the middle of the car) and the engine is buried into the cross member. Of course the car had to be inspected by an engineer, and he said that with the increase in tyre width it had a better braking ability than the original specifications. I might still make a removable roll bar, as the scrutineers at a track, won't let us run without one. When I was at Eastern creek they made me keep the top up. I know that the top creates drag as at speed you can see the roof ballooning up. My estimation is that no roof might be worth as much as a second down the quarter. It certainley feels more stable without the roof. Vic

Thankyou all for your encouragement, I agree that the top up shot of the car looks a bit average. There arn't many soft tops that look good with the top up. The car is meant to be enjoyed top down. The only way to get the right shape is to have a hard top. It took a week of experimenting to finally make a pattern for the bows so that when the roof is down you can still seat 3 adults in the back. As I said before we spent very good money with the best tradesman to ensure a good job. The roof is made from Mercedes Benz material and did not leak a single drop. This time around we need only need to replace the plastic windows, as they have gone yellow with age. When the car had the roof still attached, if you jack up the front right hand wheel till it clears the ground, the passenger door was difficult to open. Now, with the roof off and the chassis installed you can jack up the same point till BOTH front wheels are off the ground and you can open and close the doors as normal. There was a shot in the magazine where the photographer was on the ground and low down. The car looks at its best from this angle in my opinion. I have an enlarged framed shot in my office and I still like it all these years later. I love that it is a sleeper. My wife surprised many young rev heads at the lights when the 'Rotary got busy'. My son and I are looking forward to going for a cruise one day soon. The last time he was in it he was 3 and in the baby seat in the back with his sister. Vic

Hello, I am the owner of the KE 35 convertable featured at the begining of this thread. I built the car in 1989/90. My wife covered 50,000km in it over about 3 years, when I took it off the road and put it in the shed. It has been there for about 17 years. In all that time I have never seen another one done. It took 13 months to construct and cost exactley $10k at the time. The roof alone cost $2k. Did anyone pick up on the point that it has a 12a in it? My son is now interested in driving it, and we have been restoring it over the past year. This is why we discovered the Rolla Club web site. The original car was a 1976 model with 90,000 km on it. It had been side swiped. After stripping it I realised that the rear half had more rust than I liked so I cut and shut it with a 1982 model. All of the outer panels (including the rear quarters and the rear beaver were replaced with new metal except for the drivers door skin and front splitter. I note someones comment that it is still underpowered and would handle poorly and would now be in the trash. With the hidden and substancial chassis installed, it is much stiffer than original. Also, with the engine swap it goes considerably harder than standard. I did the quarter mile at Eastern Creek, and it returned a 14.9 second pass, which was as good as the two Brock Commodores on the day. Did I mention the car is automatic and weighs 920 kilograms? Lowering the stance of the car was something I was always going to do for the front. The rotary is much lighter than the old push rod engine. We have now had new springs made to lower the car to a more apropriate height. My son thinks the wheels are 'hideous' so we have procured a set of 15" items which are yet to be fitted. At the time they were quite fashionable. The car will perform a 90 degree turn at up to 80 km/h without squeeling the tyres and without the need to take up more than its own lane. Its a bit like a go cart. I have had many runs to and from Gosford at 220 km/h. The speedo needle points directley at the floor. That was as far as I was prepared to go. Did I mention the motor was stock and carbied? It only has a set of extractors fitted? In that era, the only new convertable available was the Ford Capri and I did drive one. It was front wheel drive under powered and had very sloppy handling. The roof leaked and they were bandied about in the press as lemons. From memory, it cost about $30 k. Also the back seat was suitable for two adults only. Re-engineering a Ke35 is not the same as buffing the paint and slapping on a set of mags. Weight distribution, balance, torque, stiffness and feel are interwoven to give a vehicle designed to perform as it was intended. I have had many peformance cars since, and this one never dissapointed or offered any compromise. In my youth I built several Ke 20s for track and rally use. I have restored or severley modified many vehicles. The last one is a mini stretched into a limousine. I prefer to think that for its day it was considered good enough to be displayed on the pages of Fast Fours and Rotaries, a magazine clearly in a position to judge such things as style, uniqueness and build quality. I gave it the CONVERT insignia because I was unsure that I would like the rotary. I should have never lost a winks sleep. I am looking forward to seeing the extractors glow cherry red again.... Regards Vic