Corolla Convert!

[Dan]

KE35 would look good if it was a bit lower on 15's. But IMO at the moment it looks like its a stocko with its roof chopped off.. Hell, even I have one of them :P

 

Celica looks shit hot.. but both cars look like shit with the roofs up..

 

Cortina coupe would look preeeetty nice

[JiP]

I was thinking of this thread last night as i was staring at a Astra convertable and it got me thinking. If they used the roof from the Astra convertable it would keep the same shape as the KE35's original roofline.

[Dan]

No it wouldn't for two things;

 

a) different overall dimensions

b) astra convertibles weren't around when the car was built

c) no.

[JiP]

Obviously this "convertable" wasn't done in the late 70's. It'd be more recent.

[Dan]

Early 90s.. '94 i believe..

 

Don't think they were making Astra convertibles then mate

[ke30king]

come on dude you know what he means, don't be such a cock about it.

[JiP]

Its i his nature. :)

[ke30king]

sorry i didn't reply earlier, i was away. i concider everyone on here a mate. just the way you came across in your reply to that post. just seemed a bit picky.

 

cheers, lloyd

[Dan]

I swear I made a reply in this 'back in the day'

 

Yeah I was just giving Jono a bit of shit, I enjoy it :y: no hard feelings..

[Jono]

its just not classy enough to bother spending all that time on. a lancia delta integrale convertible, maybe....and thats still just a maybe. All that time on a corolla to make it topless, its still gonna go like shit and handle like shit and look like shit.

[irokin]

I swear I made a reply in this 'back in the day'

 

Yeah I was just giving Jono a bit of shit, I enjoy it :y: no hard feelings..

 

Yes and its now located in the trashcan. You really do carry on a bit for a region leader....

[Convert]

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

[godlovesugly]

looks a lot better than that KE1x convertible thing getting around with all the airbrushing on it, that thing makes me sad. i think it looks pretty good with the top down in that first picture but not as good with the top up, but when you make your own convertible you have to deal with that i guess. i know i could never build a car like that so i appreciate the work that goes into it

 

i reckon the wheels on it look pretty good, if your son is going to put some shiny chrome wheels on the car you should probably slap some sense into him :-p

 

if you have any pics of the KE20s you built for rally and track use you should put them up cause I'm sure everyone would love to see them

[corolla_nut]

I'm a real sucker for those types of wheels too...

I'm not really into convertibles due to the body flex that occurs in alot of them, but you said you added alot of reinforcement. Has it made alot of difference? Does it have any flex or handle like your typical convertible mr2?

 

Looks like a great job, wish I had the know-how to cut and weld things like this, we were thinking of giving the 55 a back end transplant when she's finally off the road, has too much cancer.

 

+1 for the pics of the ke20s! :dance:

[son of stig]

i think it looks good with the roof down, would have been insane at the time!

so many people talk about (and do) just chopping the roof off a coupe but big ups for actually doing it the right way!

good to hear its going to hit the street again