Davros' Ke10 4age Project

[Evan G]

show reel MAD!

[Ke10-Hoon]

wow so close to the end..... well sort of.

As i was reading through the posts i couldn't help but to laugh, not at you Davros, but at the small little problems the ke10's throw at you, like that dam sound deadener, and finding a small crack near the accelerator pedal!!, i tell you these's ke10's are all the same.

Mounting the booster is the easy part, running those dam brake lines is the issue. Good times, good times.....

hopefully sometime soon you will join up for a cruise, or even better a run down the creek.

P.S. i recommend you check that the existing seat brackets are in good nick, when they snap its not pretty.

[jonh ke11]

I'm going to do same project on a ke11 were can i get some engine mounts for 4age convertion ordo you have the specs for the mounts so i can make myself thanks

[Davros El Davros]

Well, dragging this thread up from the depths here..

 

While updates have been few and far between, and I have working/traveling quite a bit, work on the car has been continuing.

 

Mainly taking care of some unexpected rust in the floor, and continuing to get rid of very stubborn sound deadener, so I can be sure I am getting all of the rust in one hit.

 

Update with pics will come this week.

[Davros El Davros]

OK, as promised here is an update with what I have been up to.

 

As mentioned previously I have had a few major discoveries that have added a bit of extra work to the build. I guess it's to be expected in these old cars.

I would rather find it all now than later when I have new paint on the body.

 

So, the first discovery was a nice big crack/hole around the accelerator pedal where it mounts to the firewall. KE10 firewalls are paper thin, so little wonder they crack so easily.

 

The accelerator pedal mount was screwed into a thick metal plate which was screwed to the body and also glued in place. I ripped all of this out and cut back around the crack until I was back on solid metal.

I ended up taking about 8-10cm of steel out around where the acc pedal was mounted, and then cut a 2mm mild steel plate to go in there.

I didn't get a flick of the hole before I started welding which is a bummer in terms of before and after documentation.

 

Welding this sucker up with the TIG was fun - I have been getting pretty savvy with the TIG on thin body welding, but the awkward positioning of the area in the engine bay and up under the steering column made welding rather hard.

I finally got my settings right - not using the foot pedal on the welder cause I was lying inside the car up under the dash, and ramping the current right down so I wouldnt burn holes right through the thin steel.

After a fair bit of fiddling around I ended up with a decent finish, that will come up fine with some bog and sanding back.

 

 

While I was welding up the crack, I also decided to blank off the hold I had previously cut for the firewall mounted clutch master cylinder, which is redundant due to the pedal box setup I am running. I welded in some extra steel as reinforcement.

I will have to re-drill he holes for the accelerator pedal.

 

Next up I have tackled a small spot of rust in the front guard that I neglected for too long and was spreading.

This was a nice fix - was a fairly localised area to cut out. I used some filler metal from the pile of metal I cut out of LittleRedSpirit's donor car ages ago and bent it to fit the contour of the guard.

Clamped, tacked and welded in place. I am loving the adjustment of the TIG with the footpedal. I have been able to weld with such little heat and good penetration that the paint within 2-3cm doesnt even burn off.

 

 

 

While I was welding inside, I decided to reinforce the trans tunnel, and blank off the hole from the previous K50 box. Bent up some 2mm steel plate to match the contour of the tunnel, and filled this in with some nice clean welding.

 

 

And finally, the joys of discovering unexpected rust in the floor pan. I have spent ages chipping back the sound deadener and cleaning the entire floor pan, so I can work out where all of the rust is.

I'll fix it all in one hit, and potentially fix up the dodgy repairs that I discovered as well.

The last flick is a bit blurry but shoes some of the rust holes. It's not super extensive, but enough to warrant a full inspection of the entire floorpan. Have been chipping the brittle sound deadener off with a block of wood and an old screwdriver,

then cleaning the whole area with a wire brush on the grinder. This is probably the most unpleasant job so far!

 

 

And that's about it for the moment. I'm looking to devote more time to this project in the coming months and make some solid progress.

 

The next tasks are:

 

Weld up rust in floopan

Address surface rust and minor holes in the window sills

Mount pedal box

Mount hydraulic clutch throwout bearing.

[beerhead]

What an improvement on the floor pan. Top work there mate, talk soon.

[benhachi]

Awesome conversion! i did something similar just finishing it off this week. 2tgeu/3t hybrid into a ke20. ill post a build thread up soon, might have some handy info for ya.

[camerondownunder88]

Hey goog work on floor pan makes me wanna look in my KE15 now see how bad its floor is.

 

BUt your firewall flexing at the accelerator my KE15 does this :( bad original owner bent fire wall and put a hole in it poorly fixed this is a fix down the road issue for me.

 

But good you got to it early as hydrulic cyclinders on the firewall here might flex and leak and make a mess.

 

Great work

 

Cameron

[jonh ke11]

good work on our car what did u do about your steering problem hit clutch slave cylinder

[Davros El Davros]

Thanks for the props. The old beast is coming together slowly!

 

In regards to the slave cylinder hitting the steering arm, I went through a few different options - one of which involved trying to offset the clutch slave and then offset a strike plate that bolted to the clutch fork.

 

This didn't work at all, so I finally bit the bullet and purchased a Tilton hydraulic clutch throwout bearing, which basically removes the need for an external slave cylinder all together.

 

The hydraulic throwout bearing mounts insid the bellhousing. I haven't fitted it as yet have been bogged down in the floorpan repairs and running a startup graphic design studio. Ha.

 

I'll looking at the clutch and the brakes as soon as I am done on the floorpan.

[Davros El Davros]

OK, time for some more updates. Work has been slow but steady chasing and repairing rust.

 

Since Beerhead peered underneath the sound deadener a few months back to rip up the old wiring, a lot has happened.

 

As per the previous post, a lot of time was spent chipping back sound deadener and removing every single trace of deadener, asphalt and paint from the interior floor pan.

 

Using a wire wheel on the grinder and an old screwdriver I went prodding and poking to find any areas of weak metal or full rust holes areas. Found a few unpleasant surprises and a few previous dodgy repairs.

 

This included a bad repair section in the passnegers side sill near the door pillar which will have to be completely rebuilt.

 

Also found some nice holes in the rear window turrets that were layered up with about 20mm of body filler, plus rust in the rear quarter window surrounds.

 

 

 

 

I ended up finding rust in the front driver's side and passenger's side sills, around the accelerator pedal mount to the floor, in the rear driver's and passenger's footwells, and a few other little bonus bits here and there.

 

Where possible I used replacement sections I pirated from another KE10 shell (thanks Joel..).

 

However, in some places I completely rebuild sections using 2mm plate. I did all of the welding with the TIG. I am starting to get some nice neat results, and if enough time is spent on getting the fit up right, I don't even need much filler rod.

 

I decided to cut out some previous repairs to the rear footwells which I wasn't happy with. Probably added a few days work on to the job, but I guess that's what I get for being a bit of a neat freak.

 

 

 

Spent a fair amount of time smoothing, filling small holes and using the hammer and dolly to get it looking good. It's not perfect but it's pretty good.

 

The bottom of the car will be getting a layer of stoneguard and the interior is getting prepped and painted with POR-15 to prevent rust in future.

 

Then down the line the floor/interior will be getting painted the same colour as the rest of the car.

 

Here is some pics of the final result. Looks so much better than what we started with. I also reinforced the spot welds on the seat mounts as a bit of future proofing.

 

 

 

 

Discovering this must rust has been a pretty big setback and occupied my time for a while. It means that I now have to go over the car with some strip discs on the grinder and chase rust in any crucial areas.

 

There is no telling how much has been covered with body filler and painted over... Grrrrr!

 

I am stoked to have the floor done though. Looking forward to getting the paint in there so I can move on, and Beerhead can come over and get the wiring done, which has been held up due to all the heavy work going on in the interior of the car.

[Guest pmp16]

Looks awesome Davros looking better n better everytime see update !

Amazing finish on floor pans u r an guru mate happy I could of helped ..

Also mate can't remember exactly what u needed the revision mirror for but I can get brand new interior light covers for ur model car ..

can't wait for next update ..

[ninja-philbo]

wicked dude love it

[drift freak]

Dave,

Again awesome work on the rust repairs. Such a shame about how much u found though. Good to see u can now make some more major progress with the loom. Keep the updates comin *thumbs up*

[Jordain]

Brilliant work Davros. I have followed this build very closely!

 

Get a flathead screw driver and run it along the bottum of your sill... this is what happened to me!

 

 

It was paperthin, Good work though! Hope the body isn't as bad as mine was. The 4A-GE motor is great. The attention to detail is fantastic. I can't wait till this is finished!