Davros' Ke10 4age Project

[wrathchild]

Wicked car man sweet 4age build keep up the good work! :D

[Davros El Davros]

OK, I am digging this thread back up from the dead. It's been a pretty manic few years since this build was making good progress, and in that time I have moved back to Sydney, traveled half way around the world filming, had my first major film project screened on SBS and successfully transitioned to directing for film and TV.

 

And, neglected the hell out of my KE10.

 

So, that's all changing now, with the prompting and support of a few good mates. I finally bit the bullet and decided to outsource the last of the rust work, which was probably one of the best decisions I have made with the build so far, as it was getting out of hand with more and more discoveries.

 

I am probably repeating previous posts from a couple of years back, but we found out that the car had actually been hit just behind the passenger C pillar, and had a whole new rear quarter (badly) stitched back on to it. The passenger door was hanging incorrectly, and a lot of re-aligning needed to be done. With my current commercial work rate, this all would have taken me forever to fix, and even though I am pretty decent with the TIG these days, I certainly ain't no panel beater.

 

So, to cut a long story short, on Australia day this year we packed the car onto a trailer and shipped it down to Nowra to get the rust done.

 

It's just come back, COMPLETELY RUST FREE and straight as an arrow. After watching my heart sink with every new rust discovery over the last few years I am absolutely stoked to see it back, and am really motivated to get the rest of the engineering and fitting underway.

 

Here are a few random photos from the rust repairs. Chrome trims and badges have been shaved, door handles etc remain.

 

[Davros El Davros]

After picking it up from the panel beaters a few weeks ago, it's not found a happy home in Luke's (drift freak) incredibly well equipped garage, alongside his beast of a KE11 Beams project. I have decided to keep it down the coast and not bring it back to Sydney, because my garage here in the rental flat isn't ideal for welding, grinding and making a lot of noise. Plus it's rad to be able to hang out with mates and work on the car.

 

Here are a few flicks of the car post-panel beater. It's super smooth, but in all sorts of different paint until I get all of the mechanics done.

 

 

While so much is getting done to the car, I've decided to change the colour completely as well. I've chosen a colour, and got a mate to mix up a sample pot.

 

The colour is Ford Mercury Silver, with a small amount of coarse alloy fleck in it for a bit of sparkle, but not too much. My panel beater did a test spray on the inside of the front guard, and this is what is looks like:

 

[Davros El Davros]

And I decided to get straight into it and tackle a pretty challenging project to kick off the work on this thing again.

 

While I was still in Brisbane I started to mount the Tilton pedal box, but was hitting a few dead ends in regard to getting the pedals sitting in the right spot, and as close as possible to where the original factory pedals sat. It was something I was actually a bit hesitant to tackle, but once I stopped and thought about the process, it was actually quite easy.

 

To start with, I made up a steel guide that mounted where the stock accelerator pedal mounted to the floor. The guide showed exactly where the pedals hung, and indicated the right height for the ball of my foot on each pedals, plus the spacing of the pedals in relation to the steering column.

 

 

Once this was made up, I pulled the stock pedal box back out and took a good look at how it was mounted. I was originally planning on hanging the pedal box down from the brace underneath the dash, but was concerned it would give too much flex. Then I had the realisation that the original pedal box bolted up to the firewall anyway, in a double thickness section between drivers side the strengthening gusset. So, doing what was obvious all along, but I hadn't seen it, I made up a braket to hang the Tilton pedal box from the original mounting holes in the firewall.

 

This way turned out to be the best, and the new bracket I made up turned out to be much lighter and simpler than the previous bracket I had been making years ago. It's amazing what a bit of time away from a project can do for your engineering brain. I am finding I have so many different approaches to things I had previously wanted to do with the car.

 

I used the steel guide I had made up to position the pedals and determine the right height.

 

It's tacked together now and bolted in place, will be fully welded and painted once I know it's there to stay and not in the way of anything else.

 

[LittleRedSpirit]

Hes back!

 

This is great to see, one of the better projects on this whole site. I know how it goes with long breaks, but its important to stay true to your ideas and goals.

 

Also, congrats on getting some actual gainful employment in film and TV, I'm extremely impressed and jealous and know its the start of big things for you. I remember your handball house warming vid from a while back, it was great, nice to see the potential being realised of both you and the car!

[orangeLJ]

something about a/m pedal boxes just always looks so sexy.

 

New colour looks awesome!

 

If you don't mind me asking, what was the film project that you had aired?

[Davros El Davros]

Haha, LittleRedSpirit you must have wondered what happened to me. I just dropped off the face of the earth for a while. I meant to give you a shout and catch up for a beer before I left Brisbane, but moving interstate got pretty nuts.

 

Anyway, thanks for the kind words, about the car build and about the career. I am pretty happy with how things are working out, although there has been more focus on the career of late and none on the car. I am working to correct that and get this thing going and match it to the vision I have in my head.

 

OrangeLJ, you're damn right about the pedal box. As soon as I had it in there, I had a dumb grin on my face which seemed somewhat unjustified. Seeing the stock accelerator pedal on it skinny little arm next to the big beefy machined aluminium tilton pedals had already got me thinking about machining up something to suit, and then getting it anodised black.

 

The film project that I had aired on SBS recently was called RYOKOU. It's a 30 minute doco based on Australian World Champion track cyclist Shane Perkins, and how he travels to Japan each year to compete in the Keirin Track Racing league, which is essentially like horse racing or greyhounds, except with 9 guys on bikes on these brutal concrete velodromes. All combined with crazy Japanese culture and tradition.

 

You can check it out in 5 online episodes here: youtube.com/chasingtheglory

 

You can also see more of my work on my vimeo channel: vimeo.com/eldavros

 

 

More car updates coming soon, but probably not as soon as I liked. After just getting started again, I am taking some much needed holidays for a couple of weeks.

[Alex'sKE10]

Stoked to see this thread back in action! makes me feel guilty as hell, had my ke10 for 7 years and its still sitting in the shed :(

 

keep up the quality work mate can't wait to see how she turns out!!

 

 

[wrathchild]

Awesome your back looking forward to more updates! :D

[Davros El Davros]

Thanks Alex and Paul, I'm back from holidays now and will be ripping into the car as much as work and the bank account will allow at this stage.

 

First thing I decided to tackle once I got home was the brakes. Bending up the brake lines was something that I was a bit hesitant to start, because I wanted to do a really neat job and make sure everything was as aesthetic as possible, and as hidden as possible. Doing things like this is pretty easy at this stage though, cause I can just walk a few metres and have a look at Luke's car and see how he has done everything, and just either copy it, or tweak it a little bit to suit my OCD sensibilities.

 

So, I am using coated steel brake line, and will be using mostly stainless steel fittings from Aeroflow and Proflow. I figure if everything else is going to be shiny, the brake lines and fittings should be as well..

 

The actual labour component of fitting the brake lines is probably the smallest part. It's the planning stage that really takes the time. Thinking about the best way to route it so it's hidden, avoids the engine bay, exhaust, and anything else that will squash or damage it. Bending up templates and finding that your initial ideas are no good any basically going back to the drawing board.

 

I decided to make up templates from fencing wire first of all, so I wasn't wasting the steel line first up. I made up all of the templates and started bending up some of the lines before I ran out of time.

 

I also made a pretty comprehensive sketch planning out all of the fittings and splitters etc that I will need for the system. It took a while and a lot of studying various parts catalogues, but I have my list of required gear now and will order it soon. I am looking at comparable prices for Aeroflow fittings and so far Rocket has been the cheapest surprisingly. If anyone has any recommendation of a good place to but stainless steel brake fittings please let me know.

 

I haven't flared any of the lines yet, obviously need to wait for the fittings first. I also need to buy some more brake line because I didn't buy enough.

 

Here are 2 flicks. The brake line in the middle has been bent up from the steel line and is one part of the back brake line. I pulled the brake line though a small hole drilled in a wooden block to straighten it before putting my bends in it.

 

[4agebj]

i wana see the finished project :(

[67Rolla-Ken]

+1

[drift freak]

Guys,

Dave is in the process of building a shed to work on his pride and joy at the moment and will hopefully have it sorted within the next few months. I suspect things will be on the boil once this all sorted, until then we wait :(

[67Rolla-Ken]

Great to hear! Is the car in primer now or silver?

[drift freak]

As far as I am aware the car is still in primer.