My New Old Car - Ke10

[corolla_nut]

didn't manage to get a huge amount done today...

Pulled apart the rh tail light and straightened the bolt. Had to run down to Bunnings to get some sikaflex to reseal it and got some nuts and washers while I was there so I can whack it in tomorrow. Also had to bash the centre chrome a little as it wasn't sitting quite right.

Got around to taking apart the fender indicators and giving them a clean. One is ok, one is not, so I'm after a ke10 fender indicator that isn't stuffed if anyone has one.

That's all for now I gotta run ;)

[Felix]

so I'm after a ke10 fender indicator that isn't stuffed if anyone has one.

 

Umm, there are two types. ;)

 

The earlier ones are smaller (chrome trim part) and more flush looking. The later ones are a bit larger and the lense sticks out a lot further.

 

You should post a pic of the ones you have so you end up with the same type from side to side.

 

You can buy new repros on ebay, but I think they are the later larger type. From what I've heard the quality isn't the same as originals. NOTE, RT40 shovelnose coronas shared the same guard indicators.

 

Really should sit down one day and write up an article of all the minor differences/variations. It is easy to determine early and late types, but in the middle it gets a bit blurred at times. You have the Toyota model progression changes, but also I think having imported (York Motors cars), plus cars with local content (AMI) confuses things a bit.

 

Another thing too, is that the ke1x models are up to 40+ years old and quite a lot of them have had accidents over the years. Seems awful common for them to have had hits in the front passenger side. For example one of my ke10's (early dash 67 model) has a complete late front end (guards, stone tray, bumper, side indicators, front indicators, grill, headlight surrounds etc.) on it from an accident at some stage in its' life.

Edited August 21, 2009 by Felix

[Chobis]

The later side indicator lenses are UGLY !!! I have them on the 11 and am on the search for some early slimline ones. I recommend trying to find the early ones too. They are so much nicer. The ones off eBay are poor quality as Felix has mentioned, but finding genuine ones is pretty tough and has eluded me for 18months so far.

[corolla_nut]

I can't quite remember exactly what they look like off the top of my head... I'll have a little looksie tomorrow when I'm a little more so in the land of the living - bad night at work and late finish does that to you. Anyway, the pic below is pretty similar to what they look like - I take it these are the later model bulgier ones? I got the pic off ebay and am not entirely sure as the parts never quite look the same - I bought a set of ke30 numberplate lights off eBay a little while ago and you can definitely notice the difference.

 

I know one of these fender indicators was replaced recently as I opened it up and it was very clean surrounding the bulb and the back of it was also clean as compared to the other which was very rusty and very dirty.

 

my ke10's a 69 model - so that's sort of a middle of the range one isn't it?

 

I think I'm going to have to try and resurrect the fender indicator that I have or buy the ones of eBay and use them both as it would look odd having two different styled ones.

If I'm keeping them I'm going to have to fix my foobar (I have a shortfuse and kind of mashed the bulb metal case in there - don't ask, I'll just take a photo tomorrow... )

 

Thanks for your help guys! I'm going to bed!!

[corolla_nut]

Ok, the fender indicators that I have are the bulge type ones. I'm sure one has been replaced as it looks somewhat different to the other and appears to be newer.

And here's the one I managed to mangle while fighting with an old rusted out bulb..

Robert (rob83ke70) the lucky duck has the other sort on his ke11

^^^so jealous!

There is a set of hubcaps on eBay which is exactly what I'm after, unfortunately I'm not sure If I'm willing to pay $85 for them ;) edit: too bad it appears someone beat me to it and bought them! ;)

 

So, very slow progress, the rh taillight is in with nice new spring washers and nuts. I sorted all the bolts/nuts/screws/washers out yesterday into a caddy by style and size to make things easier for me.

I would do more today but I'm supposed to be going to Narromine and I really should be getting ready.

The next thing on the agenda is more than likely going to be the front apron and the valance, and cleaning, polishing and fitting both bumpers.

 

Another thing I'm really happy with is that the dash has two quite minor cracks which should be easily fixed - YAY!!!

But I also need to figure out what I'm doing with the hole where that ugly stereo is, I need to clean up and/or respray the glovebox lid too.

My ke10 doesn't have a cigarette lighter - there's just a blanking off plate where there should be one, so I'm just assuming that cigarette lighters in 60's model corollas were a factory option and I should be able to find one around somewhere?

[corolla_nut]

sooooo not much has been happening since the last post. I fitted the taillights and discovered that i forgot to put the rubber gasket behind one so I took it off the other day, fitted the gasket, put it back on and then promptly broke one of the studs off the top of the taillight!! :wink: I hate old cars lol

 

Also, had a similar story with the fender indicators - ended up buying a pair of aftermarket ones off eBay - must say that they're pretty nice for aftermarket. Got them and put them on and must have done it up too tight or something as I managed to put a pretty major crack in one of them - so I ended up putting one of the old ones back on that side....

 

I've still got to speak to a couple of women in town who apparently do really good touch up work as there are some flakes of paint missing off the panel near the where the valance should be and on the bottom of the rear windscreen lip.

 

Painted the rear toyota badge black the other day - I'm assuming that's what it was to begin with as it had a very small remnant of black left on it. Unfortunately there was crap on the end of the spraycan nozzle so it's got little lumps in the paint. I'm going to be re-doing it.

 

So after all this stuffing around I've effectively done nothing as I've frigged everything that I did to the car up and I'm not extraordinarily happy. Going to be working on it today and hopefully getting somewhere.

I want to have it done relatively soon so I can dedicate the ke55 to racing and then start on the ke20, which will be my street/tarmac event car and the ke55 will be dedicated entirely to dirt.

[philbey]

I've got the thailand replacements on mine, they're not that bad. The lens is fine, the "chrome" around them is the bad part, it's pretty crude and not that shiny.

 

If you got the replacement lenses and a good set of original chrome surrounds, you'd never know.

[corolla_nut]

So, since the last time I've posted I've been busily cleaning bits and being very indecisive about rubbers.

 

I've also discovered that I need to paint inside the boot as it was lightly covered in white paint and has surface rust appearing.

 

Over the past couple of weeks I taped up the old toyota badge for the boot and resprayed the background bit black. I took the tape off and discovered lumps in the job and assumed that they came out of the spray can's nozzle. After getting frustrated I didn't touch her for a couple of weeks and went back to it yesterday. I sanded back the lumps on the badge only to discover that they were part and parcel of the badge and were actually imperfections from the factory. GRRR!

So i taped it up again and put another couple of coats of black on and polished the chrome bits. Looks a treat now - it's on the car!!

I also pulled apart cleaned and polished the parkers yesterday and reattached them to the apron and cleaned up the rear trims. One of them is going to need a bit more of a thorough clean though.

 

So after finally choosing which grille I wanted to use I went to clean and polish it today. I took one look at the one I chose and saw that it was a bit mangled and out of shape. So we have an identical one. I cleaned that one and started polishing it only to realise that it has rust that has penetrated the chrome...

I had a look at the other three and chose the one you see below, and swapped the badge from the mangled one onto the one i'm using.

After a couple of hours polishing it came out a treat - another half hour tomorrow and the little bits of surface rust at the bottom will be completely gone.

The grilles I wanted to use

The finished product (bottom - you can tell cause it's all shiny!!) :S

I also polished the headlight surrounds and the 'corolla' and 'AMI' badges.

Plans for the next few days are to polish the exterior chrome bits and bumpers and attach all these and the aforementioned parts to the car.

I also have to either fix or replace that pesky tail light, get another lens for the left side fender indicator and a replacement passenger side headlight surround as it has some cracks on the corners, a little hole and it's a bit dinted.

I also have a lady coming over next tuesday to have a look at fixing some of the flaking paint issues i have lol

 

I also got hubcaps off ebay!!!! Woohoo!!

Edited November 12, 2009 by corolla_nut

[kexxxclub]

coming up very nice, keep up the gr8 work . polishing for all those hours will be well worth it

[silverra23]

What are you using to polish all the chrome? Its coming up very nicely.

[corolla_nut]

I started off using Mothers aluminium polish for the tail light surrounds and then Rob used it all, so I used silvo to polish all the other chrome bits.

I really like the results you get with silvo, does the job twice as quick and twice as good as mothers!

[Felix]

I've got a ke10 that looks very similar to that (except has the holes for the chrome side trim filled). It has been painted in a tacky straight tinter white and has paint peeling off it due to lack of preparation. I was thinking I should take it for a drive at high speed and blow all the paint off of it. :)

 

I've found the coarse green buffing compound you use on fresh paint is excellent for cleaning up chrome (trim, bumpers, hubcaps etc.) with very little armwork required.

[silverra23]

Silvo it is then! Cheers :)

[corolla_nut]

Coarse green buffing compound hey? What's it called?

The silvo's going ok apart from the rusty areas where it needs a little more arm work.

 

I'm hoping to get this thing on the road soon so I'm not driving my race car as my daily - just got done for negligent driving :no2: I would've been better off being caught going 10k's over the speed limit - less points gone and less fines, considering it was a low speed uey with wheel squeal... perfectly in control and noone around to hurt. :)

Ah well, wrong thing, wrong place wrong time saga

[Felix]

Cutting compound is what I should have said.

 

Many manufacturers sell it. It is pretty coarse. Used for putting the initial shine on fresh paint, or restoring heavily weathered paint. Great on stainless and chrome trim which is a lot harder than paint.