1972 Ke20

[jay_howie]

Hey guys, This is my first ke Rolla. (daily is a ae93 hatch) I just picked up a Ke20 Today and rolled it onto the front lawn, Its been sitting for I think approximately 10 years, it has been started a few times in that time

 

Specs:

1972 Ke20 2 door, Mustard Yellow

3k

2spd Auto

 

Its complete minus a couple of bits of trim, all the doors, boot and seats etc have been stripped out, and put in boxes, a few holes of rust the worst of which are behind the wheel arch

 

I have picked up a 4K-C from a ke70 and a 5 speed gearbox to match, I'm rebuilding that at the moment, It will have new brakes, disks up front, probably a ke3x/55 upgrade for now untill I get rego on it.

recondition everything else, cut the rust out and bog and prime any uneveness or pitting in the body. 14" steelies, probably 2nd hand if i can.

 

Eventually I want a ke55 4.3 auto Diff and some sort of 14" rims that suit the car.

 

I'm an aircraft technician (essentially an aircraft mechanic) by trade so I will transfer my practical skills to the car

 

This is definately a budget build, all the work will be done by me, except for a few small things I will need done by someone who has the correct machinery/tools.

 

Time span? who knows, I would like it to be on the road and all fixed up in 2 years, probably pending a respray, which I will save for once finished. Definitely not working on a car that has had new paint put on it.

 

Won't be doing anything untill after I finish up at work, this week is my last so will hack into it over the christmas break.

 

One thing to note is I have never done a car restoration before, never rebuilt or pulled an engine out etc etc. This will be a big learning curve, and something I can be proud of when I'm done!

[Skellington]

Looks like a fun project. Looking forward to seeing more around christmas break.

[jay_howie]

Cheers mate.

 

Some more photos, had trouble fitting the RH fender, this is just for looks and weather protection for now, it will all have to come off once I start on the body. got in the car today to attach the rear quarter windows and my hand pushed through a rusted part of the floor pan :/ not great but it just appeared to be the round plug section in the center of the floor pan.

 

Anyways here's a bit more

 

Quick question, I was reading through the 'tough K motor' wiki and it describes a unribbed 4k block that is weak and should be 'scrapped'. one of my photos shows the manifold side with the welsh plugs, where the ribs should be easy to see, can someone more familiar with these engines tell me if I have an unribbed/ribbed block? Thanks!

 

Last photo shows a Ke20 tailgating the F$%K out of us on the way home!

Edited December 10, 2012 by jay_howie

[jay_howie]

Engine bay stripping, I'm thinking that I will just strip the bay, paint included, fix up what needs to be fixed, possibly some rust converter and go over in matt black. Same for boot, underside and wheel wells. purely for the fact that I want the mechanics of the car fine tuned before any body work and paint goes. I don't particularly want to disassemble the car to have it painted.

 

Also one tyre is flat and the tyres are so old and covered in concrete, if anyone is selling 4x110 rims!!

[jay_howie]

Waiting for funds to buy the rebuild kit and a few tools I need to start rebuilding the 4k. In the meantime I have been experimenting with some rust removal techniques. Obviously alot of this is new to me so don't judge!

 

I've started an electrolysis machine that's going to run overnight, will update u more tomorrow (if anyone is interested in how I did it just ask, there is alot of info on it out there but alot of it is misleading or wrong and even dangerous). Ok so basically all my bolts, brackets, covers and anything else thats even got a bit of rust, will go through the bath, everything else will be wire brushed, grinded or rust convertered, depending on what it is.

 

Minus the head of course, being aluminum it can't be bathed.

 

Basically I'm picking up a grinder soon, but for now I've just attacked it with a wire brush attachment on my drill. I've gone over alot more than just that area, but It seems to have had a good effect, not quite stripping all of the rust and pitting back but that's what the grinder is for!!

 

In case anyone is wondering I can only upload 2 photos per post atm as my slr photos are 5-8mb each, will have to make a photoshop batch program to fix this at some point.

[jay_howie]

Two things I'm not sure on at the moment, is the time frame (probably varies with the strength of the sodium carbonate mix), and how well it go with alot of the old paint still on the item.

 

Will soon see!!

 

Oh this is my air filter top half, will do bottom half tomorrow, any ideas for a colour? otherwise its going mat black

[Skellington]

looks good. Lets see how it turns out.

[jay_howie]

Sorry I forgot to take some photo's when they came out of the bath, basically they came out with most paint stripped, bare steel with black deposits where the rust was, which brushed off quite easily.

2 pics of the 2 items I bathed, now they arnt perfect and I didn't remove all the paint, but its just basically a protective coat, this item will most likely be replace quite quickly after it has gone over the pits, keeping it all standard looking until then. With all parts that won't be staying, looking not rusty, but also not a great deal of time put into them.

[jay_howie]

they other thing I've started doing is wire brushing (using a bit on the end of a drill) and rust converting parts of the car that will be hidden. These are going to be mat black to save on money, they body and any exterior parts will have a lot more time and devotion put into them. So today I tried out the rust converter on a fairly large section underneath the LH fender. If it works out ok I this will be my approach for the hidden parts and engine bay

 

I also encountered a problem while trying to remove the exhaust manifold -> exhaust bolts. Basically rusted solid (as are most exhaust bolts), so I purchased some rust breaker for bolts, will update you on how it works out, but so far I've already sheered one head off. This isn't a huge problem as I often drill out bolts at work when they become stripped trying to remove, although in this case I think i will need to tap a thread size bigger and purchase new bolts to suit (due to the damage that will most likely happen to the thread as I drill the bolts out).

 

Just in case anyone was wondering: http://www.probolt-australia.com/

Haven't used this place myself yet, but they have a great range.

[jay_howie]

Had some issues with no cash flow recently, but have purchased a new daily, immaculate 07 vz wagon, finally found one in Perth that wasn't completely f#$ked. I've found that the cars here are a lot more damaged than say cars in VIC (where I'm from) and most people think its 'fair wear and tear'. For a 5 year old car? Yeah no. I'm actually a little worried about driving the ke20 when it eventually gets done, but hopefully I won't still be living here then!

 

 

I hate WA!!!!

 

Anyways, have since sourced most of the parts I'm missing, manual gearbox crossmember, gearstick knob, clutch pedalbox (still need cable), boot badge, and perfect front bar off a farm wreck up at gin gin.

 

Will be pulling gearbox and remaining engine block soon, and will kickstart rebuilding the 4k and cleaning up the underside and engine bay of the car!

Edited February 10, 2013 by jay_howie

[jay_howie]

Picked up a new car, thanks bigblue!

 

So from what I can tell,

- Its a manual pedal box with a hydraulic clutch setup,

- Crossmember for what could be a 3t/2t and same for gearbox.

- km/h speedo

- reasonable seats, retractable seat belts

- fairly rust free body, plugs in floor pan need replacing though.

- Surface rust in spare wheel well and unplugged drain holes

- 3" cannon and what I think is a 2" pipe, end just after cat

- upgraded front swaybar, but I don't think I'm happy with it, it doesn't look like it sits well on the ends where it mounts, has clearly chewed the bushes, standard sway bar is in boot

- standard wheels and hub caps, minus the outside donut part.

- cheap respray, not perfect but looks good from a distance, will eventually get resprayed anyways

- glass is perfect, reasonable seals, doesn't leak

- fuel tank looks like it has been replaced, some new lines there too.

- gearstick hole has been moved back, but whoever did it has made a hack job of it, I think it may be too far back for my ke70 k50, but we will see

 

only things that need to be done are, sort the hacked up wiring loom to get it back to original in prep for a 4K (basically the whole setup is for some other engine, so it may take awhile getting the setup back to how it was originally, change over both crossmembers to standard, same for mounts, ditch the hydro clutch for my cable pedalbox, and muck around fixing up exposed areas with some paint.

 

2 definite positives is that it appears to be currently registered, and the engine number code came up as 4kxxxxxxx, so common sense tells me that I shouldn't have much troubles fitting another 4k into this car, and yes I know the numbers won't match.

Edited March 10, 2013 by jay_howie

[crunk81us]

lol I did the same thing.. bought a rough 20, started cutting rust and dicking around.. found a better one, started on that. found an even better one that needed very little work, and have got that 75% complete. Just got it painted, a self installed 4age running with a 5 speed. now its mostly fiddly bits and interior to go :)

[jay_howie]

ah nice, I would like to have this on the road early next year, which is much better than 3ish years haha

[crunk81us]

its amazing how long it takes when you have full time work and family commitments etc.. if I was single and didnt work so hard i would have it done in no time..

[jay_howie]

Ok, so I've had basically no money at all until now, but I've done a couple of small things.

 

- Swapped the hydo clutch setup out for a standard ke20 cable clutch pedal box

- Swapped the mph gauge out for a kph one

- Done a heap of research and organising, to work out exactly what I need for rego and beyond.

- Cleaned up a front bar I purchased for $20 off a farm wreck, photos below of before and after

thank you autosol!

 

Basically its getting its brake system completely replaced, except the rigid lines, New shocks all round, front springs, new bushes and rubbers all round, new bearings, seals and oil in diff and gearbox, new mounts, wheel bearings and ball joints new uni's in the tailshaft, extractors and 1 3/4" exhaust new carpet, Hyundai excel seats with some seat covers and a basic running 3k/4k. After this I will run that engine untill the 4k on the stand is fully rebuilt, and then a simple swap over. I will also be doing a KE70 front and ke55 rear brake upgrade, and some new 14x6 wheels and tyres to suit. The interior will be getting new front windscreen seal and new dash (have to take the windscreen out to fit), centre console and stereo fitment, and new boot lining. Oh and probably a t50 short shifter kit fitted.

 

I will also be cleaning up the rear bumper, and repainting the rear chrome vents, and add the original badge back onto the boot.

Edited June 4, 2013 by jay_howie