Hi, from Uruguay this is my TE27

[Trufauru]

Hi over here, long time no see, I'm back with another car. I already was here but no pictures are left on the old threads

Many moons ago I had this KE71

That after a lot of hardwork came out looking like this

 

And after a while without a RWD Corolla (I had an AE101 Corolla) I came across this, and I'm the proud owner of an 1973 Toyota Corolla, also known as mighty TE27. As a bit of history, the Toyota dealer for Uruguay is AYAX and it didn't import any Toyota until the 1980's so anything before that is very strange, so when I came across a sale post that reads "Toyota Corolla 1973" I had to have it, so I went to see the car, this are the first pictures I took...



the previous owner fidieling with the engine




interior shot


After working for a while under the rain we made the engine idle and sort of run as it should, quite a feat considering that the car haven't been started for almost 5 years, after it heat up a little and it was not dying, we took it for a "test drive"





given it very sorry state the car run great, much better than what one would thing after those pictures, and with that the deal was made

After almost a month of back and forth with the notary, all the paperwork came clear (very important and tedious step in my country) the car was legally mine, and so the journey begins.

As you can see the car is very very very (did I mentioned very) rusted, but is the only one that I know of in my country so I will try to do my best to restore it to it's former glory. I have many pictures to update this thread so I will try to do my best.

[ms85er]

Awesome car, a lot of work ahead!

[Trufauru]

On 3/14/2018 at 5:55 AM, ms85er said:

Awesome car, a lot of work ahead!

thanks ms85er

This one is the only one that I know of in my country, I tracked a little of the history of this car and apparently it came imported from Miami in 93' and in 94' que PO bought it on a Customs Auction because nobody had claimed the car. But we have a lot of KE70's, KP61, TA40 (Celicas and Carinas)

Any way continuing with this story, after the car was legally mine I went there to pick it up with my other Corolla, and tow it to a friends house that's a mechanic in order to do a little tune up and get the car ready for a 100kmts trip to my parents house.

I'm the bald guy over there

The AE101 and the TE27, only 30 years apart


after we enter the "garage", and the *E7* Corolla badge


hood off, and you can't really call that a windshield, right?


pay atention to my friends foot coming through the floor


checking the front brakes, and doing a fast oil change


now trying to get the engine to idle correctly (sorry for the blurry photo)


since I couldnt get the engine to work properly I took off the carb, and got it ready for a rebuild. Also find out that the distributor vacum wasn't working as it should so I needed a new one, and there were a lot of parts very very worn, but the car strangly enough, was mecanically sound. It just had many and many years of neglected manteninance

[LittleRedSpirit]

Wow best of luck mate!

[oh what a nissan feeling!]

Awesome, nice find, following with interest.  

[ke70dave]

wowzer, talk about a project. 

 

 

 

 

[Trufauru]

Thanks for all the kind words, indeed it is a big project ahead

Some footage, sorry guys that everything we speak is in spanish (more so, in uruguayo). But you'll get the feeling. The car wasn't running as it should, but at least it run. It was boggin' and cuting, and wasn't idleing as it should.

After the ofending carb was removed and inspected, I decided that it will be a great time to do a quick rebuild. Also this carb, isn't original to this car, it was adapted sometime in the life of this car


I took the carb home, and what you do? Of course that you rebuild the carb in the kitchen of your house


after that the car was rebuilt, I started to get everything together. I bought new studs and gaskets for mounting the carb






and after a while, It was done!


do you think it worked? you bet! (that's a faint mark from some tire spin)


After the carb rebuild and a new vaccum diafragm was installed the car was running much much much better and we where able to do another bit of testing.

 

---

[boingk]

Nice one! Love that you're rescuing it. The T-motor should give it a good amount of kick compared to the 3K's the rest of the series tended to get.

[Trufauru]

On 9/19/2018 at 9:08 PM, boingk said:

Nice one! Love that you're rescuing it. The T-motor should give it a good amount of kick compared to the 3K's the rest of the series tended to get.

Indeed, after we got the timing right, and the carburetor good and clean, the car had quite a punch.

 

Well, after the "testing" stage was done, and the car didn't fall apart during the shake down, It was time for me to start the voyage to my parents house 92 kilometers away.

The day started early, checking everything from the night before


first stop, was take one of the wheels that was leaking to the tire shop to get it fixed.


another quick fix in place for the fuel cap, I had to break the actual fuel cap since I didn't had the key to open it, and after I broke it, I had to made a plug with the first thing that I had in hand.


and we where ready to got!... well not quite, the car didn't wanted to start, so a quick jump and it was runing


my view from my command center for the next hours


and off we go!


my look from another car, given that I didn't have any windshield I had to wear a lot of clothes due to the cold


first stop, fill the tank (you can also see my friends lovely Civic EF)


my friend in the civic was the backup/chase car (and the one in which we will return home)




the car was working quite flawlessly through the trip, and we made a stop half way, to check the tires and everything else, all was good and while I checked the tire pressure found out that two of them had 51psi and another had 53psi! I lowered them to something more reasonable, and returned to the road... just to stop a few meters after with a non runing engine


the issue turned out to be (again) the filter on the carburetor that got clogged and starved the carb. So I dismanteled the carb, cleaned the internal filter, and we continue with the trip






just eating miles


the second part of the trip was, without any other issue and we arrived to my parents house, where we parked the car and started to take it apart.


and another video with all the trip, enjoy

 

see you next update.

Edited January 27, 2022 by Trufauru
photo missing

[Killar_of_giants]

I'm surprised it made it. We wouldnt get down the road without the police ripping us a new a hole. The fines would be 5x the value of the car. Looking forward to seeing you tackle the build. A big project, credit to you for saving it. Should be impressive when done.

[Trufauru]

Oh I had forgotten about this, but the car wasn't still, I'll try to catch up again

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After we arrived, the disassembly process began, and quickly the car released its pieces

slowly and cafefully removing the rear glass

Parts where everywhere
 

 

 

 

but I had bought a package of ziplocks and bagged and tagged almost everything that I took out the car, this is a must
 

some parts needed more persuation to be removed
 

but luckly almost everything came out great and it was time for a little cleanup
 

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next day it was time to remove the engine in order to store the car at a friends barn, and take a closer look to the body that as you can see the closer you get the worse it gets

 

 

 

 

again on to remove the engine, clearing most parts from the engine bay
 

 

and then my friend that had the engine hoist told me that it wasn't available, so I had to improvise, and improvise I did. First I strengenth a beam
 

then with a lot of rope, a jack, some wood and a lot of ingenuity I started to raise the engine little by little
 

 

 

and once it was clear I removed the car from under it
 

mandatory picture

and then I build a little frame for it to rest till next time

 

 

with the engine on its new bed, I test fitted the new fenders and grill, all looking great. The fenders are new from Portugal, and a used grill.
 

an empty and nasty engine bay
 

 

and after all that, it was time to store the car. I hooked to the trusty 4Runner and away it went

don't mind the fresh air 
 

and on its final resting place for a while
 
 

Now at least my parents won’t have an rust bucket on their backyard, and I can keep gathering parts and trying to learn how to fix this mess

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And with that we are on October of 2017

Edited January 27, 2022 by Trufauru

[Banjo]

Hi Sebastion,

                       Loving your build, & determination to get this Rolla running again.

Noticed that you have air conditioning, & you didn't even have to pay for it !

Cheers Banjo

[Trufauru]

On 1/28/2022 at 11:56 PM, Banjo said:

Loving your build, & determination to get this Rolla running again.

Noticed that you have air conditioning, & you didn't even have to pay for it !

Cheers Banjo

Thanks for the kind words Banjo! it is all a process of love and determination indeed

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April/March 2018

Back to the friends house with the 4Runner to pickup the car
 

I was looking and find out the amount of rust, it was way worse than I had thought, but the car run great on the highway at 100km/h
 

Towed back at the house, and park it next to my friends 1990 Civic EF
 

and in no time all the front subframe was off the car
 

we put the car on "jackstands" and immediately, started working on the car, as you can see the lower radiator support is already missing
 

but first I had to learn how to weld, so I started to laying beds on some metal, and then I decided to build a sheet metal brake for bending steel. I didn't get it right on the first try (with welds on both sides of the hinge it cannot work :facepalm: )
 

some new welds, some modifications, and sometime later I had a working brake made all with scrap metal
 

a lick of paint and it looks great
 

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next day, and now back to the car
 

This is the before, look how rusted was the frame rail, it crumbled with just a few hits.

with a maniac aplication of the grinder, a lot of rusty metal was coming off the car
 

I was lucky to find new radiator support pieces, both upper and lower, as you can see there wasn't much left at all of the lower part, and both parts had many parts missing
 

started to cut and I stoped when I find mostly good metal, then with the flap disk I give it a little pass to remove the sufrace rust and sharp edges
 

First welded part, the inner reinforcement of the front subframe, later this will be covered by the "chasis" leg or frame rail
 

and how will it be covered if there isn't any "chasis" left you might ask? well, you first take some paper and take some measurements, and make a template from the side that is in better shape.
 

 

then with the measurements and the paper template, you transfer them to a piece of sheet metal
 

after that with a little love of the brake you just made, now you have something that resambles the shape you are looking for
 

and start to weld all the pieces, one by one 

don't forget to make the necesaries holes, and also the holes for rosette or butt welds
 

and also I made a reinforcement with some captive nuts that goes inside the frame rail for the bumper
 

here I've changed the little reinforcemnet strip to a bigger piece, and painted everything with weld trough primer
 

with all of that you have a new frame rail leg, I used the remanins of the original part for reference and to check which features I need to copy onto the new piece, but the diference is astonishing.
 

and to keep on with the pieces, the part that goes over the first part I welded, it took a lot of triming to get it to sit flush with the original part.
 

Set the welder, get comfortable, get some good light, measure that everything is on the correct place, check it again, and weld everything
 

After I had the frame rail done, I started to work on some piece on the passenger side. Same process, measure, make a paper template, make a metal piece, trim to fit, measure that everything is on the correct side, weld everything.
 

the best advice I can give to anyone is to invest on a set of cleco pins, they are like temporal rivets, and they make the work of setting the pieces and getting the measurements right a piece of cake
 

also remember to add any piece that bolts or interacts with the parts you are making to check that they fit and bolt correctly
 

The middle radiator support was also rusted, so I cut the rusted part and used it as reference
 

then bend some metal and test fit it to the main piece
 

a little weld, a little bend, some hammering work and the new extension piece is done
 

Make the final bend and test fit it in place, like nothing ever happened
 

Onto the wheel well, I had to make a new piece that covered the backside of the frame rail, and also extends and follow the shape of the engine bay, it took a while, but it was done late in the night
 

with a little of paint, you can see the original rib that is on that part, that I had to replicate on my piece, you cannot belive how much strenght that little rib adds.
 

and from the top it looks great even without paint
 

with that my free week was over, it was time to take the car back to its resting place on the barn. But first I disassembled the front subframe, and send some parts to be sandblasted
 

and I also cutted a piece from the rocker panel
 

with that profile I can have made some new pieces in order to make a new rocker panel
 

then it was time to load the car with no front subframe onto a trailer
 

with only a friend to help, it took us a while to get the car up on the trailer but luckly the bare shell isn't that heavy
 

of it went
 

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and with that we are on april of 2018
 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Trufauru

[Banjo]

Hi Sebestian,

                     When I read your comment, "Thanks for all the kind words, indeed it is a big project ahead", I couldn't help thinking this might be another project Binky !

I'm really impressed with your determination to see this through, Mate !

For those reading this thread, who have never heard of a Cleco pin, below is a link that explains them well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DcNvt9_O3Q

Plenty available on ebay, here in Australia.

Cleco also make a side clamp one for sheet metal & the like.

I will be watching this thread with interest.

Good luck !

Cheers Banjo

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Banjo
adding copy

[Trufauru]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:43 PM, Banjo said:

Hi Sebestian,

                     When I read your comment, "Thanks for all the kind words, indeed it is a big project ahead", I couldn't help thinking this might be another project Binky. I'm really impressed with your determination to see this through, Mate !

For those reading this thread, who have never heard of a Cleco pin, below is a link that explains them well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DcNvt9_O3Q Plenty available on ebay, here in Australia.

Cleco also make a side clamp one for sheet metal & the like.

I will be watching this thread with interest. Good luck !

Cheers Banjo

Thanks for the comparison with Binky, but those guys are on another whole level. 

I have those cleco side clamps, they were on a kit I bought, but they don't clamp a 10th of what the pins does, so I rarely used them.

Lets keep the thread rolling ever since I bought the car, I started a quest to find parts. I have several alerts on eBay and many groups on Facebook, so I'm saving money, and buying parts while they pop up

The first purchase I've made were the front vents, that one was missing, so I got a "new" set. They need a good cleanup and paint.
  

After a lot of waiting and searching I was able to find a "good" used set of JDM bumpers that didn't cost 2000 dollars
 

And after a lot of savings, a lot of waiting, and getting in touch with people in USA and in Japan, I got this (the joys of having a wagon), any idea of what is?
 

Any idea on what it is?
 

Carbon fiber hood (or bonet) from https://restored.jp/, it took like 6 months to be made and arrive in my country, but it was here.
 

And now into December 2018

Remember the dismantled front subframe? I took many parts of it, and also the bumpers to be sandblasted and painted to prevent further corrosion (also there is a hint of a future proyect)
 

I took the spot welder cutter bit, and remove the piece in front of the windshield what was beyond repair, I'll try to find a new part because I thing this part it is beyond recover.
 

And give the whole metal under that panel a good wire brush, just to find more rust
 

And I couldn’t resist so I assembled the whole front end with zipties, the new hood, with both fenders, the grill and the bumper, it looks almost like a car, and quite a handsome one.