Modern Resto ke55

[KeYella]

Hi all, 

I have this nice beauty of a car, good old ke55 4 door sedan. Nice Toyota yellow with a mint condition interior. 4k-c engine with k40 gearbox. 

Been doing my own bits and pieces here and they're. Plus some added mods to give me classic extra grunt that is so much needed. 

So far I have 

- converted the the front grille from square to round plus added in some 7" Halo's wired up to my parkers. I'd bought the grille 2nd hand and gave it a good clean and paint. Plus remove/ fix dents and polish the chrome. 

- Added a set of 15" pos 8+ rims for style and over killed the tyres by getting bridgestones re003. Oh well. 

- next went with 4-1 extractors to 1" 3/4 straight through exhaust system. Sounds mint and not over powering in noise. Little crackle, and nice hum. 

- purchased 32/ 36 bolt on Spanish Webber carby + plytronics stage 2 electric dizzy and firebreather coil ignition. 

- bought to do, timing chain plus gears, crank pulley, re-ground camshaft ( not overkill on the cam) rear main seal, altinator, fuel pump and some other minor touches.

Few in betweens in this process was

Converting 5k thermostat lower and upper housing back to 4k housings plus new thermostat and temp sensor. ( Issue still tho, is I am getting a temp gauge reading of hot) guessing it's to do with the resistor in the dash. Haven't fixed yet. Using my infrared thermometer every run I do.

Complete service, fuel filter, oil filter, plugs, leads etc etc

 Heres a couple photos of what I have so far looks wise. will add more of everything soon (engine bay, exhaust system etc)  plus whatever is to come. 

Will need a bit of insight on a few others things I'm in the process of doing at the moment. But will post photos with questions when it comes round. 

[Banjo]

Welcome aboard !

                               Wow !  You have a lovely Rolla there,  & are a very lucky man, going by it's very good condition.   How long have you had it ?   Do you know it's previous history ?  (Little olde lady etc. ?)

Looks like you've got another future Rolla enthusiast there in the making ?

Keep the pics coming, & fire any questions you have our way, as there a lot of people on here, prepared to offer good advice.

I've got a KE30 2 door, a little bit older, in the same "baby pooh" colour, as my wife calls it.

I'm on my third Rolla now. I've had a KE35 2 door coupe;  KE55 2 door coupe; & now the less seen KE30 2 door sedan.

They are so reliable, & anything that does go wrong, can easily be fixed, as I'm sure you've found.  Easy to work on.  Only nasty is rust, when they get to be 40 years olde, particularly if you are by the sea, as I think you are.

As long as you can keep it out of the structural areas, underneath, it should be alright.

Cheers Banjo  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2018 by Banjo

[KeYella]

Hey Banjo! 

Thanks for the welcome. 

It's in very good condition and jumped at the opportunity when I had seen the ad for it. You are right, it came from a old couple that had bought it brand new. Unfortunately his wife passed away and had to go to a nursing home, so I bought this off him in good will to take care of it. 

130k on the clock when I bought this beast. But only done 2.5k since the 7 months of owning it. 

Very keen to be apart of the rolla journey as they are definitely becoming a thing of the past. 

Sounds like your've had the joy of going through a couple of variants of the k series. Definitely a model I have not seen in person yet. But always great to hear they are still kicking. 

Yeah, rust is definitely not my friend. But Ive been pretty lucky in terms of how little I have. Left rear quarter panel in the wind screen seal area has a hole that had been eaten by the rust. Actually working fixing that at the moment, as you are right. I live on the Sunshine coast Qld and salty air is definitely not helping. ( I'll put a pick up of before shots - already started working on it ) fortunately it's really the only major rust problem I have. Everything else is slight surface rust from stone chips. Even under body and boot/ wheel well is clean. I mean it not near perfect bloody defiently lucky. 

Always in the garage but is a daily at the moment. ( My first car + a family car ) Misses car is under going insurance claim as someone ran into it parked out the front. Weeks of pain trying to get them to hurry up. 

Thanks again mate 

KeYella  

[oh what a nissan feeling!]

Welcome mate,  I'm on the sunny coast as well.  That's a rare thing in that condition you've done well! 

[KeYella]

Thanks mate, yeah I'm very happy with it. Just about to go through a bit of a rebuild. Rings, real main seal and altinator are about to give out on me. Going to get that done + a few other things. 

May see you on the streets, otherwise hit us up if your ever keen to have a look or go for a cruise