kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 This has been my project now for 2 years and have decided to try document the progress and stages it has/is going through. 1972 Toyota Corolla 2dr wagon (ke26) Wanted one for ages but couldn't find one for sale, one finally popped up in the buy sell. Went and checked it out. Average red pretty much enamel paint job, 15"advanti flash mags :vom: 1 monza bucket seat :vom: king springs ke70 diffhead k50 5 speed gearbox 5k engine with twin sides, race cam, extractors to a straight through 2.25" exhaust. Solid lifters and about $600 head work with larger intake and exhaust ports. Bought it off a mechanic and the drivetrain was great, but the body was piss poor. Obvious dents and rust with a primer patch on each lower guard rusting through where a plate had previously been welded over. My mission was a panel and paint, but it ended up taking a bit longer than that (1 year) and in that time it had extensive panel and prep, and my plans changed to pretty much changing the entire car to my own, and to build a very nice looking street car without getting too carried away. A few pics of how it was when I bought it; Messy Starting to take her apart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Taking it to a guy who was going to do some rust work for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Meanwhile I found a parts car on trademe and hauled her up from Otago (to Christchurch) using jeffs. With 4 flat tyres and no engine Parts car Parts car Parts garage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 So the rust situation was worse than first thought A lot of bog hiding a lot of rust... operation : remove bog and rust, replace with new metal. Too many pictures and details to go into so i'll just put up a few. Guards were taken off. Behind the front guards we found this.. Upon further inspection this is what the full extent was. Time to start fixing. End result. So the sills had a bit of bog in them, wonder what was behind it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Sills off. Fixed New sill on. More During Fixed End result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Bottom of the guards got done To And the tailgate got a entire new bottom lip(bottom 1") for it. *Have now changed my front end from the one seen in the pics up the top (flat front) To a late model point front, I found a NOS bonnet so was very happy with the condition to say the least. Car after prime with new bonnet on it Have bought new rubbers off ebay for front and rear windscreens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 After struggling to find an uncracked dash pad (impossible) or one that was even recoverable.. I purchased a brand new one off ebay for around $250 usd >_< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Skip forward various months and my car has been at the paint shop receiving more panel and prep, which at the end got logged at over 150hours. >_< The car was stripped by me to a bare rolling shell, no interior, underseal, front end dropped out, steering column taken out, you name it. The only thing left was the rear end and a bit of wiring loom. Full inside and outside spray was on the cards, mainly because most of the interior is actually metal and the same colour as exterior of the car. Didn't really get any pics during apart from this one Meanwhile, was having a long hard think about what wheels to put on the wagon. I had decided that I was going to look for some simmons, preferably 15-16" Would have to buy them second hand, especially if I wanted 15s because they were no longer made, and new simmons cost $3000+. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Paint I decided on was red, but nothing like the faded ugly terrible red that was once on it. I picked velocity red (with gold syrelic pearl) similar to the rx8 red, looks very candyish. Very low key colour its completely different under sunlight. While having the panel done I had my battery box removed and smoothed, as well as the firewall touched up a bit with brakeline holders gone. Battery is now going to be moved to the boot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Engine bay and door shuts/interior painted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Found some 15" f15 simmons from ausrotary. They were off a r100 and rx4 so the 4x110 stud pattern which is good. $1400AUSD with tyres shipped, stoked. With centercaps they look even better. Yum 3-piece goodness. Might leave the centers gold for now and see how they come up against the red. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 So I ended up getting all my hinges and catches chromed while I was waiting, I was told they would come up shit and a few places wouldn't touch them.. But they came up great, very pleased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Panels on and lined up, ready for the rub back then paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Update time Quite dissapointed with the pics to say the least, will have to wait till the car is finished before I can get some nice pics of it. Just doesnt show up the same as seeing it in person. That aside I havn't washed or cleaned and when I received it back it had a lot of white buffing compound all over it, white water from wet and drying and a lot of fuzz from the interior haha, add that to the dust on it now and it doesn't look too good. Will give it a wash once windows are in and get some mint pics of it in the sun. ---- So I got it back from getting the interior done after the paint, brand new black vinyl rooflining, as well as pillar covers and sunvisors. Brand new black carpet and underly throughout car + boot and back seat Straightness Cheers to Jacob and advanced upholstery for sussing it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 laxin at advanced upholstery Rooflining So I have now bought car home and started work on it. Doing a few things at once but firstly I made up a block and tackle and got a mate over to help us put in the engine. Was a little bit of a mission with the gearbox still being attached because with the b&t connected to the head it leaned down assend at gearbox a shit load and basically had to maneuver the thing between the extractors/tunnel/xmember + rack. Before doing that had to bolt the rest of the front end in to the chasis, as well as attach the steering column to the car and steering rack. Was ok once I found all the bolts, apart from the nut that connected the steering column pinion to the rack, it's on half way and no the bolt turns with the nut q- And of course the head of the nut is encased so there is no way of stopping this.. can't get it on or off. Think I need to drill a hole into the face of the bolt while tightening the nut with a ratchet spanner. Basic engine block it, all bolted in to xmember with gearbox and xmember now connected too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Flash does not like dust on car >_< As you can see my new dash pad is now in, looks ****ing great! and feels it Wiring loom (aka nightmare) untangled waiting for someone to help me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Carpet (needs vacuum already >_<) and more shitty wires So the simmons were built to fit a mazda. R100 and rx4 to be exact. Their spigot lip around the dustcap is smaller than a toyotas so they didn't fit on the front.. Took my hubs apart and got the lip machined 0.2m, they now fit good. While doing that I took out my front wheel studs which had extra long ones put in by the previous owner. Thanks to my trusty angle grinder they are now half the size and can accept lug nuts and mag nuts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Have now taken out rear leafs as well as rear shocks. Brand new KYB shocks for front, along with my rear shocks are going to get shortened 2" tomorrow, today I took my leafs in to bellamy and east to get reset 2" (I have a 2" block to go in there aswell after) Have got ~4m of welding cable to make into my battery cable for the battery that is going in the boot. Tomorrow I will be buying a battery box and getting some advice on batteries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 update time Brand new adjustable suspension for the front - new shocks and springs etc. When I put them in I noticed now that my front wheels did not fit I acquired a 3mm slip on spacer for trial purposes and was unhappy with the idea of using them since they are illegal and would not pass wof or cert. Even with the 3mm spacer the tyre sidewall was severely rubbing on the spring platform. Was running 195/50/15 tyres which are suitable for the 15x7 simmons. I worked out I needed a 175/50/15 tyre, 2 for the front. Well, what a mission. Seems there are none in NZ and they can't be attained. So after a lot of trial and error i have acquired FOUR 165/50/15 A little bit of a stretch but they came out nice! They freed up a lot of room for the guards and now there is no risk at the back or front of guard rub. They clear the struts fine and drop the car a significant amount from the 195s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kecam Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 A few more pics of slow progress just messing around with suspension, this is before the 165s were fitted. Dash in and complete, a lot tidier. Notice no wires:P Engine bay still needs a lot of tidying, cables going everywhere and brake lines just sitting ontop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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