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nothingsfree's Toyota Corolla Ke70


nothingsfree

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  • nothingsfree

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My friendly local machinist, Craig Young at Young CNC Machining, dropped off my finished front caliper brackets! After pissing around for hours with the measurements, and making a few changes, this is the finished product..

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Machined from a 20mm plate of alloy, the caliper bolt holes then have a threaded steel insert added.

Time for the nervous test fit.

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Yeah thats right, race car/super car spec right here, with the front calipers mounted to the rear, and the rear calipers mounted to the front. Gotta get that weight central with my MASSIVE brakes hahaha.

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Everything fits! With about 4mm clearance everywhere, Im pretty stoked! You couldnt really fit a larger brake under a 13inch Longchamp.

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Got my rear sway bay mounted while I had the car on the hoist. Although the floor plans are very similar between the ae86 and ke70, and most parts swap over, there are no mounts on the floor plan for the rear sway bar. I had already welded tabs onto the diff, so it was a straight forward job to figure out what would be a suitable position with my ride height. I drilled through the chassis rail, then welded plate either side of the chassis rail to reinforce it.

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I didnt intend to run a sway bar initially when I was still planning to keep it solely as a road car. Unfortunately I had already made the exhaust, so with now adding a sway bar to the rear, I will have to change my exhaust a little where is runs under the diff and out to the back.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Iv had issues pushing the car on and off the hoist due to the gbox cross member. The center section of the hoist is about 45-50mm high, so the chassis rails just slide on the metal plate, but the cross member sits a little lower and having a square edge, just hits the hoist and stops. I am planning to run a bash plate from the radiator support panel, under the sub frame, back to the gbox cross member, and this plate would sit down even further if it had to sit over the current cross member. So I decided to make a custom slim version for the gbox. I was using a factory altezza one which is a nice cast alloy piece, but it is a little tall, and also has a downwards curve through the center.

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As a replacement I used a flat piece of 10mm aluminium, and simply copied and drilled the holes from the original. This has raised the bottom of the cross member about 15mm, and given a better surface to mount the back of the bash plate to.

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I finally got around to welding in the steel for the rear tubs. Unfortunately I only had galv sheet left, which even cleaned up still isn't that nice to weld.

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Because I had cut out into the door line for clearance, it was going to be more tricky to make it fit.

I did it in two sections, the front half and rear half to allow it to fit better into the complex curve of the inner guard to the outer skin of the rear quarter.

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After tacking it at one end, I pushed the steel up against the inner guard and outer skin and worked my way along to the center. Then did the same with the front half.

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I then had to fill several gaps along the front edge, and the back corners. With the front edge, I cut a radius to suit the curve of the guard and tacked it in place, then I could cut along the top edge with a grinder and then smooth it off with a flapper disc.

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The next step for these will be making tabs for the flares to bolt to, but I need to get the flares done first haha.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I got the adjustable bias cable with my pedal box, and needed somewhere to mount it. It needed to be in reach when strapped in, but out of the way. I already have a lot going on along the top of the gbox tunnel, so I didnt want to put it there. So the best place for me was in front of the seat, between my legs.

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I bent up a piece of 2mm steel, after drilling a hole through the centre for the cable to pass through, and then 4 more holes to bolt the bias knob to the steel.Then after messing around to get it sitting right, I welded it to the floor cross member.

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Getting in and out of this car is already a bit tight, and its only going to get worse with the door bars of the cage. So to make things a little easier, I bought a quick release hub. But like everything else with this project, I had to modify it haha. If I ran the steering wheel with a boss kit and the quick release hub, then it would move the wheel too close to me when sitting in the seat. And I couldnt weld a spline to the quick release hub because it wasnt steel.

So I got a mate of mine, Scott, to turn down the spline I cut out of an old Toyota steering wheel, and then make a copy of the alloy hub out of steel. It didnt need the large flange at the back, as it wouldnt be bolting to a boss kit.

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Once I had the steel copy, I coloured in the locking face with a black vivid, and slid the locking hub down onto it, the ball bearings left marks on the locking face so I could accurately drill the holes for the ball bearings to lock into.

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With the holes drilled, and a few test fits to check I got it right, I got Surfab to Tig weld the spline into my new metal hub.

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And bingo! A much shorter and lighter boss kit/quick release hub..

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I didnt have a throttle cable, and besides, I needed to make up a custom one anyway. So I bought a new brake cable from a bike shop. I cut a small piece of aluminium out with three holes and threaded the centre hole. Then screwed a cable stop into the centre hole and bolted it to the inside of the firewall.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I changed my seat rails AGAIN. With the pedals, shifter, hand brake and steering wheel all properly mounted and in good positions, I wasnt real happy about my seat position. I needed to shift it back slightly, but I had run out of bolt holes on the seat rails to move back any further, and I also wanted it lower.

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There wasnt any room to drop the rail closest to the gbox tunnel because the crossmember on the floor that it is bolted to, rises up near the tunnel. So I cut the front of the rail off where it bolts to the crossmember, and welded it straight to it instead, which allowed me to get the height I was after.

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After doing the same to the other side, I redrilled the bolt holes. After getting frustrated at how fiddly it was to do up the bolts, I decided to flip them round, have them sticking up through the rails and then I tacked them all into place. So now you can drop the seat onto the bolts and tighten/undo four nuts with a 12mm socket. So much easier and faster.

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Iv had the brakes all sorted for some time, but hadnt got round to posting up what I had done. With front and rear calipers, and the pedal box mounted, next on the list was sorting what size master cylinders to run, and bending up and flaring the bundy lines. After talking to Les Hunter he reckoned 3/4 front and rear should suit pretty well with the rest of my set up.

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With the m/c's sitting under the dash, I decided to run the front brake lines under the dash and out through the guards along the top of the wheel arch, where they meet the braided lines from the caliper. This keeps them high and out of the way. Its also a few less things in my engine bay.

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The rear line runs down the gbox tunnel to the hydraulic hand brake mounted just behind the gbox shifter. It took abit of messing around, to get it in a position where it was comfortable to pull, and was close to the shifter without being in the way.

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From there, the line continues down the side of the tunnel to the boot. There it T's off, both lines head out towards the shock towers. The braided lines from the rear calipers poke up through the floor just behind the shock towers and attach to the hard lines with banjo fittings. I did the lines off the m/c's and the hand brake with stainless banjo fittings as well, it saves having a bit of hard line curved off the end of the m/c's, which means more clearance, and tidier.

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With my seats properly mounted, I could now sort out mounting my battery to the floor just behind the passenger seat. I bought a sealed unit to save the hassle of needing a battery box etc, tho I did opt for the larger unit, as the small sealed units sometimes struggle with starting a high compression engine. With the battery sitting in place, I tacked a couple of tabs either side, and the start of the mounts in front and behind. Then pulled the battery out and welded them in.After welding the bolts from underneath the plate, the mounts were boxed in. With a 50mm stainless strap bent up, the battery was now secure.

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Finally got to work on the cage. Started with making the feet for the main hoop, rear stays, and front legs. The feet for the main hoop are tied into the floor crossmember and the sills, and then boxed into the floor as well.

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Feet for the rear stays are tied into the floor, chassis rails, and shock towers, particularly important as I have converted the rear to coilovers, so the shock towers need extra bracing.

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So work has been continuing on the cage, Surfab bent up the main hoop, front legs, and window bar, and then we messed around getting everything as tight as possible against the body of the car. With the main hoop trimmed to size and sitting on the boxed in feet, the top of the hoop sits snugly against the door line, and we could tack the hoop straight to the body.

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Even more impressive was how tight Surfab managed to get the front legs along the top of the door line, and down the A pillar. Wont be any need for gussets!

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With the window bar notched and tacked in place, the next step was to cut the tacks and drop the cage down off its feet. This took a bit of pissing around with everything being so tight, but we managed to drop it down far enough for Surfab to weld around the top of the bars before we lifted it back up onto its feet and welded it into place.

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With the cage now in place, Simon could weld the front legs directly to the A pillar.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest nothingsfree

Got the cage all finished up last week, and everything is nicely triangulated.

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Rather than intersect the door bars, Surfab usually just bends two tubes so they meet with an overlap, which makes for a tidy X.

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All the suspension points are tied into the cage as well.

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Guest nothingsfree

Been getting Kermit prepped for panel & paint. So first step was to hack together front and rear posts to put Kermit on the spit.

Its just been pieced together from scrap steel, and left over bits from the last car that was on the spit.

Both front and rear are bolted to the chassis rails where the tow hooks are normally bolted.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest nothingsfree

Mike at Bamber Motorsport dropped off the prototype flare to dummy fit so I could finish off my guards, and cut out my rear doors to suit. So basically it is the two front sections of the CBY flares spliced together so it has a nice taper front and rear, rather than the kick out at the back for the kit, effectively making a sweet universal flare. A huge thanks to Mike for the time and effort he put into getting these right, it certainly wasnt easy getting it just right. He has a mould of this now, so if youre interested, let me know..

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With the rear doors bolted on, you can get an idea of how far into the body I have raised the wheel arch. The top of the arch is over 30mm above the bottom of the door line.

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Once I had spent far too long messing around getting the flare sitting just where I wanted it, I taped it in place, and marked around the top edge. This would give me a line on the door so I could cut the new arch.

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13inch rim.

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15inch rim.

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Guest nothingsfree

With the rear guards sorted, it was time to mess around with the front guards. These certainly were not as big a mission as the rear, tho there was still alot of pissing around to get everything sitting right.

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Once I got the flare in place, I could mark around it, and where the holes are for mounting, and then cut off any excess metal underneath to give as much clearance as possible..

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Guest nothingsfree

With the rear door now cut out to suit the flare, I could sort out welding a lip to the edge of the arch to mount the flare to.

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First I welded a large section to the arch, and then remounted the flare in position and marked around the top.

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Then took the flare back off, and cut along the line. This means I can leave the flare as one piece bolted to body. The advantage to doing it this way, is I can use the same flare on all four corners without needing to modify anything before attaching them, and the door can still open and close above the flare.

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While I was at it, I welded a new section into the now higher arch of the rear doors.

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Guest nothingsfree

With all the fabrication completed, it was time for the tear down. I wanted to get rid of all the surface rust that had built up over the last couple of years of grinding and welding in new metal etc. Im about to head off travelling around the world for 6 months, so I needed to get it done before I leave, so its not still sitting there rusting. The plan is to have the interior, engine bay, and under body all prepped, primed, and painted, so I can bolt everything back into the car to put into storage. The exterior will be done when I get back.

Ever wondered what all the running gear out of a race car looks like laid out?

There ya go..

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Haha, not much to it really!

Now with the shell completely empty, its off to the sand blasters to get rid of all the surface rust, and all the underseal off the bottom, so we have a nice clean body for panel and paint..

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Guest nothingsfree

I picked the shell up from the sand blasters last Friday, after my last day of work before flying out. And so begins the mad rush to get it sorted in less than 2.5 weeks. So nice to have a completely clean shell to work on, really wish I had done this at the start haha.

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On Fri night, I got the car on the rotisserie at Simon/Surfab's. So while you guys were on the rampage at OS Nats, I spent the wknd sulking/slaving away in the workshop, to get the car all sorted for panel and paint on Monday. The great thing, there were no hidden surprises under the paint, the whole car is very tidy.

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