ajg193's 1980 KP Bug

[ajg193]

Discussion Thread

So I managed to steal a KP bugeye off of an old lady today. She owned it for 20 years and one week. Total KMs are unknown, odo currently says 60,000. She did 30,000 in the 20 years she had owned it.

It is a KP60 so should have a 2K in it. I had prepared myself to endure the mega slow that is associated with this fact. When I arrived at the house to pick it up I took a quick look at the engine and the block was red - a bit surprising "aren't 3K blocks red?" briefly went through my mind. The engine was caked in grime so I didn't dig in and look. So anyway, I handed over the cash, gave the old lady a hug (she was pretty sad about losing her baby) and hit the road. After about two seconds I realized that something was up. The car was faster than my Sprint. I kept driving and made it home without any mishaps, gave it jandal a couple of times and enjoyed the speed. I was trying to come up with a logical argument along the lines of "it has small tyres and a 3.9 diff, the Sprint has huge tyres and a 3.5 diff so that will probably make up most of the difference", but I was also thinking "this feels nothing like any 2K I've driven". A reflexive smile formed on my face.

I got home and the first thing I did was took a look at the engine block. "Hmmm, there is no lug where the engine number usually is! What about up front?" So I looked at the front of the block and saw nothing except a sort of flatish area of black grime. I rubbed away at it for a few minutes and first I saw some numbers and then I saw a K and then I saw a 3. "Ooooooohhh this explains the power."

It would appear that the engine was changed in 1996 and the car was never certified - "Why would you even certify a shitty 3K??!" I hear you say - and somehow the car made it through 40 WoFs without ever getting pulled up for it. I doubt it will ever be pulled up for it so the engine shall stay.

The car leaks oil almost as badly as if someone had drilled a hole in it. I'm going to replace as many seals as I can and try to stem the flow. The front guards are a little manky from the old lady driving into cars/walls/people over the years so I am going to repair them - they look to be rust free.

The doors have a little bit of rust along their bottom edges, the passenger one looks pretty much fine so I will probably leave it. I'm going to get the rust removed from the drivers door. There is some rust around the hatch window, a very small amount albeit. I'll get this done at the same time as the door/s.

The passengers side of the car has been rubbed a fair bit by her driveway shrub over the years so could do with a decent buffing. The seats could probably do with an upholstering. The brake booster and surrounding area need new paint due to some sort of brake leak in the past. It doesn't look like there are any rust holes, or even very much surface rust in the area though.

Here's a lame image of the car:

It's the same colour as the Sprint, which will make storing paint cans easy. The only issue is that it is a difficult colour to mix accurately.

I'll take some good photos tomorrow when I start working on it. I think the very top of the list will be the diff pinion seal and the upper engine seals. And about 30 litres of degreaser.

Future (distant) plans:

-Restore to as good of a condition as I can

-Maybe upgrade brakes and suspension

-Cert if I upgrade brakes and suspension

I'll most likely have to sell the car before I move back to Auckland so I would like to get it into as good of a condition as possible by November. It might grow on me and I could end up keeping it.

TLDR: My girlfriend buggered off to brass band nationals for the week so I bought a car without telling her. She might kill me when she gets back, but at least I have a 3K.

[ajg193]

I spent today cleaning the yuck off of the engine, giving it a tune up, flushing the cooling system and replacing the pinion seal on the diff.

 

Cleaning the yuck off the engine was a huge job. It looks like the valve cover gasket started leaking about 20 years ago and was never addressed. There was oil everywhere. In some places it was over 2 cm thick! I scraped off probably about 5 kg of it by the end and used 6 or 7 cans of degreaser and a bucket of laundry powder/water mix.

 

After:

 

Before:

 

The pictures really don't illustrate just how bad it was. I should have taken a picture of the underside of the car.

 

 

The cooling system was just filled with rusty water - not cool! The heater core was almost entirely blocked and it took a solid forty five minutes of flushing to get it flowing freely and have no more orange colour to the water. I filled it with a mix of green coolant and water. The heater works well now.

 

The diff pinion seal was leaking so I swapped that out for a new one. Hopefully it lasts a while. The diff may need to come apart at some point as it has quite a lot of backlash. Other than that the diff is actually really good, it is nice and quiet. I also put new oil in the diff.

 

The engine has a bit of a rumbling sound in it. Could this be main bearings? I'll pull the accessories belt tomorrow and see if that stops the noise. It's definitely not a knocking sound.


I adjusted the choke cable and set the idle speed and idle mixture - I had to wind the idle mixture screw in about 15 turns. Whoever set it last time was a numpty, spark plugs were kind of blackish from running rich.

 

This weekend's job will be to tackle the damaged paint surfaces from where brake fluid leaked out in the past.

The car also needs some low at some point in the future. It is ridiculously high.



Here are some more pictures of the car:

[ajg193]

Pictureless update this time.

 

 

So after the previous work I encountered some more problems engine-wise.

 

The rumble ended up being the water pump letting go. So I replaced that with a new unit. When I replaced the water pump I discovered one of the pipes on the thermostat block was corroded past the point of being usable so I had to replace the thermostat block. I also replaced the thermostat and alternator belt.

 

I replaced the ignition leads and distributor cap after getting a shock. I transplanted the vacuum advance unit off my old points distributor from the Sprint onto the 3K as the vacuum advance wasn't working. The choke now works properly.

I made it half way down my road when the car just stopped. One of the LV wires on the ignition coil had fallen off, so I put it back on and screwed the nut on tight.

 

The carburetor is still running the original 2K jets so it would be nice to track down a set of 3K jets as the car runs a little too lean when starting up from cold - needs more than two pumps of the accelerator before turning the key.

 

I replaced the seal between the oil filter mount and engine block with a Genuine Toyota unit. It started leaking straight away, so something might not be flat (I scraped off all traces of the old pile of gaskets). I'm probably just going to smear a little goop on each surface and hope that will stop it from leaking.

 

I straightened the back bumper and repainted it, but I will probably need to do it again and this time use as much bog as was originally on it as it looks pretty average up close at the moment.

 

I probably faffed around and did other things that aren't springing to mind right now. But the car is currently running and driving well.

[ajg193]

The car survived a trip over the port hills last night with no issues at all. I'm starting to like it.

 

Today I spent time working on the drivers side front guard and straightening the front bumper.

 

The guard is coming along nicely but I ran out of wax and grease remover so I'll have to leave it until tomorrow before I do any more work.

 

[ajg193]

So it's now coming to a time where I think I'm going to sell her.

Everything seems to be in a functional condition at the moment. The exhaust snapped the other day while I had loaned the car to a tourist, so I had that repaired today. It was awkward/fun to terrorize Christchurch city while I was driving around with only half an exhaust. The only real thing that it would benefit from on the mechanical side is a bigger carburetor, it is still running the original 2K one.

 

There's still a fair bit to be done cosmetically, but nothing too extreme. I still haven't managed to paint the replacement driver's door fully, I'll probably hold onto it for a while and sell it separately if I ever get around to making paint stick to it.

[ajg193]

Good bye Ralph. I wish I could have known you longer and taken you on many adventures but such is life. I feel that I have given you at least a few more years of happy running and you've taught me some things in return. Enjoy your new home.