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Swannie’s KP60


Swannie

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Long time stalker, first time poster.

So I brought this NZ new 1983 KP60 Starlet back in August, and will be giving it a spruce up over the next 2 years. The end goal is to do the MG classic meeting at Manfeild in November 2020.

I’m only the 5th owner, the first 3 being old ladies and the last being an older guy that had it for 20 years, so it is all original with a genuine 408,000km on the clock.

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still on the original 2K, but it’s pretty tired.

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Over the last couple of months I’ve been doing a few small jobs on the car, mainly tidying things up and replacing worn out components.

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The previous owner couldn’t be assed spending $50 on a new set of proper HT leads, so bodged something up himself using a garden hose to preven arcing to the cylinder head!

Needless to say I have fitted a proper set of HT leads and replaced the spark plugs.

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One of the rear shocks was leaking , so I replace both sides. 128D02ED-88CE-4247-A2DD-C4EEFF0225C5.thumb.jpeg.a551f97ca5ff0bdade2b6615c371e6b4.jpeg

I’ll get some shortened shocks when I get around to lowering it, but these will do for now.

I also cleaned up the rear inner guards whilst I had the shocks out, and gave them a coat of under seal, but forgot to take photos.

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Scored a 4K and K50 via trade me on Monday, and the bonus was that it was local. Most the the engines that seem to be coming up for sale are either in Auckland or Christchurch 

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For now itwill go into the car as it is, but will eventually get a big birthday with a cam, Webber carb, rings and bearings, some compression and a port and polish

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  • 1 year later...

Wow long time no post.

haven’t done a whole lot on the car over the last couple of years, but will post up some photos of the small progress.

rebuilt the front brake calipers as they were seized and the pads were almost non -existent.

Also replaces the front rotors as they were under minimum thickness, ended up getting a set of 233mm discs machined down to 203mm, they will do until I get around to a brake upgrade 

 

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  • 3 years later...

So not much has happened with this car over the last few years, hopefully soon it will get some love lavished on it. 

I found some cheap LED indicators and DRLs on The Market and with some slight modifications they fit the KP60 bumper perfectly. 

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The car is slowly been stripped down for body work and paint and this is the only structural rust found so far.

Previous repairs at the tip of the C pillar (both sides)

Hole in the side of the scuttle panel

Hole in in the top corner of the tail lights (both sides) 

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  • 1 month later...

As part of the rebuild I’ll  be getting rid of the tan/ brown interior. 
 

I’ve always liked the look of flocked dashboards so I brought a kit and decided to try my hand at some flocking. 
 

I started with the instrument panel cover as a test piece, not perfect but not to bad. Needs a few little touch ups but coverage turned out fairly even. 
 

I think I’ll spay the rest of the dash black before I flock it as the tan can show through a little of the coating is a bit light. 

The flocking makes one hell of a mess so you need a big tarp and clear space to work. 

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  • 6 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Work slowly continues on the starlet, lots of little jobs being done when time allows. 
 

Bumper brackets are currently being sandblasted & the warm weather we are experiencing in Wellington certainly helps with getting the paint to dry.
 

I’ll be going with a black interior so I started to paint some of the trim. First a wash in warm soapy water then a spray with plastic and vinyl paint IMG_3290-compressed.thumb.jpeg.f718fb4455487c5360591ef7d6a1d196.jpeg

Have also spent way too long on rhdjapan.com lately and my first lot of parts arrived. Some ARP bolts for the engine and a Cusco strut brace. The colour of the mount is fairly close to the colour I’ll be painting the car so that’s a little win. FullSizeRender-compressed.thumb.jpeg.7e274c2b3567e003f5d3e068364069c4.jpeg

 

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New headlights arrived from Japan, fitted into refurbished mounts with cleaned mounting ring and new screws. IMG_0665.thumb.jpeg.247c2e4287f67e91e989c5681f2d7177.jpeg
 

With relays fitted to the headlight circuit, this should be a huge improvement in light output. 

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