Bananaman's Ke20 Rebuild

[Bananaman]

So turns out with the motor in the Ke30 bar is just not an option as it does make contact with the sump when the engine is installed.

So where I am at. Ke70 Sway bar. KP61 sway bar mounts. Ke70 Bushes which is enough to mock everything up and get measurements for some custom sway bar mounts to locate it centre of the hole it passes thru in the caster arm mount.

The bits, the Ke20 stock sway bar vs the ke70 one. Will use the Ke20 bar as a guide for bending the ke70 to fit properly. (Yes the ke70 is not direct bolt on)

Bushes in the KP61 sway bar mounting brackets

Mockup to adjust height

Note the KP61 sway bar mounting bracket is a 60mm centre to centre mounting holes, the Ke20 uses a 55mm centre to centre mount so I had to squeeze the bracket in slightly to get it to bolt up straight. All this was only to mock up so I can have a bracket made.

Installed in the car and clearance for the sump.

And while I was at it I decided it would be a good time to mockup the new turbo setup to ensure nothing had issues going in and I have room for downpipe etc.

Turns out there is plenty of room to play with changing from bottom mount to top mount. (totally excited about this bit as the last dump pipe setup was just crap and wouldn't have flowed well)

So I have ordered fresh whiteline sway bar bushes so I can get the correct dimensions to have the sway bar bracket cnc'd. Take the Ke70 sway bar and the stock one to my local engineer and get him to bend it to suit (note it is 20mm out each side so this is not a major mod to make it fit.)

[Bananaman]

Some progress is still being made on this for those wondering. It does take a lot of my free time to work on this which is limited at best so chipping away at it.

Trying to work on the new dash layout. I was just not a fan of the dash that was made for this car and think I can do better. So I started getting stuck in to see what I could come up with. Being it is an old car trying to piece together an original dash was going to be complicated and frankly I don't like it either.

So this is what it looked like to begin with.

So set about creating a top dash pad as I wanted something that overhung the gauges as sunlight and the location of the gauges was just not ideal. Face fixture first. The rough cut and simple flat face.

Refined the shape a little more and attached an additional piece so I can shape the curve on the lower edge.

Laminated some pieces up for the dash pad. 

We glassed the back of the dash pad so it could be shaped and still hold its form. For the most part I am pretty happy with the final shape it is taking.

From this I will turn my attention to the flat face, adding contour to the lower edge, wrapping it around the sides of the dash frame and adding a bezel of sorts to the gauges aren't just planted on a flat surface. This is intended to be a plug for me to take a mold off so I can have a full fiberglass one piece made. No point in going carbon which was a consideration as this is still a road car and the dash is required to be padded for certification. 

New bits should arrive in the next 2-3 weeks for the custom sway bar install in the front which I have been quietly working away on.

[Bananaman]

Since I have finally been able to install the sway bar with all the correct parts and clearance I need maybe I should update this thread.
So as above I have used a KE70 sway bar which mounted to the KE20 mounting locations but the ends were 15mm too wide so had a local engineer bend it up to fit.
I had a friend machine up some aluminium sway bar mounts which I am going to have to refine as I miss calculated (fuc#!d up) the direction the castor rod is installed vs the sway bar.

So for now I have had a bunch of parts re plated to get this moving forward which I quietly contemplate what the end game here is.


Freshly powder coated the sway bar


This is the final looking castor / sway bar mounting solution for now until I sort machining the aluminium mount the way I want it.


Had to lift the back of the sway bar to clear the castor arm so just sourced this end link vs the ones you see in previous pictures.


But it all works and gives me the clearance I need to install the motor and have a sway bar at the same time. WIN!

 

[Bananaman]

Managed to get into this again over the weekend. Hoping to keep momentum high on the car now that I have a wee bit more time.

So before I could get back into the custom dash I had to take care of the steering components so I could check the location of the steering column. I had alot of parts replaced at the beginning of version 1 which meant this wasnt a massive task but the steering box is really the piece I wanted to deal with as it was covered in oil and paint and we quiet frankly not going to work for me. Phase one is clean up, mock up then I will have it sent to Christchurch for a rebuild.

Before and After

Steering parts all cleaned up.

Some painting and they look like new.

So once I had all that cleaned up and could install the steering box back in the car I decided I should clean all the bolts, re tap the holes so everything fits as new.

Then turned my attention back to the dash. Some smaller details coming together first.

Now I have the basic shapes I will start working on the return down the sides above but got the steering column relief cut in.

Next will be the bezel for the gauges. I want to make two so I can install a digital dash and remove to put the Autometer gauges back in for compliance.

[Bananaman]

So working towards a dash. Here is my "artist impression" lol. 

I did rough cut the bezel to size everything and looked good. Going a little hot rod style I guess but that is mostly the theme for this car. Will get it water jet cut in stainless and polish it all up with the bars and logo the installed into a black vinyl

[Bananaman]

Quick release steering wheels were very 2000's but quick release dash's are going to be 2023.....

 

Looking for opinions on the centre. I needed to find another at least one mounting point to make it stable. In order to get the clips to work they need to be fitted perpendicular to the mounting surface within reason and recessed. So the KE20 has two factory screw points in the middle of the dash that the clips as luck would have it screw straight into. (this could almost be a complete replacement package fully reversable for standard KE20)

Wondering what everyone thinks of having the middle two quick releases in the centre of the dash. Will be black vinyl finish with the black anodizing as per my concept above. Other option is bracket the mounts and move them to a more discrete location.