Corolla KE70 build

[eiriksmil]

This summer a buddy and me were going to the North Cape, a story you can read here. In short, I sent my white '82 KE70 off the road 150 miles down the trip and bought another '82 KE70 the same day. In two months I've put 5k miles on it and it's worked like a charm.

Prior to the unintended offroading with the white car I was going to tear it down and build it up like a pre-facelift with JDM front lights, chrome bumpers and more. Right now I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but the beige '82 is a far better base than the white '82. Either I'm gonna restore the beige car with its original parts and newer chrome bumpers (that's if the white car survives, not decided yet), or build it up like I've intended to do with the white car (if it dies). What's pretty certain is that it's staying the stock color, getting either a 2T engine or a 4A-GE and some wheels and coils

Yesterday I got ahold of a new daily so I could put this out of its duties, and today we got it into the garage. After five hours of work it looked like this when I left tonight

Nice..

The spare wheel well is good and the floors are good too, only a massive hole to the left there

Guess work continues tomorrow..

 

[Revheadnz]

Ohh damn that's a decent chuck of rust/a huge hole where there should be a bit more metal.
Still, looks promising, I can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

[Radracing]

Hope you do good body work. It looks pretty rusted through. I can see it has gone through a lot of wet winters unlike the cars here in California a lot of them hardly gets exposed to harsh weather that you can easily find one with very little rust.

That strut tower looks like it's going to need a lot of work. Are you planning to put a rollbar in that thing or just stock?

 

[Keef]

If you're comfortable doing or affording metal work, go ahead. You seem like the kind of guy to get it done anyway. If it was me I'd probably junk it. Is it impossible to kind a solid Rolla up there?

 

[TorqueHappenS08]

Man, it's amazing at what rust can do. Good luck on this project man.

 

[Jim Prower]

Meh, That hole's not in a real structural point, I don't think, and some simple welded plate should patch the hole. Just get some of that rust-stopper stuff and spread it all around inside and outside that hole, first. Otherwise, no-one'll see it, so it don't matter how ugly it is. Could even use that plate as a mounting point for a rollcage.

 

[eiriksmil]

Hope you do good body work. It looks pretty rusted through. I can see it has gone through a lot of wet winters unlike the cars here in California a lot of them hardly gets exposed to harsh weather that you can easily find one with very little rust.

That strut tower looks like it's going to need a lot of work. Are you planning to put a rollbar in that thing or just stock?

Yeah, you're from Cali so your view on rust is basically invalid In our terms this car is almost rust free.. Well in my terms anyway, haha.

I've started on hammering up the tar/asphalt plates so that I'm sure there's no more rust on the car than I know about, plus I'd like to paint it inside out so that I can have to possibility to run a stripped out interior in style No cage though..

Thanks for the comments.. I'll try to get some pics of more progress tomorrow

 

[mafia_boy]

On the engine swap side of things eriksmil, I'd like to suggest some choices and you say yay or nay regarding pricing and such:

4A-GE
7A-FE (1.8 from Corolla, same block as 4A)
3S-GE (or GTE if you can afford it)
1JZ-GTE (hey, some of us can dream! )
3T-GTE

And if you are even crazier than I thought....you have:
2JZ-GTE
5VZ-FE (3.4L V6 from Prado)
1UZ-FE (Lexus 4.0L V8!)

Take a pick and see what might tickle your fancy. 👍

 

[Jay]

Add 1FZ-FE (take that 2JZ) to your crazy list.

 

[eiriksmil]

Either 2T because it came stock in the TE71 and bolts up easier or a 4A-GE.. Won't be anything fancy in here, want to keep it like it could have rolled out the factory.

Anyway, I've found some more rust lately. All the damn mats covering the floorpan (dunno what you call them in English) are now gone..

And some random rust shots..

 

[homeforsummer]

That's a hell of a lot of rust! Rather you repairing it than me... good on you for attempting a build though. If it were mine I'd be dropping a 4A-GE in it, would make a nice little sports saloon.

What's the new daily driver you mention in the first post?

 

[eiriksmil]

Has somewhere between 300 and 350k miles under its belt I guess.. Picking up some ugly 18s for it tomorrow, still better than the 15s on there now.

 

[homeforsummer]

Good choice 👍 Great for wafting about with absolutely minimum effort! Auto or manual? (Probably a silly question, did those ones even come with a manual option?)

 

[eiriksmil]

I needed a car, someone were selling a car and I got this too cheap..
It's actually a manual, can you believe that ****? Poor man's Benz lol

 

[Jim Prower]

awwww...no Rover V8, Smallblock Chevy, or 5.7 Hemi Crate? ;3

 

[Radracing]

My engine of choice would be 1UZ-FE (Lexus 4.0L V8!) but I'm afraid if you did put that motor in that DX with all that rust it would just twist the chasis like a wet towel...LOL

But I'm sure if you did go that far you would do it in a proper way. 💡 Good Luck! looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

[eiriksmil]

You don't need a Lexus V8 to do things properly...

But if you pay I'll build it

 

[eiriksmil]

Picking up some ugly 18s for it tomorrow, still better than the 15s on there now.

A little off topic, but they turned out to be 17s and I think they worked well.. Need some springs and some angle grinder action..

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Got news, Erik?

 

[SVX]

I spy a whale tail...

 

[High-Test]

Congrats on the new W124.

How low will the corolla end up?

 

[eiriksmil]

Thanks dude.. Took a picture of it yesterday:

I dunno how low it'll end up, it depends on what I'm gonna do with it and what happens with the white car. If the white car dies this one will kiss the ground, if it doesn't the white car might

Got news, Erik?

Um, I've been on holiday plus I have a life But I actually managed to clean up in and around it today, so it's ready for work this week

 

[Joey D]

That picture of both your cars is awesome!

Your car projects are pretty interesting, defiantly something unique...which is always a good thing. I get tire of seeing the same cars done up in the same way over and over again.

 

[eiriksmil]

Thanks dude, appreciate the kind words a lot

Got the engine out today.

 

[martialstax]

You should check out Japanese Nostalgic Car. Their forum is very active and there are a lot of knowledgeable people there from around the world. If there's something you need for your KE70, someone there is bound to have it.

 

[eiriksmil]

Done work over the past few days..

Cut out rust, made new parts, dropped the subframe today and started removing the original undercoating. I've gone back and forth with myself trying to decide whether to leave it and maybe add a layer of Tectyl or similar anti-rust undercoating, but I guess I'm going all out now!