Crowie55
19th November 2011, 11:29 PM
Hey guys, been lurking here for a while now but never posted so I though I may as well introduce myself and my ride, Name is Crowie and this is my ke38 wagon. I'm always keen for a cruise or spirited run so just hit me up.
I originally bought this car for daily duties after having my ke55 coupe stolen and having no way of getting to work while I waited for my Insurance claim to clear. $650 and I was mobile again. Little did I know buy this little daily would soon grow on me and another project would begin.
1981 ke38 wagon – quite possibly the ugliest model and shape of all the ke corolla’s. These things are almost like a forgotten middle child, hiding in the shadows of the beautiful ke20 and the very popular ke70 shitcans. I’ve only ever come across a couple of photo’s of one done up somewhere overseas and that’s it. Something a little different to the usual... just what I like.
To make things worse it was an update version, square lights, high-rise bonnet, rubber capped bars ect. 4 speed manual, baby blue interior, whiny diff, no stereo, leaking exhaust, 417,xxxkm on the clock and a healthy amount of rust and dints.
After purchasing I decided to make it look half respectable by buying some wheels and fixing the rear guards that were falling apart due to rust. Oh O- rust was worse than I thought and my wheels were too wide at the back. It was at this moment that the corolla bug bit.
Ke70 front guards were welded onto the rear and the stoc... sorry... bog guards were cracked off, I decided that rolling in a red brick was not my style and plans were set in motion for a respray.
Over a few months I saved me pennies like all good boys do and waited for the perfect deals to come up. Snapped up a tailgate from sunshine coast and drove up and picked it up, some guards and a ke30 import bonnet (chrome vent inserts) a bit closer to home, driver front and rear and passenger rear doors from my first car.
I had to remove the window frames from the rear doors on the car and transfer them to the replacement doors that came off my sedan to make the swap viable, there were literally 1-2kg’s of bog in each door that came on the car.
Resprayed in Toyota’s peak white for a fresh look and tried to get as many dints out as possible... I didn’t fair too well.
Installed some ke30 chrome bars and modified the mounting bracket on the rear to get the bar as close to the body as possible. Flipped the rear leaves and added a couple, replaced the whiney diff, upgraded the whole front suspension and brakes to xt130 struts, hubs and bearings, ra60 rotors, mx63 calipers and st204 inserts with a 5kg coilover sleeve kit. N14 pulsar brake master and Mitsubishi pajero master cyl. Sigma LCA’s, AJPS RCA’s, Generic 2” sports exhaust. Changed it to a 5 speed manual box.
Picked up some silvia seats and replaced the stock ones, and bought some mint black door cards to go with them. Removed the back seats, installed some black carpet, black boot cards, and an under dash amp and aftermarket speakers behind the stock cards that hook straight up to an Ipod for the stealthyness. Genuine nardi wood classic, horn button and a nice wooden shifter that a mate knocked up for a school assessment. Got a mint dash pad and put it in, Modified centre console with 3x 52mm pods to keep an eye on temps ect.
Just got my pair of wheels back they were 14x6 +10 now 14x9 -22 to fill out the rear guards. Saving up some coin now for a larger motor and diff in the future.
There are probably a million other things I’ve missed too but meh.
Cheers, Crowie
I originally bought this car for daily duties after having my ke55 coupe stolen and having no way of getting to work while I waited for my Insurance claim to clear. $650 and I was mobile again. Little did I know buy this little daily would soon grow on me and another project would begin.
1981 ke38 wagon – quite possibly the ugliest model and shape of all the ke corolla’s. These things are almost like a forgotten middle child, hiding in the shadows of the beautiful ke20 and the very popular ke70 shitcans. I’ve only ever come across a couple of photo’s of one done up somewhere overseas and that’s it. Something a little different to the usual... just what I like.
To make things worse it was an update version, square lights, high-rise bonnet, rubber capped bars ect. 4 speed manual, baby blue interior, whiny diff, no stereo, leaking exhaust, 417,xxxkm on the clock and a healthy amount of rust and dints.
After purchasing I decided to make it look half respectable by buying some wheels and fixing the rear guards that were falling apart due to rust. Oh O- rust was worse than I thought and my wheels were too wide at the back. It was at this moment that the corolla bug bit.
Ke70 front guards were welded onto the rear and the stoc... sorry... bog guards were cracked off, I decided that rolling in a red brick was not my style and plans were set in motion for a respray.
Over a few months I saved me pennies like all good boys do and waited for the perfect deals to come up. Snapped up a tailgate from sunshine coast and drove up and picked it up, some guards and a ke30 import bonnet (chrome vent inserts) a bit closer to home, driver front and rear and passenger rear doors from my first car.
I had to remove the window frames from the rear doors on the car and transfer them to the replacement doors that came off my sedan to make the swap viable, there were literally 1-2kg’s of bog in each door that came on the car.
Resprayed in Toyota’s peak white for a fresh look and tried to get as many dints out as possible... I didn’t fair too well.
Installed some ke30 chrome bars and modified the mounting bracket on the rear to get the bar as close to the body as possible. Flipped the rear leaves and added a couple, replaced the whiney diff, upgraded the whole front suspension and brakes to xt130 struts, hubs and bearings, ra60 rotors, mx63 calipers and st204 inserts with a 5kg coilover sleeve kit. N14 pulsar brake master and Mitsubishi pajero master cyl. Sigma LCA’s, AJPS RCA’s, Generic 2” sports exhaust. Changed it to a 5 speed manual box.
Picked up some silvia seats and replaced the stock ones, and bought some mint black door cards to go with them. Removed the back seats, installed some black carpet, black boot cards, and an under dash amp and aftermarket speakers behind the stock cards that hook straight up to an Ipod for the stealthyness. Genuine nardi wood classic, horn button and a nice wooden shifter that a mate knocked up for a school assessment. Got a mint dash pad and put it in, Modified centre console with 3x 52mm pods to keep an eye on temps ect.
Just got my pair of wheels back they were 14x6 +10 now 14x9 -22 to fill out the rear guards. Saving up some coin now for a larger motor and diff in the future.
There are probably a million other things I’ve missed too but meh.
Cheers, Crowie