KE70 Desert Wind!

[RIP86]

Hey,

First of all thanks for clicking this. Just letting you know you may have been misled coming here hoping to see an amazing example of a KE. This thread is more like a rant with pictures of rust. Anyways, a quick introduction; I rocked an ADM 20v AE86 back in the day. It was amazing and it flew and most of all I built it all myself from scratch with all the best bits. I write off in 2008 and after driving several different cars in between nothing has felt the same. So I have decided to build a KE70 with my little brother. So first thing was first, find an awesome platform and make it even more awesome. So I found this on this forum

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Here are some high qual images for your viewing pleasure from when I got it home.

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Spectacular isn't it? well, the answer is 'no it isn't'. This was a horrible piece of s...t that should have went to the tip instead of our garage. But my brother and I were giddy little school boys dreaming of a clean beast with 4age goodness and ignoring the months of time and money that this rust bucket needed. I am sure some of you can relate.

As soon as I started exploring it I found something I didn't expect... bullet casings. One rifle bullet and several smaller bullets. Thats right! thats how bad ass this KE was, it was used in a drive by (well I certainly hope not since I put my prints on everything hugging the car when nobody was looking)

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It also had a gas conversion done on the car so it go to the moon and back on a single petrol stop.

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Anyways here are the current specs

replace k motor with 4ac
T50
hydraulic clutch
A battery

And I have plans to put:

spray painted panels
A 'be patient I am lowered' hilarious JDM sticker
A dangly keychain on my rear tow hook


....
LOL no in all seriousness it was the worst platform to choose but now that I am stuck with it I am obligated to be a man and do the right thing and bring this back to life.

My intention an OEM style KE70 with subtle JDM nuances. But the first step is to clean this up and get it roadworthy (hahahahahahahahahah haha... roadworthy).

I have done a bit on the KE, updates soon from the Desert Wind.

[Matt]

You'd be better off going for a 4age as it isn't much more effort than the 4ac... All cars need to start somewhere, some are worse than others...

[Futo_gt86]

I seen worse starting points than that man, stick with it.

[davidgarratt]

Ummmm I might be smoking crack but that looks like a 4ac bro because the 4k is chain driven and the carbie is on the other side soooooo you have a 4ac and a t50 already ae71:)

[RIP86]

Thanks for the kind encouragement! And yeah I guess it would technically be an ae71.

Cleaning is what I am doing first off so it pretty boring and time consuming. The starting point was the undercarriage. My little bro removed all the bits from the gearbox back and removed or treated the surface rust and gave it a coat of black paint. Idiot brother also tried to do some rust repair on the arches it was the doggiest job ever, there was dirt in the crevasses and he bogged over it with his fingers *sigh* And makes more work for me to fix his mistake. I am still looking for a good quarter panels to weld in (pm me if you have any in vic)

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Anyways, when I saw the undercarriage I was shocked! There was dirt and sand everywhere. Clumps of it. Hence the name "Desert Wind" because every time I ran a brush through the dirt a light breeze would sweep up the dirt and it was like I was in a sand storm. I wasn't even half way through and the amount of dirt on the floor was so deep I was making dirt angels in it as I worked under the car.

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It is somewhat clean now with the rust treated and bare metal primed and will paint it as soon as I have some time. Basically I'm running a wire brush and then a plastic brush to remove the dirt and a paint scraper for the dirt stuck in the corners. I am then sanding it down and cleaning it with turpentine. It's kind of hard because the dirt is so fine it's stuck in that chip resistant rubber paint under the car.

Anyways, I have already got a SPECIAL engine sitting in my garage ready to go in but at this rate it may still be quite some time for that part (the fun part). More updates soon

[Futo_gt86]

Ummmm I might be smoking crack but that looks like a 4ac bro because the 4k is chain driven and the carbie is on the other side soooooo you have a 4ac and a t50 already ae71:)
Pass that shit, coz I see it too now that I've enlarged the picture

[davidgarratt]

So confused, so it has a 4ac and a Borg Warner diff..... ain't nobody got time for dat! Lol
I thought that combo only came in the wagon and panno vans :confused:
It seems Like a really good staring point tho good luck with the build guys :D

[peter_soj]

So confused, so it has a 4ac and a Borg Warner diff..... ain't nobody got time for dat! Lol
I thought that combo only came in the wagon and panno vans :confused:
It seems Like a really good staring point tho good luck with the build guys :D

Calm yourself, lol. All XE7X sedans came with borg warner diffs, the wagon/pannos came with S series I'm pretty sure.

Also if you got this rig off of paul I'm pretty sure the ad mentioned it was a ke70 converted to 4ac+t50.

Looks like you're gonna be doing some quality work to it, looking forward to progress :)

[davidgarratt]

Ahhh it all makes sense now :cool:

[Futo_gt86]

Calm yourself, lol. All XE7X sedans came with borg warner diffs, the wagon/pannos came with S series I'm pretty sure.

Also if you got this rig off of paul I'm pretty sure the ad mentioned it was a ke70 converted to 4ac+t50.

Looks like you're gonna be doing some quality work to it, looking forward to progress :)

Just to clear that up, 4 door Wagons are BW, 2 door Pano is S Series, both are leave sprung variants.

[stahlz_ae86]

Calm yourself, lol. All XE7X sedans came with borg warner diffs, the wagon/pannos came with S series I'm pretty sure.

Also if you got this rig off of paul I'm pretty sure the ad mentioned it was a ke70 converted to 4ac+t50.

Looks like you're gonna be doing some quality work to it, looking forward to progress :)

Yeah Pete, he got it from my brother. Your dad checked it out when he picked up some parts and briefly considered getting it as a track car. Previous owner converted it to AE71 driveline as he had a 71 spirit with good driveline and poor body, the KE70 driveline had done a lot of kms.

As a starting base it's a pretty good shell other than the rad support, but my bro said you were going flat front anyway so I'm assuming you'll change that during the build.

Looking forward to seeing this thing done up Jacob, hit me up if you need the window reg I'll have one here.

[RIP86]

Oh yeah, Peter and I chatted a while about the litter of corollas you have parked out front. They look well taken care of ready to last another 30 years!

The body was in poor condition and is a pain to clean, but I guess the gaunlet has been thrown down so I'm just going to try and smash it with my bro (he doesn't really do much except create more work lol)

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I have been lucky come across all the bits including an engine also including the flat front to fix those bits. I am in need of a reg though but its not urgent yet. I do need those rear qtr panels, I would rather replace the whole lot then do surgery on the rust to fix each one. I am contemplating using the front gaurds to fix it plus the flares on fronts seem larger so If I fit them it may allow Desert Wind to wear staggered fitment shoes cleanly. I'm just worried about how they can fit with the rear doors...

I was really hoping to get the whole rear undercarriage cleaned and painted and with new bushes but was side tracked with my R32 where I retro fitted a higher amp alternator for those days I need a heater, demisters, headlights, wipers and small village powered.

I have painted all the suspension arms and stuff and will put in new bushes when they are dry. Also found myself a 86 fuel tank which I cleaned up nicely. I didn't want to use KE one as I suspect it is rusted or dirty inside. At this stage I am painting the undercarriage which will be the last part before I put it together and give it a drive before starting on the front.

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Cleaning the inside...

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Anyways thats likely to be it for 2012 unless I call in sick for work. I might wait till I do a lot of work on it before my next update! Stay tuned