My 1972 KE25 Corolla Coupe

[awex]

Hi,

My name is Trond, and I live in Kristiansund, on the mid-western coast of Norway. I figured I could tell you a bit about me and my new project before I start posting pics

Almost all of my cars have been japanese. Most of them have been modern AWD & turbocharged vehicles, and while that was good fun, I`ve always been dreaming about a proper old school japanese car. My first experience with a semi-old rwd toy was my AE86, which is now owned by another member on this forum.
http://www.aeu86.org/viewtopic/project-m...e29/t/3232
I did some fun mods to this car, but I did the kind of mistake that still keeps me up crying all night; I sold it. Yeah, i know, it was stupid. Say no more...

So, as the need for a old school toy grew, i bought a Datsun 180B SSS, which could look something like this: (click to enlarge!)

Edit:
Warning, might not be work-safe for everyone.
Pics hosted on Paintedover, which has ads with pics of nearly nude girls who apparently lives in my neighbourhood. I think they want to have sex with me or something.


Unfortunately, it was rather rusty. As I`m buying a house that requires some restoration (keepin` it old school), I`m probably going to spend most of my time and money there. In other words, I had to put my Datsun on hold. But when I was looking for a cheap daily driver, Morten (who bought my hachi) told me about a superclean KE25 for sale in the northern parts of Norway. Thank you Morten, I think I finally can forgive you for buying my car

I called the owner, but he had sold the car the very same day for a price that was lower than advertised, and way below what I was willing to pay for it. I got the number for the new owner, and called him the next day. I asked if he was willing to pass it on to me, with a profit of course, but he said the same as I would have said, "no way"... He had been trying to get his hands on this car for several years, so he had no plans on selling it. He was quite a nice guy, and he had several other classics, like 2 x Datsun 610-body 180B SSS in good shape (lucky bast**d) and a 160J SSS.

I figured the battle was lost, he was clearly a proper enthusiast who knew how rare these cars are in Norway, but desperate times calls for desperate measures, so I sent him an SMS with a final offer. He told me that he`d save my number and call me if he ever decided to sell the Corolla or one of the 180B`s (I told him earlier that since he didn`t want to sell the Corolla, maybe he could at least sell me one of the Datsuns? No luck...).

The next day, while I was about to buy a pretty clean 2-door KE30, I received a message from the owner of the KE25. He had thought about the matter, and he decided that he really had enough cars, and he was afraid that he wouldn`t have the time needed to take care of the KE. He figured that it was better that it was in the hand of someone who could use and maintain the car. I didn`t tell him all my plans though, since he was the kind of guy that kept his cars stock. That might have made him change his mind! I stretched my daily driver-budget a bit, but I really think it`s worth it!

The car itself is in near perfect condition (according to earlier owners and pics). It has been owned by a Toyota-dealership from new to 1986, where it spent most of its time as a showroom car, and from 1986 to 2004 it was in private storage. The car has only 72.000km on the meter, that`s an average of 2000 km pr year!

Well, enough of my boring talk. This is how the car looks today, pics taken by the previous owner a couple of days ago.

[awex]

So, what am I going to do to this car?

First, I have to transport it down to where I live. It`s quite a drive, I`d probably need two days, so I`m trying to find a cheap way to transport it here without leaving the comfort of my couch.

The window seals needs changing, but the previous owner had ordered them on Ebay, he`ll ship them to me when they arrive. There was a vinyl roof on the car at some point in time, but they took it off without removing the chrome stripes that functioned as some sort of transition between the vinyl roof and the rest of the car. Looks a bit silly in my opinion, so they are coming off. While removing the vinyl roof, the paint has loosened from the surface in some places, leading to small rust bubbles in the paint. I was told that this was nothing major, so I`ll probably just sand the car down and give it a fresh lick of paint, original color or something very similar.

I`m gonna change the grille and corner mouldings into somthing nicer, I`m not 100% sure what I`m going to buy yet. If i find one, I`ll probably change the hood to the other type the KE/TE`s had, with the lowered midsection. I really think this suits the car better, giving it a more aggressive look. This is how I want the front of my car to look:


When I bought the 180B, I started buying a few parts for it. One thing i knew I had to have, was a set of fender flares and proper wheels. I actually bought a set of fiberglass replicas of the stockTE27 flares, comes in pretty handy now


I also bought two sets of 15" wheels from Japan. I love wheels, I really do! maybe too much? I think the wheels make or break a car. The keyword is low offsets and deep lips.

The first set is what I think are 2pc. Work Eqip 03`s. They don`t look like the ones they produce now, but they are pretty similar to the older ones. They are 7.5 and 8x15, I don`t remember the offsets, but they are somewhere around negative 10-15. That leaves room for a nice, fat lip They were restored before they were sold to me, so they look really clean, almost like new!


The other wheels is a set of Work VS-XX, one of the nicest wheels around in my opinion. The fronts have a 6cm lip, and the fronts are around 7cm. They are 4x100 though, so they`ll have a nice 25mm added to the offset because of the spacer/adapter I need to run to get them on my car. I`ll try to restore these myself, should be fun.
F: 6.5x15 et17 r: 7x15 et23


I did sell the VS-XX`s to a friend, who put them on his miata, but he promised me that I could buy them back if I wanted, so I`ll be doing that. At the time I sold them , I didn`t really think I`d need them for years. I`m glad things have changed.

I`m going to put in AE86 struts with KYB AGX`s and a set of lowering springs. In the rear I`m going for flex-a-form fibreglass leaf springs and probably AGX dampers here too. I will also install upgraded bushings and anti roll bars front/rear.

I`d like a proper rear axle with LSD and disc braks too, but I`m not sure how I`m going to solve this yet. A shortened AE86 axle would be great, but I`m not sure how much such a job would cost. We`ll see what i can find, and what I can afford. I`ll probably just redrill the stock axles to 4x114.3 and keep it that way until I`m swapping in a new engine.

When I feel happy with the suspension and brakes, I`m probably going to install a 4A-GE together with a T50 from an AE86, depending on what the authorities has to say about it. The ultimate goal is a 20v blacktop, since I always dreamed about this in my AE86.

While I threw out the interior in my AE86, I`ll keep it in this car. It seems really clean, so I`ll probably just get a pair of used sport seats, and have them retrimmed to match the rest of the interior. I`ve also got a Momo Prototipo steering wheel for the 180B, so now I just need a hub to fit the KE25. Shouldn`t be too hard to find.


So, that`s my current plans for my KE25, any feedback and advice is greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long read, I tend to get a litte carried away from time to time

[speedyrolla]

I love those XE2X corolla's,nice car

[The Doctor]

nice!
I just bought exactly the same set of fender flares (and the spoiler too) to go on my KE20

And about the LSD, i think you have a B-code diff (it;s on the vin plate somewhere), if you find a KE30 axle, there are some TRD LSD's for sale in Japan. A KE30 has the sligthly bigger sized diff (6" U code diff) and is sligthly wider then a KE20 axle. AND it's 4x114,3 .

Some later spec KE20's also got the U-code diff (like mine), but then the PCD is still 4x110


About the front, that's a 1974 and onwards front, the latest facelift models got that front

[awex]

The Doctor Wrote:nice!
I just bought exactly the same set of fender flares (and the spoiler too) to go on my KE20

And about the LSD, i think you have a B-code diff (it;s on the vin plate somewhere), if you find a KE30 axle, there are some TRD LSD's for sale in Japan. A KE30 has the sligthly bigger sized diff (6" U code diff) and is sligthly wider then a KE20 axle. AND it's 4x114,3 .

Some later spec KE20's also got the U-code diff (like mine), but then the PCD is still 4x110


About the front, that's a 1974 and onwards front, the latest facelift models got that front

Thanks for the info!

I was thinking about the TA22 Celica axle or maybe even one from the TE27 SR5, if I can find it. I want one that`s around the same width as the stock one, as I`m afraid the low offset wheels would be pushed too far out, even with the fender flares fitted. Guess I`ll just have to see what I can find

[The Doctor]

i know what you mean.

This is what you need if you want an AE86 axle and low offset wheels:





TE27 axle will be hard, but i've seen some for sale on Yahoo Japan, but shipping of such a heavy item will be killer i guess

[awex]

This is one of the TE27`s I`ve been drooling over for a while. If I can get my car to look this good, I`d be a happy man. A great inspiration for my project!

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2128775

[The Doctor]

hehe.

This is the one i can't get out of my head:



or this one



you can fit some wiiiiiiiiiide wheels under those flares, the TRD wheels are 8x13 and 9x13

[awex]

The Doctor Wrote:i know what you mean.

This is what you need if you want an AE86 axle and low offset wheels:





TE27 axle will be hard, but i've seen some for sale on Yahoo Japan, but shipping of such a heavy item will be killer i guess

Yeah, while such wide fenders would look killer, I think I`ll stick to the stock replicas for the moment.

I saw that NoHachi had sourced a TA22 LSD-equipped axle back in 05, so I sent him a PM and asked him if he could help me find one. If anyone else knows about one, I`ll gladly pay if you assist me in getting it shipped up here.

[awex]

The Doctor Wrote:hehe.

This is the one i can't get out of my head:



or this one



you can fit some wiiiiiiiiiide wheels under those flares, the TRD wheels are 8x13 and 9x13

Yeah, that one is nice too. I think I have pics of all te27`s on the web stored on my harddrive.

I`m afraid the 15" wheels might look a bit too big on the KE. Good to know the width is OK though!
This car runs 15`s, I`m not entirely convinced yet: