Right then..
I've not posted on here before, but seeing as my curse word is allways lingering in the background in my housemates buildthread, I figure it's about time I step up as well and do a project thread. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at focusing my effort into one car, so instead of having one nice one, I have several. All in dire need of tlc.... Because of that, and the fact that I can never really decide which one to do work on, I'll gather all my stuff in one thread. Nice and easy.
Being a student isn't easy. We don't have a lot of money to spend on maintenance etc, so when I went back to uni in 2006, I decided to get a sensible, reliable car while I still could afford it. Toyota makes the most reliable cars on the planet, so naturally, I bought a white toyota.
Times, however are changing, and even though my white Toyota has indeed been reliable, it's time to let it go. Therefore I needed another sensible, reliable car. Since last time I bought a Toyota they have stopped making good cars, and started making cars with the dreaded "Fiery Deat Floormat Syndrome". Because of that, I figured that I should get an old toyota. One from the age of Indestructilux. I have had my share of old Toyotas, and when I heard that my ex housmates ex missus was selling her mk1 mr2 as it had just failed its mot in a rather spectacular way, I instantly had withdrawal symptoms. I've owned a mk1 before, and they're great fun.
As I never got rid of all the spares from my other one, it made perfect sense to get another one, so I got on the phone to my ex housemates ex missus, and i've now got a farly cheap, fairly sorry looking mr2 in my garden. Lucky for me, it's a car I looked over when she originally bought it, so I knew it wasn't going to be terrible.
The car has done 135.000 miles, and had a full gearbox rebuild by toyota at 108.000, so unlike many others, it has no bad synchros and does not jump out of gear. Bonus ;D It has failed on a few things however.
*antirollbar drop link had broken off the strut
*under all that nice undercoating, there was a great big gaping hole in the front chassis leg.
*blown exhaust
*siezed brakes / worn pads
*rust on rear suspension arm bracket
*lights in general
*rust on the driver side sill
I've had the car for a few weeks now, so I've been sorting it out, along with my housemate Pod, who's quite a bit better at welding than me. For now, the goal is to pass an m.o.t, and use it as is, until my exams are over in may. After that the bodywork/paint will be sorted, along with some suspension/brake mods.
Anyhow. This is how she sits now:
Last week, we started on the rust repair. It had two holes in the sill, and it was quite clear to us that the door didn't aligh properly with the rear quarter. Funny then that I had rustbubbles coming though the paint behind the door..... Esecially since this had been done by the previous owners dad, who apparently knew what he was doing. (previous owner being the one before my ex housmates ex girlfriend.) Nevermind that.. lets sort the sill first.
We (meaning pod... I made coffe and paid attention) started by cutting out the rusty parts, and making little replacement panels to go in there. In all fairness the sill really wasn't that bad.
Allright. Thats done then. But I wonder whats under that rustbubble. *poke*
hmm.. Filler..
.. .----->more filler? 
At this point I went inside to make more coffe, and pod decided to have a look himself, using an angle grinder, and a flapper disc. After thinking things through, (for about 4 seconds) we decided to have a proper look. This was what we found:
Most of the panel was covered by 15mm of filler. Now that thats all gone, suddently my door aligns perfectly with the rear quarter. Somehow, the genius who repaired this back in the day is a very capable welder, but couldn't be bothered to do a proper job of it. The bottom part is a mk1 ford fiesta panel, that almost fit. This has been welded on beautifully, while overlapping the original rusty panels.... As a result the new panel has rusted through in a few places. Because of this we decided to cut the outer skin of, and remove the rust on the inside, before welding on new replacement panels. Unfortunately replacement panels for an mk1 mr2 are hard to fint, and although I apparently have found some good ones, there is a 6 weeks wait. I do need to drive this car before that, so in the meantime, we have repaired the inner sill, and temporarily fixed the old repair panels.
After cutting back some of the damaged panels, we found this piece of rusty old quarterpanel sticking out.
We kept on cutting, and was left with this: for what it is, it's not really that bad.
After repairing the inner sill it was time for some temporary repair panels:
This is pretty much how far we've gotten on the bodywork. Remember though, that this is only a temporary fix until I get my proper repairpanels, and maybe some wide rear arches from eurosport. On friday we might tackle the hole in the front chassis leg. The only annoying thing about that is that I might have to drop the front crossmember to acces it.
Just to illustrate how much filler there was, we took these pictures after finishing the first night:
As pod has a missus, and his own project to deal with, I've been at it with the mechanical failures, as I can deal with them on my own. It apears the rear brakes have been overheated severely the last time the car was driven, as the rear pads where absolutely fried and parts of the pads had welded themselves to the discs. Left the handbrake on while driving, I wonder?
In between fixing my brakes and helping a mate lower his smart car, I had to try on the new wheels. I got these on a cheap toyota levin gt-apex ae101 I bought a while back, and I figure they suit the mr2 better. I actually have 5 as someone on ebay was selling one as honda 16"... £25 delivered.. Thank you, I'll have that. Top deals on wheels indeed. Who would've thought you could have a genuine SuperAdvan SA3-R for that price...
Does look good on there though. ;D
I've also got a few new parts. One problem with the mr2's are that it's not really got sufficient lights. The standard ones are rather weak, and flickers a bit, much like a candle in light breeze. While candles are nice when you've got some private time with your woman, it's not that nice going down country lanes in Wales, at night, when it's raining.
New lights will hopefully solve that problem. The indicators where faded, and the sides where moldy, so i've replaced them as well. Other than that, I have this 1978 momo steering wheel lying around. It originally came out of my ae86 a few years ago, and also spent some time in my previous mr2. I'm not sure if I'll put it in this one though, as it turns out to have a mint mk1a steering wheel, and I do prefer the lighter steering feel you get with a bigger wheel in a mr2. Other than that, I have a pair of hot cams. Excactly what spec they are, I don't know. According to the seller, they are either 262 or 282 degree cams. He just couldn't remember. I guess i'll have to get them measured before I put them to good use. Thats it for today. If the weathers good, and uni work doesn't take up all my time, I'll update within reasonable time.
I've not posted on here before, but seeing as my curse word is allways lingering in the background in my housemates buildthread, I figure it's about time I step up as well and do a project thread. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at focusing my effort into one car, so instead of having one nice one, I have several. All in dire need of tlc.... Because of that, and the fact that I can never really decide which one to do work on, I'll gather all my stuff in one thread. Nice and easy.
Being a student isn't easy. We don't have a lot of money to spend on maintenance etc, so when I went back to uni in 2006, I decided to get a sensible, reliable car while I still could afford it. Toyota makes the most reliable cars on the planet, so naturally, I bought a white toyota.
Times, however are changing, and even though my white Toyota has indeed been reliable, it's time to let it go. Therefore I needed another sensible, reliable car. Since last time I bought a Toyota they have stopped making good cars, and started making cars with the dreaded "Fiery Deat Floormat Syndrome". Because of that, I figured that I should get an old toyota. One from the age of Indestructilux. I have had my share of old Toyotas, and when I heard that my ex housmates ex missus was selling her mk1 mr2 as it had just failed its mot in a rather spectacular way, I instantly had withdrawal symptoms. I've owned a mk1 before, and they're great fun.
As I never got rid of all the spares from my other one, it made perfect sense to get another one, so I got on the phone to my ex housemates ex missus, and i've now got a farly cheap, fairly sorry looking mr2 in my garden. Lucky for me, it's a car I looked over when she originally bought it, so I knew it wasn't going to be terrible.
The car has done 135.000 miles, and had a full gearbox rebuild by toyota at 108.000, so unlike many others, it has no bad synchros and does not jump out of gear. Bonus ;D It has failed on a few things however.
*antirollbar drop link had broken off the strut
*under all that nice undercoating, there was a great big gaping hole in the front chassis leg.
*blown exhaust
*siezed brakes / worn pads
*rust on rear suspension arm bracket
*lights in general
*rust on the driver side sill
I've had the car for a few weeks now, so I've been sorting it out, along with my housemate Pod, who's quite a bit better at welding than me. For now, the goal is to pass an m.o.t, and use it as is, until my exams are over in may. After that the bodywork/paint will be sorted, along with some suspension/brake mods.
Anyhow. This is how she sits now:
Last week, we started on the rust repair. It had two holes in the sill, and it was quite clear to us that the door didn't aligh properly with the rear quarter. Funny then that I had rustbubbles coming though the paint behind the door..... Esecially since this had been done by the previous owners dad, who apparently knew what he was doing. (previous owner being the one before my ex housmates ex girlfriend.) Nevermind that.. lets sort the sill first.
We (meaning pod... I made coffe and paid attention) started by cutting out the rusty parts, and making little replacement panels to go in there. In all fairness the sill really wasn't that bad.
Allright. Thats done then. But I wonder whats under that rustbubble. *poke*
hmm.. Filler..
.. .----->more filler? 
At this point I went inside to make more coffe, and pod decided to have a look himself, using an angle grinder, and a flapper disc. After thinking things through, (for about 4 seconds) we decided to have a proper look. This was what we found:
Most of the panel was covered by 15mm of filler. Now that thats all gone, suddently my door aligns perfectly with the rear quarter.
Somehow, the genius who repaired this back in the day is a very capable welder, but couldn't be bothered to do a proper job of it. The bottom part is a mk1 ford fiesta panel, that almost fit. This has been welded on beautifully, while overlapping the original rusty panels.... As a result the new panel has rusted through in a few places. Because of this we decided to cut the outer skin of, and remove the rust on the inside, before welding on new replacement panels. Unfortunately replacement panels for an mk1 mr2 are hard to fint, and although I apparently have found some good ones, there is a 6 weeks wait. I do need to drive this car before that, so in the meantime, we have repaired the inner sill, and temporarily fixed the old repair panels. After cutting back some of the damaged panels, we found this piece of rusty old quarterpanel sticking out.
We kept on cutting, and was left with this: for what it is, it's not really that bad.
After repairing the inner sill it was time for some temporary repair panels:
This is pretty much how far we've gotten on the bodywork. Remember though, that this is only a temporary fix until I get my proper repairpanels, and maybe some wide rear arches from eurosport. On friday we might tackle the hole in the front chassis leg. The only annoying thing about that is that I might have to drop the front crossmember to acces it.
Just to illustrate how much filler there was, we took these pictures after finishing the first night:
As pod has a missus, and his own project to deal with, I've been at it with the mechanical failures, as I can deal with them on my own. It apears the rear brakes have been overheated severely the last time the car was driven, as the rear pads where absolutely fried and parts of the pads had welded themselves to the discs. Left the handbrake on while driving, I wonder?
In between fixing my brakes and helping a mate lower his smart car, I had to try on the new wheels. I got these on a cheap toyota levin gt-apex ae101 I bought a while back, and I figure they suit the mr2 better. I actually have 5 as someone on ebay was selling one as honda 16"... £25 delivered.. Thank you, I'll have that. Top deals on wheels indeed. Who would've thought you could have a genuine SuperAdvan SA3-R for that price...
Does look good on there though. ;D
I've also got a few new parts. One problem with the mr2's are that it's not really got sufficient lights. The standard ones are rather weak, and flickers a bit, much like a candle in light breeze. While candles are nice when you've got some private time with your woman, it's not that nice going down country lanes in Wales, at night, when it's raining.
New lights will hopefully solve that problem. The indicators where faded, and the sides where moldy, so i've replaced them as well. Other than that, I have this 1978 momo steering wheel lying around. It originally came out of my ae86 a few years ago, and also spent some time in my previous mr2. I'm not sure if I'll put it in this one though, as it turns out to have a mint mk1a steering wheel, and I do prefer the lighter steering feel you get with a bigger wheel in a mr2. Other than that, I have a pair of hot cams. Excactly what spec they are, I don't know. According to the seller, they are either 262 or 282 degree cams. He just couldn't remember. I guess i'll have to get them measured before I put them to good use. Thats it for today. If the weathers good, and uni work doesn't take up all my time, I'll update within reasonable time. 
Anyways, The car has had some progress, and it really is getting close to M.O.T! Also, i've been doing a few other bits and bobs, and therefore, it's time to introduce some of my other cars to this thread!
It came on the rims that I'll be using on the mr2, and the engine is a 20valve 1.6 running 160bhp from factory. It's only done 60.000 miles and a lamp post.. The lamp post part, being the reason it was cheap. Apart from that... slight... dent in the front, it's a really clean car and I'm intending to get it back on the road as my daily as soon as I can find replacement panels. As much as I love mr2's, I really prefer my daily to have ac, as the weather in Swansea is rather poor, and most of the time a non-ac car just steams up on the inside. 
Seems I've got to find myself some new ones to sort out that rubbush idle. 
In a Mustang that is simply embarrassing, and it's one of the reasons why that car is not on the road. I stopped driving it in 2001 when I bough my Lincoln, intending to stick a 302 v8 in it, but never got around to it, as I started hoarding cars. Last year as I started selling of cars, I also started buying parts, and this summer it finally came back out of storage. Unfortunaly as it was stored outside for a little while, I couldn't actually see the car when I visited home over christmas. I dug it out of the snowbank, and its now garaged again, ready to have work done on it.
if it doesn't. 
