1986 Toyota MR2 - get kicked into the weeds.

[mashed]

Nov 12, 2020 7:46:52 GMT ivan141 said:

Nov 8, 2020 10:27:11 GMT Sweetpea said:

.....

I suppose I should do this hole in the rear valance too. It lets water into the boot.




Love the work you've done so far.
Not to be a downer, but does that chassis rail look rotten to you IRL, or is it just the picture?

You should have seen what he started with I'm sure it's on the list!

[ivan141]

Well, whatever is next, just don't make the same mistake I made, namely patching a hole in the rear valance with it in situ.. drill it out and enjoy the access (and insight into potentially hidden rust).
Looking at the quality of work that's passed by in this thread so far I'm confident that was the plan anyway.

[Sweetpea]

This thread is going to be such a crushing disappointment!

Chassis rails... Nah, they are almost factory believe it or not. Just dirty. I've had a look down them and they look good. I shall probably just bung a load of wax in them.
The front rails are much more of a concern as water blows right up them

And, if I take off every panel just because it has a bit of rust I'll wind up with the entire car flat packed in the loft. The rear panel doesn't need to come off, at least not yet. There is a trade off between how much harm you do disturbing things as opposed to getting to the rust. The fact is that the seam sealer on this car is generally in very good condition and I'm loath to disturb it unless there is a problem. So the rear panel can stay on, at least for the time being.

But since you ask, lets assess the situation.





Red circle - That'll need replacing. There has been rust here before and some muffin just plated over it. Add to that the fact that after the car got bent the tail light didn't seal and let water run down that bit... It needs some work. I'll do that when I get the new wing on and make it to fit.

Blue circle - the bit you were all just looking at. It's partly in the rear panel and partly in the wing. There should be a seam there. The rust was probably caused by a failed light seal allowing water into the seam. Until I get some power tools on it I won't know how far it extends but I suspect (blind optimism) that it doesn't go as far as it looks like it does.

Much more interesting is the green bit. Its a 'cooling vent' for the exhaust silencer. It's a bit crusty and will need to be replaced. But...
I don't actually like the 'vent' look. So it'd be easier and much quicker to replace it with a plain panel and I'd like it better.
Or I could go for the factory look. That would test my skills and make me think which would be fun.
Or I'm actually wondering about two oblong holes with a stainless steel mesh grill in them. Which might look great, or it might look 'Halfords Chavtastic'.

Watch this space and you'll find out what I decide to do.



In about three years time!

James

PS, the lower part of the right hand rear wing is made of layers of rust and off cuts of metal bonded together with filler. The whole area needs some lurvin'.

[Sweetpea]

Before I start…
I was worried about this needing a bit more filler and paint.





Well I realised the other day that there should be a mounting point for the side skirt almost exactly there. I’ll have to grind it back and weld a nut on anyway.




I was fairly certain that patch in the arch was such a nice fit that I wouldn’t need to weld it in. It’d just sit there for the foreseeable future because it was right and proper that it should.
So I left it. It’ll be fine.





Nah, I welded it in.





Do you like my bed spread by the way?
Anyway, not too terrible. But could do better… The car is a bit of a patchwork quilt in this area now. Partly because I wasn’t quite as good at metal shaping when I fixed it the first time, and partly because I then had to cut a lump of it out to get the new wing to fit. It is, at least, solid.

One last bit to finish the arch…





Is it just me or does that look a little bit like a …

Nah, just me.

[Sweetpea]

It is perfectly designed to fit here.





It was at about this moment that I realised I’d made a terrible error. I wanted a drain hole in this bit to let water out of the bottom of the wing.
I have ideas about how water gets in, but that doesn’t matter too much. It needs to get out. I need a drain. I was going to make one in this piece. I’d forgotten. Bumhats.

Need to start again. Unless…





Instead of welding the flange in line I set it back a little. Going to be a slightly interesting weld to fill the gap, but I’m a bright lad and I own a piece of copper pipe.





I was having problems getting this to fit properly. So rather than messing about I decided to try a different approach. Instead of cutting it to fit and then welding it in I tacked it in and then pushed, cut and welded it as I went.
It’s the first time I’ve tried that game but it came out ok.





Lastly a good coat of primer to keep it safe and sound until I’m ready to weld the wing back on.





Hmmmm. What next?

[jjeffries]

The old push, tack and cut method. Know it well.

John

[glenanderson]

Two things...

1) I would definitely weld the arch lip, as others have already suggested.

2) For some reason this thread had slipped my attention and I’ve just had to wade through 99 pages.

Anyway, carry on.

👍

[ivan141]

Nice work on that inner fender. I'll take your word for the chassis rails being sound.
It's not easy to spot the difference between muddy and rusty in cellphone pictures.

The reason I mentioned taking the rear panel apart was that I (then) just spent 3 weekends welding
around the rear panel seams on my AE86 and kind of regretted not having gone with drilling the
whole thing out long ago, would have saved me lots of complications and ended up looking cleaner.

I do get your point about the seam sealant. The reason I had so much welding to do around the seams
on one side of the shell was a quarter panel replacement done long ago... They did not do their job properly
protecting the new panel afterward, making it twice as rotten as the original panel on the other side.

[Sweetpea]

Thanks all. I'll weld the arch.
You understand that it's not because you've all recomended it, more that I'm too tight to buy a tube of glue!

ivan141 , AE86 Hmmmmm. I have 2 Toyotas on my wish list that I'll probably never own. A stock AE86 is one of them. The Celica Supra (MA67) is the other. In fact those two and the MR2 would be my perfect fleet.

Might need a bigger garage.

[darrenh]

paintjob ideas

(maybe not)

[Sweetpea]

That's outstanding! I had to look twice before I recognised it as an MR2.
I'll be keeping mine black I think.

That said I have recently done something to mine that makes it look a bit like a baby Lotus Esprit. I'll take a photo at the weekend maybe.

[75swb]

Nov 23, 2020 21:39:50 GMT Sweetpea said:

That's outstanding! I had to look twice before I recognised it as an MR2.
I'll be keeping mine black I think.

That said I have recently done something to mine that makes it look a bit like a baby Lotus Esprit. I'll take a photo at the weekend maybe.

What a tease! I do hope it's not "driven it into the sea"?

[jjeffries]

Or, to continue the theme, took it to Cortina d'Ampezzo, parked it in front of the skating rink and blew it up real good with a remote detonation device?

John

[vulgalour]

He's been busy with the gold craft pens and it's now sporting JPS livery.

[Sweetpea]

So... Making a Toyota look like a Lotus…

Taking it to Italy and blowing it up...
Well it's a long way and my Italian friend might object to dumping yet another car in his home land. I watched The Italian Job the other night and the English seem to make a habit of abandoning cars over there. Italy, the scrap yard of Europe! Not a brilliant tourist slogan.

Pushing it in the sea (or driving it out of the sea), well that's a lot more plausible since the sea is just up the road. Trouble is...
Where I live the warm golden sands covered in beauties in bikinis are replaced with thick mud and bird watchers in warm jackets. The car would be stuck up to its axles and there'd be some old bloke saying...

"Have you seen it!?"
"Seen what?"
"The lesser spotted, great crested, duck billed mud dipper."
"No."
"It's over there... Look it's beautiful!"
"You mean that dull brown thing up to it's ar$e in mud?"
"Yeah, isn't nature stunning!? You're so lucky to live here!"

Actually I’m not sure I am lucky to live here at the moment. Swale apparently has, pretty much, the highest COVID rate in the country. If not the highest.
Naturally I live in the posh bit where we all follow the rules so we are blaming those scummy oiks in other parts of the region. They, in turn, are probably blaming scummy visitors from London or something.
The TV news seem to be blaming the prisoners in the local jails - of which we apparently have many. Prisoners and jails. Given we’ll all be locked up soon… I think that’s all of us.

So here at Sweetpea Towers we’ve pulled up the drawbridge and positioned the mother in law at the arrow slit in the west staircase. We aren’t expecting her to just frighten people away, although she maybe could. We’ve given her the longbow and a quiver of arrows. In case things get properly hairy she’s got the blunderbuss as well.
Anybody that tries to come here is getting dumped in the moat. Well, the postman is ok if he’s got Christmas presents for me. And the nice chap from Ocado ‘cos we need to stock up on 5 dozen mega packs of bog rolls and a years supply of tinned beans with chorizo. See how posh we are!? Normal posh people have beans and sausages. We have beans and chorizo at Sweetpea Towers!
I’m out of choccy bickies too. God, it’s a disaster. What am I going to dunk in my tea?



What were we actually talking about?

[georgeb]

I have absolutely no idea, but it's making me smile!

[mk2cossie]

sweetpea you need chocolate hobnobs to dunk in your tea!
Milk or dark, doesn't matter for the finest biscuit for dunking

[jamesd1972]

Hobnobs are definitely the biscuit of choice for competitive dunking wars.
Rules are simple, last to pull out ***with a complete biscuit*** wins.
Looser has to down tea complete with soggy mess at the bottom and hang their head in shame.
You can do it on Zoom and everything.
Anyway where were you on the car ?
James

[bstardchild]

Nov 25, 2020 11:46:07 GMT jamesd1972 said:

Hobnobs are definitely the biscuit of choice for competitive dunking wars.
Rules are simple, last to pull out ***with a complete biscuit*** wins.
Looser has to down tea complete with soggy mess at the bottom and hang their head in shame.
You can do it on Zoom and everything.
James

Played that game many times as a teenager - trying to remember what the biscuit of choice was back then - we certainly didn’t have hobnobs - rich tea ballooned up and gravity did the rest, digestives lasted a little longer but had the same issue, malted milk was an utter disaster, anything with a filling created issues (bourbons custard creams that type of thing - jamie dodgers were the exception) so I’m thinking it was ginger nuts!!!!!!

[mk2cossie]

Nov 25, 2020 12:24:52 GMT bstardchild said:

Nov 25, 2020 11:46:07 GMT jamesd1972 said:

Hobnobs are definitely the biscuit of choice for competitive dunking wars.
Rules are simple, last to pull out ***with a complete biscuit*** wins.
Looser has to down tea complete with soggy mess at the bottom and hang their head in shame.
You can do it on Zoom and everything.
James

Played that game many times as a teenager - trying to remember what the biscuit of choice was back then - we certainly didn’t have hobnobs - rich tea ballooned up and gravity did the rest, digestives lasted a little longer but had the same issue, malted milk was an utter disaster, anything with a filling created issues (bourbons custard creams that type of thing - jamie dodgers were the exception) so I’m thinking it was ginger nuts!!!!!!

I think dunking ginger nuts in tea is frowned upon this day and age tho