1986 Toyota MR2 - get kicked into the weeds.

[jamesd1972]

Jan 22, 2018 21:28:03 GMT Sweetpea said:

Not quite ready to torch it yet thanks. Quite apart from which, 5 litres of petrol is more valuable than the car.

It actually has a big battery switch with a removable key. It's a bit of extra security, makes welding easier, and stops the battery going flat. Yes, I'd taken the key out when I left it.
But last year I made a little change which party defeated the battery switch. I wasn't sure what the effect would be.

Well I know now 'cos I wound up pushing it around in the snow and rain. (Technically "we pushed it round in the snow and rain" because Mrs Sweetpea helped - told you she was a keeper even if she is making me sand the stairs.)

fastblatt , yeah I take your point about the weather. But I'd got it in my head that the battery might be flat (correctly as it happens) and once you have an itch...

James

Especially as its super plus unleaded with expensive 2 stroke chainsaw oil additive !

I'm sure you'd get a few quid for those nice wiper arms now.

[fastblatt]

I know what you mean about the itch James. I’m the same. When I decide to collect or repair something I usually do it (or try to) even if everything turns against me
Mark

[was8v]

Hows the MR2?

Nice guttering btw.

[Sweetpea]

Mar 20, 2018 11:18:19 GMT was8v said:

Hows the MR2?

Nice guttering btw.

It's locked away for the winter. Partly due to it being wet or freezing and partly because my list of excuses, er, that is to say, my list of other jobs...
I'll start again...

My wife's list of other jobs is taking all the spare moments!

Thanks for asking though!

[Sweetpea]

I’m writing in my MR2 thread. Good grief! Have I done all those other jobs for the missus and got back to doing the car?
No, don’t be silly! I just snook some time off to do something car related for a change. The list of excuses shows no signs of being completed any time soon.

Remember this?





A massively expensive £8 from Amazon. Plays SD cards, USB sticks, Bluetooth, FM radio (Won’t need that because I’ll use the radio in the Alpine.)

So where to put it? I spent a long time wondering if I could make a new thing that would go where the ash tray normally goes. I could probably make something out of wood and paint it black but I couldn’t think of a way to get the texture right. It was going to be a complete pain it the botty and would never have looked right.
So why not mount it in the ashtray. I don’t smoke so I don’t need it…

Mock up with a bit of cardboard.





Volume control on the left, power switch on the right. I’ve chosen a green button to reflect the green buttons on the Alpine.

Transfer to a bit of steel.





I’m not completely happy with it but it’s close enough. It’ll have to be. The missus is looking longingly at the stairs and mumbling about ‘another coat of stain’.

Anyway, painted black and fitted in the ash tray…
Now you don’t see it.





And now you do!





Peek a boo!

Needs a bit of wiring next.





And there it is, sort of done and playing a bit of Simple Minds off a USB stick.





Ignore the wires sticking out of the front. There’ll be a little hole in the back where the wires exit. I just need to look at the car to get a suitable exit point.

Now where did I leave the car?

[mk2cossie]

That is a nice little touch for hiding the box out of sight

Out of interest, what is the slot below the USB socket for? Can't work out what TF stands for

[Sweetpea]

It's what we know as SD cards. I can't remember what TF stands for either.

Heres the minor niggle. You only see the track number and you can only step one track at a time. So if you've got 200 tracks on a card and want to find one of them you have a problem. So I'll use it as 'an album on a stick' like a cassette or CD and swap sticks or cards.
However when you've put an SD card in it's flush with the front so it's difficult to get out - especially on the move. I'll probably use USB sticks or Bluetooth.

[vulgalour]

This is really timely! I've been looking at doing exactly this to the Princess and had seen the exact same MP3 unit but wasn't sure if it was suitable for what I wanted to do. Love the way you've hidden it too, I've got a massive ashtray with a lid in the front of the Princess that would be an idea place to hide the MP3 player and keep the dashboard nice and clean.

I was planning to just used a pre-loaded USB stick, or possibly several USB sticks with different genres on them and use them like massive casettes, so you've even answered whether or not that's viable for me.

Presumably you're using the Alpine as your amplifier?

[Sweetpea]

Apr 15, 2018 13:17:33 GMT vulgalour said:

Presumably you're using the Alpine as your amplifier?

Ay up Mr V.

I certainly could use the power amp in the Alpine but, as it's currently set up, I'm using the low level outputs of the Alpine to feed a big old Pioneer amp under the drivers seat. So I'll use a relay in that feed to switch to the USB player when it's turned on. At least that's the plan. My Alpine doesn't have an Aux in so that option doesn't exist.

Frequently, when you do this sort of thing the level is a bit quiet. I won't know until I get it in the car. If it is quiet I'll build a little line amp to bring it up a bit.

Since you are thinking of getting one of these things... It has it's own volume control but it uses the track up / down buttons. A quick press changes track, a hold alters the volume. In the car that's a pain so I've added a volume knob.
It also remembers which track was being played when you turn it off and starts playing from the beginning of the that track. But it doesn't cope with swapping sticks. So if you swap sticks it starts from the beginning of that stick and forgets where it was on the one you took out.
It's got a remote control too. Again, not sure what use that would be in the car. You can get to some preset EQ from the remote - Like a setting called 'Pop' or 'Classic' or something like that.

James

[vulgalour]

So effectively just treat separate sticks as really BIG mixtapes that automatically rewind when they're removed. Gotcha.

[Sweetpea]

If you take it out and stick it in again it remembers. Just when you swap sticks that it forgets.

The simplest way of saying it is that it seems to remember the last track it was playing unless that track is missing (because you've changed stick).

[varelse]

Hmm. This looks like an option for me, too.
Does it do the shuffle?

I think I want something lets me talk via the blue teeth, as well, though.

[The Doctor]

If you only want the Bluetooth option, there's other options. I just found out about the Xiaomi Roidmi 3s, which apparently is a great device. 2 USB charger ports, great Bluetooth and fm transmitter.

[Sweetpea]

It does Blueteef. When I had it on the hifi the Bluetoof sounded noisy but now it's built properly I think it's fine. I need to try it on the hifi again though to get a proper opinion.

Don't believe it has shuffle. At least I've not spotted it yet. Seems to have repeat on the remote though... Can't have everything for £8!

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Ooh you’ve sneaked a little car update in without me noticing!

Nice work on the hidden device, just the sort of thing I’m planning.

[toast00]

Hidden hifi on old cars is one of the coolest things. Well done! Does this go to a line-in on the Alpine?

[rollingcoal]

Apr 15, 2018 10:26:01 GMT Sweetpea said:

It's what we know as SD cards. I can't remember what TF stands for either.

TransFlash card

[Sweetpea]

Morning fr€$h&m1nt¥ ! Sorry for sneaking the little update in there. Hopefully there'll be some more this summer!


TransFlash, yeah that was it. Sounds like something you shouldn't search for on the internet though. Maybe that's why they changed the name?

Apr 17, 2018 8:32:15 GMT toast00 said:

Hidden hifi on old cars is one of the coolest things. Well done! Does this go to a line-in on the Alpine?

Thanks Mate! Just have to make it work in the car now... Short answer is that the Alpine hasn't got a line in - so no. I plan to go straight into the amp under the seat. But the amp might change too. I fancy making a low level crossover and separate power amps... One day.

James

[Sweetpea]

Mrs Sweetpea and I have spent an eye watering amount of money reworking our front garden and rationalising our fleet of automobiles. The upshot of this is that my heritage Japanese sports car can now live at home rather than tucked away in a garage 10 miles away. Which in turn means I might now get some work done on it… (Oh and drive it occasionally.)

Now I still have many other demands on my time - possibly about to get worse as I may have accidentally volunteered for another project - so don’t expect magical MR2 fixings to occur. However…

Remember that MP3 player I hid in the ashtray? Well I have done a temporary install to see if it works and to see what I need to do for a permanent install.





Here it is playing Sheila B Devotion’s Spacer. Not that you can tell that from the photo. Anyhoo, there is a remote that comes with the player which gives access to some other features. Notably some preset EQ. And it turns out that the ‘pop’ setting sounds quite nice. Just making up for the lack of bass (partly) and treble from the dash speakers.
If I can measure what the EQ is actually doing I might build it onto a circuit board so the radio cassette can benefit too.

So problems? Well not much to worry about. Mostly due to the slightly bodged install.

It might be a little quiet. But not by much. I’ll know more with a little driving experience.
At the moment you need the radio turned on to power the amp.
When you close the ash tray a part of the lid presses the green power button and turns it on. Easily fixed.
And switching the audio from the cassette to the MP3 player involves hanging upside down in the passenger footwell to fiddle with these wires.





Which could be considered an inconvenience when on the move.

I also had an intermittent problem of ignition whistle on the cassette so I acquired a filter for the power feed. We’ll see if it helps.
Need to do some mobile testing now.

James

[Sweetpea]

The MR2 went for its MOT today.

It passed! Yay!
Mind you, since the last MOT it’s done an entire 150 miles and was stored in a garage so there shouldn’t have been much degradation.
I’ve got two warnings…
One is the stuffed in wing on the passenger side. That’s been on the warning list for years. The other is a shiny new warning.





As it happens this has been on my to do list for a while. My crystal ball shows some body work in my future…

Anyhoo, as a treat for the old girl, since she passed her MOT, how about new handbrake cables? They’ve been in the garage for years. The left one was partly seized so it had a pile of oil down it to free it up while the new ones turned up. I just never got round to fitting them.

Problem number one. The right side clamp bolt broke off.





Not entirely unexpected. The left one did the same.
Standard practice for dealing with busted bolts. Weld a new bolt on the end and undo it.

1, Battery disconnected? Check!
2, Old sparky set to full beans? Check!
3, Gas on? Check!
4, PPE? Check!
5, Actually wearing the PPE? Er, well I suppose I should. Ok then, I’ll put it on… Preferably only after some hot bits have bounced off the drive and up my tee shirt sleeve.





Two of the under tray bolts had broken off at some time in the past. I got one of them out using this method but the other defeated me. The bolt end is recessed and rusty so I’m having bother welding onto the end. I’ll try again another day.

Problem number two. Rust under the sealant. It’s only surface rust so it got cleaned up, Hydrate 80’d and POR 15’d. It’ll then get seam sealant on it and a coat of black to make it look pretty.





There were some other patches that needed attention while I was in the area so I did some of those too.





Quite happy that the rust did turn out to be surface rust. I’d have been quite miffed if I’d gone through. But not surprised… I’ve had a disastrous week at work so if my luck had continued I’d have gently scraped the rust and the entire car would have disintegrated into a pile of oxide.

I’ve also got a small pile of bits that’ll go through the sand blaster and get a coat of paint to tidy them up.





Nighty night
James