There's a company near me in UK called Mr MR2 he's got stuff listed on eBay I think
There's a company near me in UK called Mr MR2 he's got stuff listed on eBay I think
In reply to Arosa14tdi :
Ah, MR2 Ben by chance? I'll be buying a replacement rocker from him this fall!
Getting back to the what feels like constant part clean-up/restoration..
So the Turbo model transmissions ( E153 ) are incredibly stout but also incredibly expensive and supposedly have been discontinued just in the last few weeks. These NA cars come with an S54 and they're incredibly weak with very poor synchros. Alex over at Wilhelm Raceworks partnered with Frankenstien Motorworks have found a new transmission option. This new option is much newer, still has parts availability and has a much better final drive for a 5 speed coded E351. This comes from late 2000's Camrys and Solaras. It's also in a few scions but the best final drives were offered in the Camry and Solara.
This is a good middle ground from the ancient and weak S54 and the overbuilt and expensive E153. Still if you're chasing power the E153 is the only viable option as they're known to handle 600+ with no modifications.
I just wanted to clean this transmission up and have it match all the work im doing all over the car...
While this looks poorly maintened it came out of a 2006 Solara with only 95,xxx miles so im still happy with it.
and after what felt like a full day of cleaning and wire wheeling and primer we have what looks new / refreshed and will match the ongoing theme..
Now I still need to convert the transmission from a rear shift location ( for FWD applications ) to the rear shift application for the mid engine set-up but that shouldn't be an issue with the new finish.
So like I mentioned earlier in the thread the passenger side rocker had some rust issues and I needed to dig in and see what was in store for future me... Well its known if the rocker begins to rot it can take out that sides floor board.
Let the sanding and cutting begin..
So once I found the last rust hole I cut until the inner rocker structure looked solid. Once I found the end of the rust on the rocker it was onto the passenger floor board.
.
Once the carpet was pulled back I only found scale and not actual rot so I pulled sound deadening until I wasnt finding scale and then wire wheeled to good metal and spray a rust converter paint for now just for a bit of peace of mind.
I also took a glance at the trunk drop offs and wire wheeled and sprayed converter as well just to be safe.
I did get my Kouki ( Late Model tail lights) in and couldn't resist immediately doing a test fit.
You'll see the lights are bit faded / oxidized and the inner lights are basically 2/3 lit and not fully lit like the outer. The UK spec lights have half moons for a rear fog light for regulations. I thought I could live with it but decided to bite the bullet and send them out for half moon removal and full refresh.
They're just about ready to be shipped back to me now so here are some sneak peaks.
I'm loving how these have turned out and im still a few hundred under a similar set in the US with mine now being fully refinished.
For the rear center panel I'll likely paint match white but wanted to see what kind of results I could achieve with spray cans and I'm fairly impressed if I do say so myself . lol
The quarter panels of this car look like they had a past life as grocery cart wranglers so I spent a few days just looking over the rear and marking every door ding I could find. I was marking them because I luckily have a friend who works in a body shop thats going to tackle the worst of it for me and i'll finish it once back home.
As you can see the passenger side is riddled with door dings. After this it was time to tear the reminder of the rear down and get it ready for it's trip to the body shop...
Loaded up and ready to go. It's crazy to think I paint corrected this car in April... You'd never guess it.
and shes at the body shop. I've offered to help whenever I can to ensure this is only a week or two long endeavor versus all of the body and paint shop horror stories that are all too common.
While I have an empty garage I bartered with a member of our DMV MR2 group to trade a paint correction for a turbo engine lid. His car was clean but the single stage paint was badly stained. I also tried to convince him to paint the sideskirts but I didn't win that battle and was just thankful to be receiving the part for the labor.
You can see the clean / cut area in the center versus the incredibly stained sides. The entire car was like this so we had a long afternoon
and all finished. I wish I took more progress photos but it was incredibly hot and I just wanted to be done.
And a shot of the turbo engine lid. These have been bringing in $500+ so I felt this was a fair trade as it needs one corner repaired.
I'm hoping my next update will be me with the car back and the freshly restored tail lights and newly acquired engine lid installed before I begin sanding my life away.
The love you are putting into this MR2 really shows. I'm enjoying the updates!
AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:The love you are putting into this MR2 really shows. I'm enjoying the updates!
Thanks! Sometimes it gets a bit quiet in here but I still want to fully document this car as I've always regretted never doing it before. That and I hope this is a forever car for me.. but we know how that goes lol
In reply to Mustard :
Well I've learned there are a lot of quiet people around here that read way more than they post or comment. Seriously, this is a great build and I'm enjoying it! I hope I can dedicate this much time and effort to my rally car after the challenge and once we are settled into the new house.
Excellent work so far. I may have missed it but were you going to to a stock location IC , water to air, or something more wild? I'm a big fan of seeing these with snorkels. 
In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
I'll have to look yours up! Either way I'm glad people are enjoying it and it's nice to come back to during lulls to re motivate myself
In reply to crankwalk (Forum Supporter) :
No snorkel plans haha but it will be stock location style intercooler(TCS / Greddy Style) at first and then either water to air or rear mounted intercooler when I convert it to a top mount set-up (likely using a G series tubro)
This is hawt!
While It'll be a few weeks before the car is back I still wanted to do updates while I can.
I got the tail lights back and they look amazing. They had a little bit of texture which wouldn't cut it with how I'm trying to execute this car. I wet sanded the Tails with 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 wet sand paper then a cut and polish. I could not be happier with the outcome.
If you look up a few posts for the before photos its night and day. These literally look brand new if not better than new.
Hopefully I'll have more updates for everyone soon!
More of a garage related update here but tearing into the car has made me realize I need far more storage. I was contemplating building a wooden shelving setup. Ironically as doing my normal car part window shopping I found a metal pallet rack style shelf for less then the plywood would have cost me.
I was off my couch and out of the house within 10 minutes of seeing this as I couldn't pass it up.
Of course I had this full in a matter of minutes but freed up floor space and shed space. All of this encouraged me to clean the garage a bit while I have an empty bay.
I am currently redoing all my garage storage after a move. It's a pain setting up a hood storage system, but once done it's invaluable. It will pay for itself in saved time and "where did I put that" headaches quickly.
In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
It definitley lets me know I'm getting older when getting a deal on a shelf gets me excited but I'll take it lol. A wall mount for a hood does sound quite handy for when the painting stage begins.
My buddy doing the bodywork has been letting me shadow him and tackle the smaller spots while he walks me through some trade tips so I've managed to snag a few updates...
Before shot showing how much needed closed.
and some progress shots
Sadly the humidty was so bad every batch of filler was setting so quick or not quick enough so this is where we called it a night.
Moving onto some parts gathering I've been doing for a budget BBK (Big Brake Kit).
I sourced some 93+ turbo rear calipers from Japan for quite a good deal and also purchased a refurbished set of 4 piston 300ZX aluminum front calipers. These combined with some brackets from a company called Delta V in Australia will utilize these calipers and larger rotors front and rear. This kit maintains the OE brake Bias within +/- 2%
Of course the used calipers came in rusty as hell and I didn't love the silver finish as I feel a black caliper with a silver rotor on a white car would be a classic understated look. So off to the bench grinder for some clean up.
Down the road I'll get these powder coated but for meantime while funds can be put somewhere more important they turned out decent enough for me.
Really hoping I get the car back next week so I can start the front body work, prep the bay for a scuff and shoot (possibly) and start tackling the metal work needed in the rockers.
I wouldn't worry about powder coat. I redid my c5 calipers with auto parts caliper paint and the finish was incredible durable. A quick wash 2 or 3 year later and they looked as good as the day I painted them
In reply to Opti :
That's good to know! You can tell it lays on very heavily so I'm not surprised.
My buddy had to go out of town so it's looking like another week before the car is back. That being said the last time I got to help he really did try to teach me a bit of everything for when I tackle the smaller bits up front.
Right now it's just a few small spots and he should be all done.
And from day 1 of owning this car I knew the wheels I eventually wanted. I've had saved searches set but I could never find them in the correct offset and staggered. Well this past week I found a set and immediately pulled the trigger... 5zigen FN01R-C in 17x8/17x9 +35 offset on all four.
I couldn't be more excited now now to get the car back and mock these up!
I like where this is headed. Nice work so far. Clean, subtle, well-researched.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Thank you!
It's certainly not fast moving but it does help plan out exactly how I'd like to execute the car.
Now you're making me want to clean and repaint the engine swap sitting in my garage. I was going to just throw it in there, but now I feel like a lazy shlub. Thanks.
Great work btw.
In reply to Matt B (fs) :
More than happy to supply some unwanted motivation lol
Thanks for the kudos
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