It followed me home, so I get to keep it, right?

My kid's been asking after a car of his own for a while.  It seemed a little cart before the horse, given that the older kid still doesn't have his license to begin with (and the notion was that they'd share the 2015 VW GTI), and that we've been working together slowly on a 1969 Datsun roadster.

BUT.

My friend talked to me one day at cars and coffee, and said that he was thinking of getting rid of his '85 MR2 because he had a newfound love of 1st gen RX7s and they "filled the same niche" in his collection.  Now, the MR2 is on the very top of the kid's shortlist of cars to get.

SO.

I went and bought the thing.  I paid a tiny bit above collector market, but in my defense, I still paid $5k less than what my friend has into it, and it came with everything, including the Toyota Big Green Book and wiring supplement, a spare decklid with spoiler, a spare transmission/diff, three gauge clusters, two HVAC heads, an entire spare set of brakes (in addition to the entirely new set on it), an entire spare set of shift cables (again, in addition to the new set on it), an entire spare set of clutch hydraulics (again...).  There are 7 giant bins of spares that I have to make room in the attic for.

I scored bigtime on the delivery though - I managed to time it just right so that I was coming down the street as the two were coming home from school in the GTI.  I dipped the flip-ups at them and Luca had to pull over until he could see through the tears.

Welcome Señor Dos, a very stock example of a 1985 Toyota MR2 non-supercharged, with a 5 speed transmission.

We paid the first of the previous owner taxes on it last Saturday when I pulled the old radio out of it and found that it'd been installed with wire nuts.  Luca wanted a CD player, and the thing in the dash was an Alpine digital receiver (so, bluetooth, USB, and radio).  We subharnessed it with some Deutsch connectors, so at least 43.957% less chance of catching fire.

Score!

Nice! More pics!

Can I be your next kid?

TurnerX19 said:

Can I be your next kid?

Sorry, I've got an heir and a spare and that means my dance card is full.

Rad!

You've done a good thing. Looks like a really clean example, too. Most of them (mine included) are looking pretty weathered by now.

Love it, those have been tempting me lately also.

johndej said:

Love it, those have been tempting me lately also.

How it looked in 2021 after sitting since its last registration in 2012.  It was a yard find at an estate sale flanked by about a dozen Fiat 124s.

Basically all it needed was paint, tires, and a good interior cleaning.  PO hoarded a bunch of stuff though because he's used to that BMW life where E36 M3 breaks all the time.

Did the first bit on Señor Dos last weekend with the kid.

Swapped a gauge cluster with a working fuel gauge into the dash.  I taught the kid how to polish out the lens, because it wasn't in the best condition (though it was salvageable).  We didn't bother trying to swap the lens because they're held in with tabs, and I didn't want to risk breaking them.  The new cluster has much nicer gauge faces, so it was really a win-win.

Also started on the shift quality, by swapping the bushings on the shifter with aluminum ones.  There was also a replacement bush for the ball at the bottom of the shifter itself, so we did a minus-whale swap on that too, since it was in the (frankly huge) pile of spares.

I got a couple of new bins that fit the shelves I keep my parts hoard in the attic on, and started cataloging all the spares, too (I have a small database which adds significant time to buying new things destined for the parts hoard, but means I know exactly what I've got, most of the time).

We're also going to put the rest of the Prime MR2 shift linkage stuff in - the square bush on the shift fork, and the spherical ends for the shift linkages on the bell cranks in the engine bay.  Again, all parts coming out of the spares bin.

Got a new distributor cap (OE), rotor (OE), wires (NGK), and plugs (also NGK), and also oil (Rotella T6) and a filter (OE Toyota) to go in as well.

I highly recommend getting a distributor rebuild kit and rebuilding the distributor. It most likely has all of the original seals still and they are known to leak oil very badly. There is an internal seal on the distributor shaft that requires you to pull the distributor completely apart to replace. It is not too difficult and there are many guides available for it. 

I hope you don't mind some attention stealing, but here are some pictures of my wife's aw11. We love these cars and I enjoy helping people out with their own mr2s

Mrfurzzy1 said:

I highly recommend getting a distributor rebuild kit and rebuilding the distributor. It most likely has all of the original seals still and they are known to leak oil very badly. There is an internal seal on the distributor shaft that requires you to pull the distributor completely apart to replace. It is not too difficult and there are many guides available for it. 

I hope you don't mind some attention stealing, but here are some pictures of my wife's aw11. We love these cars and I enjoy helping people out with their own mr2s

The distributor is actually new.  I have the old one in a box, but I guess I'll try and rebuild it.

I like the body color wing.  I'm thinking Luca's will be SEM Hot Rod Black, to set it off from the silver body.  Still have to go buy some silver for the spare trunk lid though.

We took the MR2 to a "Toys for Tots" show last weekend.  Luca took the Toyota, I took the GTO, and my friend drove my 240Z over.  Dropped a lot of boxers.

Did the first oil change, found a nut missing on the collector end of the exhaust manifold.  Turns out it was supposed to be an M10x1.25, and I tried to thread an M10x1.5 nut on, so I ruined the stud, and then, against all odds, perfectly removed the stud trying to take the bolt back off.  I stuck a serrated flange bolt on there instead.  But yeah, eliminating a big exhaust leak right next to the O2 sensor has had some knock-on effects for fuel economy and spark plug color.

Swapped the plugs, wires, cap, and rotor for no other reason than we had all of them on hand (nice NGK BPR6ES and 8mm wires, OE cap and rotor).

Found an age's worth of gunk on the bottom of the transmission, so I purple-powered that off with the pressure washer.

In reply to Jehannum :

Yeah, funny thing - Nissan and Toyota don't always use the same hardware. 

Luca's car is an '85, so if it came with the optional rear spoiler, it would have been gloss black. '85s are always immediately identifiable by their black spoilers, bumpers, and rub strips (front valance was always body color, though) and I really like the contrast. On a car like this that already looks (and feels, in the best way possible) like a child's toy, it adds a lot of character.

Nice to see your GTO made a new friend, too.

We've got an '86 decklid and spoiler, with the CHMSL.  I'm going to do the decklid in a matching silver to the body, and the spoiler in satin black (because that's what Luca wants).

WRT the hardware, I think that particular M10 came out of my spare Audi hardware pile ;)

I'll probably replace the stud at some point, but for now the Autozone stainless bolt will do fine.

Started on the trunk.  Apparently, the spoiler was originally at home on a red car.

Cut the manky clearcoat back with some 400 grit, picked up some color matched silver 2K (deck lid), and some satin black single-stage (wing).

I'm currently working through cutting a "TOYOTA MR2" vinyl decal on my cricut so we can bury it in clearcoat.  Toyota actually has a full-up font pack available for download, so hat tip to them.

Scuffed and primed the bottom of the decklid and the top of the spoiler, then acetone on a rag to clean up the surface for 3 medium coats.  Learnin' the kid to do it, but safely with an OV/P95 (and my butt-turrible Devilbiss "StartingLine" gun).  We're working on "hold the gun at a 90° angle from the surface you're coating" in this picture.

There will be many lessons to come, such as "move at a steady, even pace that doesn't load up the surface for runs, but also doesn't leave the part speckle coated".  I did the middle coat, the kid did the 3rd.  The spoiler needs some love with some glazing putty, but overall it seems in pretty good condition.

I'm just here to say this is some great parenting here.  Congratulations on the new member of the fleet!

Got the guide coat on, the holes filled, and the guide coat sanded back on the top.  I need to go buy some pipe insulation to protect the parts from the sawhorses, but that's probably a tomorrow problem.

Then I found the right TTFs to make the trunklid emblem, did some inkscaping (with the kid's help, I'm kind of hopeless at that particular program), and fired it off to the cricut.

Put Luca to work weeding the decal

Finished product:

My neighbors must love me.  I erected a "paint booth" using 6 mil plastic (black so we could get some dang ol' temperature in there), my pop up tent, a box fan, and a spare garage light fixture.

Put some fresh OV/P95 filters on, cleaned up the Audi's stupid territory marking in the driveway with some purple power and a pressure washer, and learned how _not_ to spray silver.

We used about 1/3rd of the quart, the spoiler has a run and a finger print to sand out, and the trunk lid was the victim of me overtightening the gland nut (so the gun started leaking when the needle jammed).

Overall, we didn't do terribly, some 800 grit tomorrow and we'll be able to get a good top coat on before clear, but I learned to not hurry between recoats, and to clean the gun before *and* after each use.

If you are ever wondering what the inside of an 85 MR2 looks like, you can check pics of my restortation/rebuild.   73% of my car was rust flakes so most of it was replaced. And I blew up and engine and swapped in a 7-rib short block.  Not starting with a $400 basket case was a good move on your part! 

In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :

We may have started with a nicer interior, but the goal is to have the kid campaign it in autocross when the new season begins next spring, just like you :)

went much better today.  I started by adding a filter to the exhaust fan so that everything around the booth wasn't covered in silver sparkles.

Ziptied the spare garage fixture to the top of the pop-up this time.

Got the silver to lay proper this time after sanding and dusting the E36 M3 out of yesterday's terrible effort.

Got clear on the whole decklid and the bottom of the spoiler.  Stuck some long M8 bolts in the holes for the hinges and latch, to give us some standoff after Luca cleared the bottom of the decklid.

The spoiler is hung, so that Luca could get the bottom.

Got some orange peel to take care of, it was a little cold today, despite the black plastic warming things up.  I've got 800, 1200, and trizact pads ready to go.  Luca will get the top of the spoiler tomorrow, and one more coat on the decklid (once we put the decal on, so that it's buried in clear, and less likely to rot in the UV).

Mostly finished.  Had some reaction on the lip, and we dinged the wing once, so we'll have to touch up the wing, and probably spot finish the lip.  We'll see how ambitious the kiddo feels after having it on for a few weeks.

Wet sanded, polished, and waxed (to the extent possible on the wing, since it's a urethane part).  The decklid is dead flat, and the top is absolutely gorgeous.

Installed (after having to helicoil a boogered trunk support strut mount):

And craft vinyl to the rescue (the Toyota MR2 logo).  We changed course and decided to put it on the outside, because we'd rather stick a new one on if it gets crotty in the NM sun than have it get crotty underneath a couple coats of clear.

Overall, happy with the color match and the results.  The kiddo did yeoman's work here.  We're going to pick up a low-mile transmission from the previous owner tomorrow after cars and coffee.  Got to splice the brake light harness to get the CHMSL to work, too.  '85s didn't come with them.