Project MR2...

[Vracer111]

When I had my FR-S never bothered making a build thread for it... was a daily driver that I really didn't work on much. Sold it just over a month ago and I just got a 1989 MK1b MR2 an it's my first classic which I want to take the necessary time and work to make it right. Actually picked it up myself this past weekend on a 1,900 mile round trip to bring it home after close to a month after purchasing it. Got it for a decent price ($2500) and it's in good running shape with an okay paint job and interior. I've just started getting into it and this is its status thus far on what work I know it needs:

1. De-rust bottom of trunk, prime/rust inhibit bottom of trunk, and protect with bedliner.
2. De-rust bottom of frunk, prime/rust inhibit bottom of frunk, and protect with bedliner.
3. Remove carpet from passenger compartment bottom and check for rust, fix as needed (just like trunk & frunk...)
4. Remove non-working A/C system (not going to try and get it working and chance it causing rust since it's partly in a sealed enclosed space (frunk) unlike most vehicles)
5. Sand, prime, and repaint frunk tire/brake cage piece
6. Battery tray rework (deacidify & rebuild, in weak flimsy shape from being eaten away over the years - why I hate and refuse to use Lead Acid vented batteries)
7. Passenger headlight not able to go up and down on its own - have to manually crank it into position.
8. Driver's window switch not working (will go down but not up...)
9. Interior light switch not working
10. Repair & paint rear taillight housing

Will be redoing interior in Alcantara (two tone look with 9002 panel charcoal and 9052 perforated Starlight) except for the rear engine bulkhead carpet which is in great shape. The stock seats are in great shape, but I need a little bit lower seating position for using my Momo wheel (NOS wheel I've had for a long time and finally can use in a vehicle) so will be going to aftermarket buckets with fixed mounting. Seats currently undecided but would like something like the Momo Daytona if it would fit (shoulder area only concern). The radio gear will be coming out (head unit and power antennae) and oil pressure/temp and water temp gauges put in place of head unit... only sound I care about is that which comes from the 4AGE.

Came with a dead battery, just got in a replacement battery yesterday - Hawker Odyssey PC925MJ. Mistakenly somehow ordered the reversed post orientation one (PC925LMJ), but able to make it work.The motor is leaking from distributor, so that will be fixed along with cleaning and beefing up all the factory mounts with 3M Winoweld to make stiffened transmission/engine mounts... what I've learned that works well from tracking Honda's. Then I'll go through the cooling system and determine if it needs to be refreshed, if in good enough shape I'll then put it on the road - if not will redo the cooling plumbing. Engine overall seems to be in good enough shape for now and maintenance was recently done on it within the last 15k miles... so will leave it alone for right now (probably freshen up the valve covers though to make it look a little better.)

Full T3 lower suspension front and rear will be done at a later time - this MR2 already has Koni dampers with Eibach Pro springs and new strut tower mounts. Rather than mess with replacing bushings on 163k mile suspension pieces would rather just replace them with the stronger and more adjustable, solid spherical bearing T3 race units. Only body appearance changes I will be doing is custom mounting some racing mirrors and going with 15x7 +35mm ET Sparco FF-1 wheels in light grey which will drop nice bit of weight compared to the MK3 Spyder wheels it currently has.

Pictures of it's current as bought condition:



























Will be getting the new Quick Jack as my very first version won't work with the lifting points on the MR2 (and it has some issues not being able to go down... LOL) They have done many improvements to the design since first coming out, and the new BL-5000SLX is absolutely perfectly fitted for the AW11 and I can use it with my truck or other vehicles as well. Once I get the new BL-5000SLX I will be able to get moving on working anything not interior or inside of the trunks.

Anyways, this thread will be record of my progress on Project MR2.

[TylerLieberman]

Oooooooooo very nice. Who’s doing the Alcantara work?

[Vracer111]

Originally Posted by TylerLieberman

Oooooooooo very nice. Who’s doing the Alcantara work?

I'll be doing everything on the car. Mainly just covering the stock dash, gauge cover, door cards, and center console/tunnel... everything else interior-wise will be left stock (minus bedlining the entire floorboard after treating any and all rust.) I'll also be changing the gauge lighting to LED 194 amber bulbs when the dash is out.

[TylerLieberman]

Originally Posted by Vracer111

I'll be doing everything on the car. Mainly just covering the stock dash, gauge cover, door cards, and center console/tunnel... everything else interior-wise will be left stock. I'll also be changing the gauge lighting to LED 194 amber bulbs.

Nice.

It’s cool seeing people still find some of these older cars I’m pretty decent shape and touching them up to their former glory. Wish more people would do something similar with some of the 80-90s Nissans

[Summerwolf]

This is one to watch. Good looking project!

[Vracer111]

Originally Posted by TylerLieberman

Nice.

It’s cool seeing people still find some of these older cars I’m pretty decent shape and touching them up to their former glory. Wish more people would do something similar with some of the 80-90s Nissans

I jumped on it without second thought.... for the price I was willing to deal with whatever was needed to get it in nice shape. Carpet holding moisture and making rust in the trunks seems to be the only chassis/body issue that needs fixing (besides the battery acid vapors eating away at the battery tray area). I'll need to get it in the air to 100% know, but from what I can tell and see with it on the ground, the chassis is in near perfect shape otherwise. Did see one of the plastic undertray panels that seemed like it may need some repairs... seems sagging more than it should like maybe cracked/broken at a mounting hole location.

Don't have lots of money to spend on it, so will do what I can that makes the most sense. Right now first priority is getting all rust taken care of, then repairing battery tray area. Then move on to interior/electrical. Finally mechanical/engine work. Eventually would like to go with an ITB setup... keeping the 16Valve motor but adding ITBs with the T3 adapter.

And I just got in the shift knob today I ordered... a Torque Solution Delrin teardrop that I love and have in my Frontier... got the 12x1.25mm threaded version for the MR2...

http://www.torquesolution.com/product-p/ts-uni-108a.htm

[beltax90]

So clean!!

[LSK]

this is rad.

[Berserker]

Nice clean find! Restoring odds & ends really goes miles on these older cars, keep up the good work sir

[Vracer111]

And some more pictures from today...





(New reproduction wiper/washer lever installed)




Moved it out of the garage because of this...



Houston, we have lift off!


And wheels off for the first time...


Quick Jack is pretty straight forward to put together, though the manual that came with it was not the current one (which I had downloaded and already read through a few days ago). The older manual supplied with it is missing an entire section on bleeding the system for purging air before lifting the first time... Only had one issue with o-ring tearing during install of fitting on one of the rams - thankfully scavenged the o-ring off the shipping cap that gets replaced with the fitting. Used good quality teflon tape instead of whatever Chinese thread sealant that was provided...

Once put together and bled/ tested, up went the MR2 with no issues other than a minor drip from a connection... locked lift down into place to relieve pressure and tightened down a bit more on the connection... proceeded on with zero issues.

Looking under the MR2 it's body is in very good shape mostly, only real rust section underneath is the frunk bottom area. The center tunnel undertrays do have some cracked plastic mounting hole locations... the plastic has gotten a little brittle.

With the wheels off I can see it does have Goodridge stainless brake hoses... knew it had to have upgraded hoses... the brakes are the most solid I've ever felt on a car... way more solid feeling than the FR-S. Tiny bit of travel with increasing force then it's like putting your foot against a solid wall... very nice.

Need to start getting the cooling hoses ordered... double check all the hoses in the system once the factory service manual arrives. Oh, I did get the owners manual I got off Ebay on Thursday. Did see if I could use the stock FR-S muffler... but it's just too big and wide to use. Currently has a rusty, cobbled together muffler shop thing as an exhaust... doesn't sound bad... but so rusty its not going to last much longer. Think I will do like I did on my FR-S, custom Burn's Stainless exhaust with the 2-stage quiet muffler.

Well that's it for the update...

P.S. do have a video I took after it was warmed up... mainly just to document how the oil pressure gauge reads.