**UPDATED** 1991 Rev 1 (Beastly V6 1MZ-FE VVTI) **UPDATED**

[KarlBristol]

Yeah been a bit of a Karl update drought. Glad is going well, always amazed at how much you get done, that and spent. Looking forwad to seeing these new wheels...

Hi mate,

Unfortunately things have been slower mainly because of my work. However I've done a majority of the small jobs so I'm thinking of bigger jobs now, which will need a bit of saving for!

I thought you'd been a bit quite recently

Photos soon please

Don't worry - I'm still around! lol.

Have a new daily driver on order, which has set me back 20k and should be delivered on Sunday, so money isn't as free flowing as it was last month - another reason for lack of updates! lol.

On the plus side I figure that a large engined Skoda Octavia Estate diesel should be large enough to tow any track project MR2s that I find and handily will also be big enough to stick a full set of alloys in the back with no issues


On the plus side:

I still have the following parts to fit when the weather is better (after Japfest and the dreaded MOT!!):

- Polybush kit
- New front drop links
- New track rod ends
- New front ball joints


I have these parts on order:

- Set of 17" forged rota wheels
- New PI suspension springs
- Red tint spray (for reflectors)
- Black tint spray (for the bottom of my rear lights)
- Gearknob (all will be explained below)


Parts I am currently in negotiation for:

- New suspension dust covers
- New front and rear top mounts
- Rev 5 suspension dampers, etc...

When the wheels are delivered on Saturday I will give them a rub back and spray up just to refresh them so that the car is looking right before Japfest.

The suspension parts will be fitted once I've collected all the relevant bits - resprayed up the dampers, and have some time.


Some photos at your request:

The new suspension coils which have been dry stored by gtschris, and are rather pricey (this is the photo I ws sent)



They should be with me on Saturday along with these wheels (I intend to have the wheel nuts done in black)



The wheels are an inch bigger than my current ones, and I intend to fit some large tyres to them so they really look the part. As I said before I'm going to give them a quick rub back and refresh so they look the bog dollocks lol

My current split rims are therefore listed for sale

Here was my new bonnet that I've recently fitted. I will post pictures of it fitted when I'm at Japfest



The colour match is good, but it highlights the fact that the front bumper and headlight covers aren't as fresh. So when I've got the money in 6-9 months these will also be done

I also sourced a Celica VVTI gearknob (thanks Jack ) these are quite difficult to find, and are a more moulded version (and very heavy) version of the MR2 MK2 one. I'm not a massive fan of my TRD gearknob with my shortshift (especially with the drop plate fitted) as it makes changing gear difficult (its just a bit too small). This should solve the issue, look more OEM and also with the weight make gearchanges smoother.

Its seen better days ... which is why its been sent to Rhon, has already been re-trimmed and is on it's way back to me

BEFORE:







I'm having it re-trimmed in black leather with black stiching. The sides are being trimed in the rev5 punched leather - which in turn will match my Celica VVTI / MK3 steering wheel

Its great when a plan comes together
Happy days

Heres to hoping it makes the MOT fine!
There will be plenty of updates before the end of the month though so don't worry

[KarlBristol]

MAJOR SPENDING UPDATE!!!

I have now also got the following parts on order:

- x4 near new struts/dampers
- x4 new top mounts
- x4 New bump stop boot cover

When combined with my new springs this should be a great suspension refresh (especially with my polybush, drop links, ball joints, track rod ends, etc...)

Having spent well over £1300 this month on MR2 parts I think that I'll be living off of bread and water but I'm sure it will be worth it

Can't wait!!!

[KarlBristol]

And the day just gets better!! Many thanks have to go out to Rhon for such a good and quick job. You've been a pleasure to deal with

Had this delivered today:



Going to fit it on Saturday, which is going to be my next big car day

Going to be waiting by the letterbox for the next few days, lol
Work really does just get in the way!

[riot68]

Think they'll catch you for that bank robbery soon

Will need to check this car out when i'm next down Bristol way...

[KarlBristol]

Think they'll catch you for that bank robbery soon

Will need to check this car out when i'm next down Bristol way...

Lol - at this rate I will need to do a bank robbery to afford anything else for the car! Lol.

The frustrating thing is that there are so many things I want to do to it that I can't at the moment due to time constraints or money constraints. I'm sure in 2 or 3 years it will be the car I want it to be.... For now it's a nice project and it's great seeing how much it's moved on doesn't stop my dreading my mot though! Lol.

By all means pop by at any time - the kettle is always on
Mini car meet? Lol.

For those who are going to Japfest I will be there

I can't wait to fit all my parts slightly dreading trying to crack of suspension bolts that are over 20 years old!!!

[KarlBristol]

Saying today was a full day working on the car is an understatement!! I started at 08:00 today and have just walked through the door (about 9.5 hours! lol) - I haven't even stopped for lunch!!!

Lots of photos from today

SO what have I done...

I started by changing over my TRD gearknob to my retrimmed Celica VVTI one:





Looks more OEM to me, and the extra weight makes gearchanging on my short shifter pure pleasure!

I then fitted some new sidelights as I thought that the LEDs were not bright enough and I have my MOT on the 30th. This resulted in me having to drill larger sidelight holes in my lights. This went brilliantly until I tested my lights...

My o/s headligt was not working. The bulb was brand new and hasn't been used so I feared the worst!! I ended up stripping both lights down, switching bulbs over and it does appear that it is just a blown bulb. Somewhat annoyed as I only bought these last month and I haven't even used them yet! GGGGGGGrrrrrrr....

Another set of bulbs is on-route but I'm pretty sure that it is just a blown bulb



I then set about cleaning the car in preperation for the impending Japfest

I washed the car, then shampoo'd it, and then conditioned it using autoglym products and my new pressure washer:





I then cracked out my x2 DODO juicy clay bars (various softnesses) and lube



I took my time and claybarred every panel at least twice using each claybar. I was amazed how much small amounts of dirt it picked up, especially after all those washes.

This is how it was looking from just the bonnet which had recently been resprayed. You can imagine how it looked after using it on the other panels:



I was just finishing up doing this when a Parcelforce man wandered up my drive with these in the back:



I cleaned them up a bit and I am very pleased with them - they will set the car off brilliantly:



The wheel nuts looked old and discoloured. Rather than using my current ones I decided to spray up the ones that came with the wheels. I set about rubbing each one back with wire wool and then respraying them in black:



I did 4 coats in total to ensure that they last well

Following this I used autoglym super resin polish twice all over the car, resulting in this:









I was bored of polishing/cleaning and so started replacing all of the wheels. I personally think that its a real improvement. I love them

That 1" bigger makes all the difference

Old and new:



Both changed over:







The old split rims awaiting a new owner



I then sealed the polish in and gave a deeper shine by waxing the car using DODO Juicy high density Carnauba wax. This was then followed by using Autoglym bumper, black, wheel trim cleaning and polishing gel:















Thats enough photos for today! lol.
Time to collapse into a little heap in the corner!!!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to tint the bottoms of the rear lights, and clean all of the windows. Might also see if I can get my rear window tints professionally installed.

Monday I will be looking to start cleaning the inside

Slowly getting to the car I want it to be

[DAN_REV1_TURBO]

Sparkling!

[KarlBristol]

Sparkling!

Thanks bud

[craig]

Car's looking top fella!

[GT-Thunder]

Good progress, much prefer the new wheels....

I see your missing a few centre caps. I sourced replacement ones from rare rims (carbon effect) can't recall the price. How ever be carefully refitting these as the pins are brittle and snap easily... Been there done it yesterday... But nothing that can't be fixed easily

[KarlBristol]

Good progress, much prefer the new wheels....

I see your missing a few centre caps. I sourced replacement ones from rare rims (carbon effect) can't recall the price. How ever be carefully refitting these as the pins are brittle and snap easily... Been there done it yesterday... But nothing that can't be fixed easily

Cheers mate - me too

I have 3 carbon fibre effect centre caps. Annoyingly I can't fit 3 and leave 1 off so I figured it looked better with all 4 off.

I'm in two minds about weather or not to buy centre caps and fit them now, as I actually quite like the bare capless look. Hhhhhmmm. Decision decisions.

Thanks for the heads up about rare rims - how much did they cost you?

[KarlBristol]

Forgot to add that I also have this for next week - stand pass and entrance ticket

[riot68]

Way to go chap, New wheels look miles better, I.didn't get anything much done at all...

[GT-Thunder]

Good progress, much prefer the new wheels....

I see your missing a few centre caps. I sourced replacement ones from rare rims (carbon effect) can't recall the price. How ever be carefully refitting these as the pins are brittle and snap easily... Been there done it yesterday... But nothing that can't be fixed easily

Cheers mate - me too

I have 3 carbon fibre effect centre caps. Annoyingly I can't fit 3 and leave 1 off so I figured it looked better with all 4 off.

I'm in two minds about weather or not to buy centre caps and fit them now, as I actually quite like the bare capless look. Hhhhhmmm. Decision decisions.

Thanks for the heads up about rare rims - how much did they cost you?

I think I paid about £13 each for the replacement carbon caps.

[KarlBristol]

Well I managed to do a little bit today

I started the day by having 2 large boxes of new suspension parts being delivered:













You get the idea! Lol. These will probably be fitted in a month or two when I have some more time, after my MOT, and can grab some help with fitting it

Needless to say I can't wait to fit it - going to make a huge difference!!

After lugging all the suspension bits around I needed to relax and so I picked up some light informative reading material, lol:



After a short break I set about sorting out a few little bits prior to Japfest

The tints on the bottom of my rear lights were scuffed, faded and not looking up to the job, so I set about fixing it!

Lights out yet again:





Its difficult to show but heres the condition they were in:





I cleaned them fully and masked off the relevant sections before setting about spraying:



The vinyl on the rear reflectors had a few small crinkles that I wasnt happy with so I set about stripping them back and spraying them up with tint spray instead



They still need to be polished up and also need the bottoms tinted black - thats a job for tomorrow. THe main lights are looking perfect now after a small amount of work



I then cleaned up the light housings and put back the parts that I could

Before:



After:



I then removed my old screen washers, cleaned underneath them and replaced them with brand new ones:





I sorted some minor stone chips, replaced a blown headlight bulb, and did some more minor cleaning (such as windows, etc...) before I got distracted with the other car, lol.

Tomorrow I intend to finish the rear reflectors, and clean the interior prior to Japfest

So my suspension is added to the huge list of parts to fit .. I really need to get my hands dirty soon

[KarlBristol]

Well since my last update a fair amount has happened

Firstly I finished off the rear reflectors:





Needless to say they look great on

I attended Japfest with the car and thoroughly enjoyed myself, although unfortunatley I didn't take any photos of the MR2 section. Guess that means that I will have to go again next year

Well yesterday I got new rear tyres fitted to the car. Unfortunatley they weren't cheap but needed to be done for the impending MOT.

I also did some minor adjustments, such as rebolting and adjusting the windscreen wipers, etc...

Today I attended a 10k in the morning and then in the afternoon it was time to set about attacking the suspension

I knew this wasn't going to be an easy job, having replaced the drop links, etc... on the back. But it needed to be done and today seemed as good a day as ever. So Jack-p came down and we started to plough through it ... with great difficulty and numerous trips to the local car shop! lol.

Heres my suspension all nicely set out:





Note that I don't have the front suspension top bezel cups that sit between the springs and the top mounts. Unfortunatley I didn't think of this when ordering my parts ... but we will get to that in due course! lol

After lots of WD40, some swearing, massive breaker bars, and most importantly some decent time with a blow torch we managed to crack of the main nuts holding in the suspension arms



Unfortunatley the old drop links were corroded in and refused to budge. Whilst working out how to rip the old stuff out I fitted the drop links to the front suspension.



Anyway I worked out an action plan to angle grind the drop links off ... called in a favour and a couple of minutes later it was done - happy days





The rest was "relatively" quick and simple, when combined with some grunts and brute force. The old suspension strut came out and was placed next to the new for a comparison. Needless to say that after 21 years its not looking so great!!!





A massive void awaiting new suspension



I do intend to waxoil that space, but all in good time, I've got more important things to do first such as braided brake lines (when I finally buy some! lol)

Note the suspension bezel/cup at the top of this photo that I referred to earlier (in relation to not having bought)



Luckily when I took the old strut apart it looked quite healthy. In fact it looked brand new and even had the sticker still on the top - having searched through my receipts I've found that its about 1 year old. So no need to replace that any time soon

That got ripped out and put on the new suspension (the only older/re-used part on a whole new suspension set up)

The new dust covers looking great



Everything got assembled correctly using spring compressors and a spare pair of hands and got re-installed. Unfortunatley time was dragging on by now and I didn't have a chance to take any photos. Instead I moved over to the passenger side and started work on the front there.

Within the space of a couple of hours Jack and I had also managed to switch that out... but it didn't come without issues.

The top bezel section was badly corroded to the point that you can see light through the holes in it. It was clearly original and had never been touched. I patched it up as best as possible but as I was on a deadline and didn't ahve a new one the strut got fully assembled and re-attached to the car.

I now have one on order so once all of the suspension is set up and I have cleared my MOT I will drop the passenger side strut out again, dis-assemble the suspension and re-assemble it with the new part. Its easy enough, especially now I have had all the bolts off, but it just feels like wasted time!

But anyway its looking lovely, and the car even sits lower on these springs. I'm sure when they bed in fully in a year or two it will have a lovely stance, especially if I stick on some 5-10mm spacers

These are the only hurried photos I took of them fitted, as I as being nagged by the girlfriend for being late to dinner ... but the car comes first! lol.





Unfortunatley this process makes it look far easier than it has been today. I cannot stress how difficult it is to crack off nuts that have not moved for 21-22 years and are stubbourn as hell!!! But we got there in the end ...

with one last hiccup!!

We were bleeding the brakes so that the car could go for a short test drive to ensure that everything worked as it should. Driver's side bled off fine. Passenger side was more of an issue. Literally looked at the bleed point, didn't even really touch it with the spanner and it fell to pieces!!





Sods law!!! Just over a week away from the MOT and I now have no brakes!!!! GGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRR

So a passenger side front caliper is now also on order
Hopefully by the end of this coming week I get a chance to change over the calipers and the car will drive a lot better. I can't wait to get that sorted so that I can look forward to replacing the rear suspension. Its going to be a loverly drive when its all done - excited doesn't cover how I feel

All in all a good day. A few minor issues and hiccups and a lot of time swearing at stubborn bolts but a good learning curve and a new found love for blow torches and breaker bars, lol.

Here's to hoping that the next update is as poitive and the car continues its transformation into a brand new SW20 MR2 rebuilt from bottom to top with new bits

[Magic Beans]

I think you're spot on with those wheels, they'll look pretty special

[KarlBristol]

Well, where do I start other than by saying that its been a busy few days on the car - with 14 hours on it today being the real killer (although tbh most of this time was spent sourcing parts! Lol)

So I started by buying a second hand caliper to replace my broken one. I paid just shy of £50 delivered from MRMR2 and the thing looked like it was 200 years old. It was an absolute state, and even worse - the bleed nipple was seized in place and completly unusable. (The nut section across it had also been rounded off). Needless to say I was not impressed and it was a complete waste of time and money! Awaiting his response through eBay...

With the MOT impending I needed to sort something out. So I went out and bought myself two brand new front calipers which set me back around £350. The rears are currently on order as nowhere seems to stock them (they are also the same sort of price)!

I decided if a job was worth doing it was worth doing right, so I may aswell replace the calipers with new to avoid these issues in the future. (Poor wallet though! lol)

Here are the new calipers:



I set about stripping the old ones out and fitting the new ones



Heres a new vs. old:



I'm guessing that 23 years of grease and road rubbish is going to have taken their toll and stopped the old calipers being as effective as they once were.

This switch over was simple and quick having already worked on these parts before on the car.

Happy days! Everything seemed to be going relatively ok at this point although I had already spent many hours phoning car trade sales shops and visiting 12 stores in an attempt to find the calipers in stock! lol

I then got a knock at the door with my new suspensino bezel/cup that I have been waiting for (although this will have to wait for a different day unfortunately!)



I then set about doing an update to the car that I've wanted to do for ages, and fit braided brake hoses

I started by getting myself a set of these



I have to say they are a very high quality bit of kit and I am so pleased that I bought them...



I went to fit them in what I thought was gong to be a quick and easy job, and I should have known better. The nuts between the brake line and brake hose were solid and refused to budge. After only a couple of seconds of working on trying to loosen them I noticed that the brake line had almost severd from the main body of the line. Being a thin metal and this old has made it very brittle and no where near fit for purpose!!

It became evident that I was going to have to replace the brake lines coming from the master cylinder to every corner. The one line I had been working on was split and so it wasn't an option to leave it unfortunatley

This is why I said it needed to be replaced:



Phoned Toyota and they cant even source them from Japan, just what I wanted with the MOT just around the corner ... UUUGGHHH!!!!

I removed the old brake line and inspected it carefully. It was brittle and nearly useless. If this one was rubbish the others would be aswell...





Trolled all of the car places again and no where sells pre-made brake lines, or anything similar. After a cuppa and a think I decided to machine my own parts and make my own brake lines.

I went out to a car specialist and bought some supplies:

I started by getting specialised high strength triple thick plyable copper brake lines



I then bought the relevant attachments, (sods law they only come in boxes of 50 and can't be purchased individually! Lol)



I then visited a friend and collected all of the parts that I would need to sort this mess out and create myself custom brake lines, (this included a flanging kit)



I started by running the pipework through to the relevant area:



I then spent som time creating a decent flange on the end of the pipe to connect to the brake hose (pictures just do not do it justice!)



Everything then got connected together:





I was well chuffed with it at this point. I then had to feed it all through the frunk in a certain way, tracing the lines of the old pipe. Unfortunatley this took some time and is easier said than done! lol.

(I won't bore you with pictures of this although I have loads)

I then repeated the whole process on the other front side, and connected the relevant central point, leaving it looking like this:



I then filled up the system and bled it numerous times to get it all working spot on.

So in the past few weeks the front has all new suspension, and every posisble braking component is new.

The rears are still completely original alhtough I won't have a chance to attack this until after the MOT unfortunatley.

All in all a busy but fulfilling day, and I am so relieved that the car is now working again - it went on a fun little run out around the country at about 2200 tonight when I finished

I can honestly say that the braking is a massive improvement, even if it is just the fronts completed at this time. I am so pleased that I was able to machine my own parts - they work a treat and theres such a satisfaction from it! Its certainly given me more enthusiasm to crack on with the rest soon

MORE MONEY TO SPEND!!!
Walked out to the car to put it away and in the extreme heat of today's sun the entire windscreen has cracked from a chip that I didn't even notice!

I've spoken to the insurance company and a new screen is being fitted on Tuesday - can't wait!!!

I will try and grab a piccie tomorrow.

[KarlBristol]

Well today was more of a tidy up day following yesterday to be honest, but I still managed to get some work done on the car

Here is the crack on the windscreen:



I can't wait for a new screen to be fitted. I was on the cards anyway as its difficult to drive on sunny days due to all of the tiny little chips and blemishes that have collected over so many years.

I refitted all of my frunk plastics, cleaned everything up, and tightened up all of the brake line fittings





I've also stripped down my centre caps in order to create a custom set... Photos will follow when its closer to the time but this is as they stand currently:



All will be revealed! lol.

I charged the battery up, bled all of the brakes twice more, and generally gave the car a once over in MOT preperation

Following this I then went for a spirited 2 hour drive in the country

I stopped for some food and couldn't resist a photo opportunity

















There is some major works to be done to the car ... but in a couple of weeks or so

Keep watching

[iain2010]

Fair play mate. The break overhall looks like great work. Its very high up on my list. Like you I am just going to try new calipers and Hoses. Hope I dont need to do the lines.