Dilema - need advice

[Chris Lynch]

Right I need some advice.

Myself and the other half own a 94 Rev 3 GTS turbo T-bar. The paint work in in poor condition (its going pink). It has a damaged passenger door (needs a new skin), bent rear shock (not an MOT fail but the tyres wears out faster than the others on the outer edge). It also needs new disks and pads. The t-bar roof leaks and the drivers door central locking does not work.

It has been superb, its never cost me anything other than normal servicing and wear and tear. The above niggles were things I was about to fix. Its done about 80k miles.

It has been written off on a CAT D. It was not our fault and the only damage was a badly cracked front bumper.

The insurance company have given us £1200 and the car back.

So do we: Get a body kit and a full respray, fix all the niggles and have happy MR2 motoring. This would cost more that £1200 but we do have some other money put aside for just this sort of problem and a good friend has a body shop and is prepared to give us mates rates.

or

Do we buy another car and let the MR2 go. We have money saved so could afford 12k or so on buying something else but what? the only things we both like are TVR's and I am not going to kid myself and think a TVR would be as reliable as the 2 has been.

I would never spend £lots on moding an old car like the MR2 so please don't suggest I spend 12k on mods and the Mrs would never let me do that.

I drive to work 40miles each way in the 2 twice a week (I share lifts with a collegue). I like the odd day at Santa pod and the odd track day when I get time.

The MR2 has been fantastic, I would love to buy another car but on the other hand why would I get rid of a car which runs perfectly, is really fast and has been good to me for almost 6 year?

I would like your thoughts?

Chris

[toxo]

I would do the following:

Get Ben (Tiny on here) who works for Toyota GT to fix your paint. See 2nd post here for what he does to red cars: http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=123122
I can vouch for his services as my car is the blue one pictured in that thread.

Get a rear shock, door and bumper from someone breaking a similar age MR2 (ie pacific works, gts chris, TGT etc). No point getting a new shock unless you're going to replace all 4 as the others will be 15 years old! Obviously you'll need to be sure it's just the shock that's bent and not the tie bar etc.

I got 2 doors including wing mirrors for £30 a few years ago so there are bargains to be had. Get your mate to spray the parts up to match the (now) shiny paint work.

Driver's door central locking will be a water damaged loom, 2hrs for someone to sort out, and there are plenty of threads on here about fixing leaky t-bars.

I'd wager that won't cost you £1200 so you can spend the rest on brakes

Edit: It doesn't say in your profile where you're based, which would greatly aid directing you to the right people

[Chris Lynch]

Thanks for you reply, I am Tamworth in the midlands.

The paint work is beyond repair, there are bit that are flaking off and there are some small dents etc.. which need sorting.

Thanks for your advice, certainly if I can get the parts for the prices your talking about its worth doing. My biggest problem is time, I am working 12 hour days sometimes 6/7 days a week. I have a rare day off tomorrow so I am going to have a look at the brakes.

I took the car to a specialist who did the cambelt and a 4 wheel alignment, he was the one who told me it was the shock that was slightly bent, its not bad which is why I have never replaced it but if I am going to do the other work I would like to get it all sorted.

Chris

[toxo]

I see, your paint sounds a little bit more bu88ered than most of the red ones then!

There's a chap selling new tbar seals in the for sale section at the moment and Luke at Pacific Works has got 3 cars he's currently breaking.

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=124336

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=123680