I bought my first Jap motor in about 01, which was an imported Celica GT.
which met an early end after meeting a giant tin opener
Even though i loved that car i decided it was time for something else and ended up throwing too much money away on repairs for a Golf VR6
After that got hit by a driverless car i went back to the old faithful Japanese and picked up my second imported Celica GT.
followed by something i've always wanted
- a MKIV Supra.. although only an N/A
Those were the days
Then the Celica went and just before heading off to bed one Saturday night an email from Freecycle dropped in with somebody giving away a car.
.. and seeing as it was 1am............... i had it in the garage 2 days later having the oil sump repaired
Cost me
£50 have a 318i picked up, oil sump replaced and the car delivered. Apart from that it just needed taxing.The supra didn't have a great winter,
I ended up smashing two alloys (Works Equip 17's) on the Supra and it was drinking fuel for fun so it went on eBay and got replaced with an LPG converted Jeep Grand Cherokee. After giving a mate a lift to pick up an MR2 (second one he's owned) and going for a test drive in it I realised i had to have a Jap car so the BM ended up on eBay... It was showing a few signs of age as well so it was getting to moving on time.After watching eBay and Autotrader and everything else i made a bit of a rushed choice.
Not entirely regretting it but i'm too impulsive and didn't really shop around.The MR2 was advertised on eBay and also Pistonheads, UK model N/A Rev1 on a J plate with 6 month tax and MOT and 62k on the clock.
Some history and old MOT's that verified the mileage.. Even though the MOT's verify it i'm still not convinced that it's only done 62k.
.. seats look a bit too worn, bodywork a bit tatty in a few places and sills have been welded. I picked her up for
£650.
Even though it's blue it hasn't got that nasty blue interior, full black leather but for some unknown reason, one of the past owners decided it's be great to spray everything plastic in blue.
You can see parts of it on the interior pics. They'd also painted the lights and side indicators blue, i've replaced the front and sides and scrubbed the paint off the rears.Fan belt is squeeling a bit but that'll get sorted soon.
First jobs are getting rid of the standard rims for some black 16's.
My garage just happened to have a set of 16 inch alloys with tyres that were doing nothing and only wanted £100 for them. Sounded great but i also ended up having to order tuner nuts and extended wheel studs, so my £100 alloys are costing £150.The blue bits are also out and sanded down ready for a respray and a new gear stick gaiter ordered.
... oh and it's got short shift gear conversion in there as well.The back end looks like it's had a patchy respray for some reason too.
... which leads me onto a bloody horrible chav like question... 
i'm going to have to get the back end touched up as it wasn't a very good job; patchy and faded over the passenger rear vents, boot and bumper.
I've been quoted
£350 to respray the back end or £750 for a posh wash and give it all a once over.. Now start facepalming and shaking your head because i have done myself.
.. If i took more time looking for an MR2 i'd have gone for a white one but i don't want to spend
£2000 on a full respray on a £650 car..... So what i've half considered is; changing all removable panels with white ones and then having a part respray on the rest of the car.For the panels i can replace:
bumpers, front wings, head light covers, wing mirrors, doors, engine cover, boot, spoiler etc and just be left with the roof, sills and rear quarter that would need respraying.
It'd also give me all my parts to sell to offset the cost of the ones i'd bought.Like i said, it was just an idea as the white parts wouldn't leave me with a blue underside.
... Has anybody ever tried that before, is it a reasonable idea or as daft as i think it might be? especially with the colour fading but the idea would be to try and get all the panels from the same car.
Any respraying isn't going to be straight away though as my contract at work is ending next month so there's no spare cash.
. that was longer than i expected it to be
