Goodwood Green Rev 3 Tidy Up

[bennn]

Hi all

I'm Ben and about 3 months ago i bought my 1st MR2 which is a 1995 Rev 3 in goodwood green.

TBH its a bit of a shed, i bought the car with the intention of using it until the MOT expired then selling it spares or repairs on ebay, but its not put a foot wrong and i've been having so much fun in it i've decided to start a bit of a project getting it back into a tidy condition.

Unfortunately i can't post up any pics because my post count isnt high enough but when i've posted a bit more ill get some up!

Cheers

Ben

[pagey1982]

Hi mate welcome

[craig]

Welcome buddy

You need 15 posts to post pics

[mr2turbo_rob]

welcome along buddy look forward to seeing pictures

[bennn]

Cheers only another 12 posts till i can put up some pics then!

[bennn]

Took the car last week to get the body work sorted out on it, chap hasnt started it yet

[bennn]

So i can post pics up now

Here it is as i bought it - 140k with history, 3 months MOT and 2 months tax. Standard apart from a mongoose exhaust which i've since found out also has a decat. Absolutely filthy.



Note the white wing mirror - old one got kicked off and the chap just stuck a white one on which doesnt work either

Few other pics of the shed:





Rust on the sills & door





Dented wing



Shagged interior









Rusty wiper arms



Thats pretty much how its stayed until the last couple of weeks where i've decided its a keeper and i'm going to try and sort it out.

I managed to replace the wing mirror with one the right colour and managed to get it working, the connector had got ripped off - presumably when it was kicked off so i got the soldering iron out!

Also managed to find a spare set of alloys which i wanted for the tyres - turns out they had just been refurbed - not the best job but alright for £50 i guess!

Gave the car a wash and put the new wheels on - already looking much better!

[bennn]

The car is currently with a friend at his workshop where it is having the rear sills replaced (managed to get some fabricated ones over on MR2oc) a replacement drivers door fitted and the dent pulled out of the wing.

I've collected a few bits for it so far nothing exciting but should help to tart it up a bit:

Space saver spare wheel as it didn't come with a spare

Drivers carpet - although I am going to have to cut a hole in for the sub grille as mine has the active sound system

Spare gear knob and steering wheel which I'm intending to have re-trimmed

New pair of wiper arms.

Hopefully picking up a new set of cloth seats for it on Wednesday too.

Really missing the car now and driving an automatic mercedes isnt helping but hopefully it will be worth the wait - once i have it back ill be able to get cracking!

Plans when I get it back are to give it a good service, an MOT a detail and a friend is going to machine polish it which should hopefully remove the light scratches and swirl marks which are all over it!

[pagey1982]

Keep up the good work mate can't wait to see pics when it's back

[bennn]

Minor update, car is still away at the moment but i've been buying more bits for it.

Was planning on keeping the car standard but I'm not keen on the standard alloy and think the MR2 is a car that really suit aftermarket alloys. I've seen a few darker colour MR2's with gold alloys and decided this was what i wanted to go for.

Anyway, managed to find a set of Ray's Eins Kahn3's (i think going off the stickers on the inside of the rims!)

They were down in london so i had to sort a courier to collect but they arrived this afternoon











They are staggered 17" wheels, 8j fronts and 9j rears.

I was informed they came off a Supra so in order to get the correct offset i will have to get some 10mm spacers for the front.

They came with Bridgestone Potenza's all round but the rears are almost worn out and one has a nail in but they are miles too big anyway (255/40/17)

Plan is to fit the tyres currently on the 8j's (235/45/17's) to the 9j's and buy some new 215/40/17 Potenza's for the front.

Paid £250 for them which i didnt think was too bad, although in all honesty I've no idea what they are worth!

[craig]

Lovely rims. Will suit it well

[bennn]

Lovely rims. Will suit it well

Thanks mate!

[stephano]

Agree with Redmr2 they will look smart.

[bennn]

Small update, i got the car back from my mate on saturday. Looks great but i had to swap the door over myself. Typically the door i bought for it had no electric window motor in it so i had to swap that over!

Swapped it all over and now it doesnt work. Cant really work out why, wondering if it is anything to do with this:



These dont seem to exist on the loom of the old door, so not really sure what they could be.

Do people think it would be ok to wire them to a postive feed and see if it works then?

Anyway that aside the car is in for its MOT this morning so i'm nervously waiting to see if it passes...

[bennn]

Passed its MOT with an advisory on the rear handbrake. Bad news is i'll need to jump start it to get it home.

Bloody typical as soon as i start spending money on it i start having problems

[bennn]

Turns out i hadnt tightened up the battery terminals after i'd taken them off at the weekend which is why it wouldnt start

Also sorted the electric window out which turned out to be the loom. i assume the mystery wires in the new loom were someone's attempt to fix it. Swapped the looms over and all is well apart from a broken speaker - still have the old one so will swap this over next time i have the door card off!

Going to give it a mega clean at the weekend so will get some pics of it then but i'm really pleased with it and pleased that i can drive it to work tomorrow without having to worry about it getting wet / stolen!

[bennn]

Weather was good tonight so i cracked out the pressure washer and gave it a quick blast

Got a few pics to show the work done but its still in need of a proper clean and polish.







The dent in the wing has also been sorted but i forgot to take a pic!

Also put on some clear front lights i bought off here a few weeks ago which i think have tidied up the front end a bit!



New seats are also in but again havent got pics yet, and it turned out that the carpet i bought from a rev 4 is slightly different material to my rev 3 so i'm on the lookout for another one!

I'm now waiting on some crystal side repeaters to match, an aerial, a hawk remote locking kit and a pair of Bridgestone potenza's for my new wheels.

I've also arranged to send my steering wheel and gearknob away to rhon to retrim along with a new gaiter and handbrake gaiter.

[Mike 'MR2' McHugh]

She is coming along nicely ..... another one saved

[Road_Rebel]

rims look ace! I have a set of rays on mine bit the dark gold will look stunning on a dark coloured car! good choice

[bennn]

Another little update.

Next problem was I’ve lost the two rear under-trays driving through a puddle Friday night and the car went down to 3 cylinders. It really doesn’t seem to like the wet much at all. I’ve lost the two rear trays but now have replacements. Unfortunately it looks like the middle ones fixing points are all knackered as its being held on by cable ties so I guess I’ll just bodge the two rear ones on in a similar fashion.

I fitted the remote locking Saturday morning, which is a good bit of kit and seemed to be working perfectly and gave the car a good wash and polish.

Few pic’s after the clean









Unfortunately I think my old battery was on its way out and the extra charge from the remote locking unit has killed it off as I went out Saturday night and wouldn’t start at all on the Sunday, gave it a charge and it started fine, but was flat again after a few hours.

I had it checked and was told the car was charging so my battery was dead. I double checked the locking to insure there wasn’t a short anywhere then ordered a new battery which seems to have sorted that issue!

Since I’ve had the car I have never been able to get radio, tried a new aerial but I don’t think it’s the problem as the radio will pick up the stations you just can’t hear what they are playing.

Since the weekend the head unit is on and off intermittently so I can’t even listen to CD’s anymore  it still has power but the display goes dead and there’s no music seems to go on and off.

I pulled it out to check for a lose wire and find a right abortion behind the dash. Checked through most of it and think it’s now wired up properly and I’m still having the problem.

It’s a pretty old Sony head unit and my mate who used to work at Halfrauds seems to think that it’s most likely the contacts on the removable faceplate playing up since he said this I’ve noticed if you flip it down and up again it sometimes comes back to life then dies again.

Although I really like the look of it cause its old and seems to suit the car I think it’s what’s causing the problem and I’d like to be able to use my iPhone for music too so I’m now on the lookout for a Sony head unit which has on iPhone connection.

I decided it’s easier to get Sony as the previous radios loom has been hardwired in (rather than being fitted with an adaptor) the speaker are also on separate phono leads so to keep it simple I’ll need one which has phono outputs too.

Hopefully once the radio is sorted all will be well!

I’ve got a new carpet to fit to replace the old one with holes in and should hopefully have my retrimmed wheel, gearknob and gaiters back in a few weeks

Got some new Bridgestone for my wheels but I don’t think they will be on until next month as I still need to buy spacers, new studs and wheel nuts and unfortunately I’ve got to get a new radio and could do with having the cam belt done and a service soon.

Once the new wheels are on I might look at lowering it slightly then having the alignment checked.

I’m still enjoying the car though despite the minor issues it’s been giving me recently and it’s finally starting to look presentable.