My AW11 Fritzinger widebody. Some years of work in pictures

[XLarge]

Hi, my name is Eric and I´m from Germany, so please excuse my mistakes in the english language I´m sure of to do.

I was asked to do a writeup of the story of my little Fatty ( in german: "Dicker" ) how I call my widebody Mk1a, so here I go.

To explain my backround as first: I´ve learned the job of a car mechanic in my jounger years at a local, small Toyota dealership and was a Toyota enthusiast from kids age on. In the meantime I work in a car parts factory but I´ve kept my enthusiasm for Toyota cars as a hobby.

Back in the end of 90´th I was a bit bored as my Carina GTi I drove in that times was modyfied to my targets and I startet to search for a Corolla AE86 as 2nd car for hobby use. In my younger years I´ve had some of this as daylie drivers and they was funny to drive so I want one again. I checked some offered AE86 over some time but all I´ve found where ruins with insane price tags.

It was spring 2000 and by this time the lessor of my garage had a crash with his Subaru and he asked me to repair it. As we´re talking he told me that he kicked a "red Toyota with the engine in the back" from the road. I know that only a hand full MR2s are running in our local area so I did some research in the next days. And I found the worst case: He kicked off one of only 20 ever made widebody AW11 that Fritzinger Motorsport crafted in the mid 80´th.

So I´ve reached the car this thread is the story of.

In the 80th the owner of a Toyota dealership was active in the german rally scene and was a professional race driver before. His name is Klaus Fritzinger. His company builded his rally cars themself and they also did some serious mods to Toyotas like turbo conversions for the 4A-GE and power upgrades for the 3S-GTE and 7M-GTE.

Mr Fritzinger used a MR2 Mk1 fitted with a HKS turbo kit in the german rally masters in this time. Therefor a complete widebody kit was designed. Additionally to this rally car about 20 street use AW11 was fitted with this kit peoble could buy.

So this cars are a piece of Toyota history here in Germany and one of them stands there in front of me. I knew who was the owner and let him know that I was interested in the car if he is willing to sale. Took some weeks to get in contact but in the end I bought a non moving wrecked Fritzinger MR2 "with a bit of rust under the side panels" ,including some spare parts, two additional Fritzinger wheels and set of Borbet A wheels.

This way the car looked in the garage of the previous owner:





So far, so good. But the other side was the problem:




And the car wasn´t moving because of the broken suspension arm:



So I bought a used arm, replaced the broken one in the garage and drove it to my garage.

The Fritzinger body kit contains:
-a new front
-a set of front wings
-a set of side panel extensions including side skirts
-a rear bumper
-a set of 7x15 +27 wheels
-a set of 30 mm per side wheel spacers for the front
-a set of 40 mm per side wheel spacers for the rear

All body parts where made from fiberglass.

So my plan was to remove the right side panel extension, cut a hole in the left one, repair the rust damages of the shell, glue the panel extensions back on and get the quarter panels painted.

Not sooo much work and I will earn a nice 4A-GE powered fun car....

Nice plan, but the devil sits in the details. After removing the big rear bumper I realised that there is more than "a bit" of rust on the shell:



and after removing the side panel extension I even find more of it:

[muckyman]

More pictures please. Looks very interesting!

[Finn]

Wunderschön! Reminds a 944 in the second picture.

[XLarge]

So I decided to take the left panel extension off complete instead than cut a piece out of it and what did I find there ? Of course, more rust:



Also the side impact damage was bigger that expectet:



So I give it a stop as this was more I could take with my poor talent in metal works.
Finally I brought the car to my fellow body shop and ordered a set of inner wheel arcs.

The sheet metal war begins:





The side panels of the shell was cut out to keep the fixing points for the extensions, the inner arcs was replaced and the side panels welded back in:



The wheels arcs contures where custom made and sitting higher than stock as the big wheels on their spacers sitting outside the shell:





The rust damages got repaired by handcrafted pieces of metal:





After the metal works I received the car back and started working myself again.

The fiberglass panel extension came back in it´s form after took it off so it was easy to repair it using some glass mats and resin:



The side panels was sealed by the body shop so I spray painted them:





and glued/srewed the extensions onto them:





To prevent the connection of metal panel and fiberglass extension from cracks (a common problem on Fritzinger AW11s ) I sanded the gelcoat off the fiberglass and the paint from the shell and laminated two layers of glassfiber over the connection:





At this point a decided to max out the range of the project again as I´ve found out that the doors where rusted, the connection of the front wings to the front had cracks and the front wings where soft as paper due to some failed parking trys of one of the previous owners. Also the car was resprayed more than two times and the painter didn´t a good job as no parts was removed befor the paint job.

So I streched the budget to make a full respray possible and split the car in parts for the extendes body work.

Also I bought a cheap MR2 Mk1b T-Bar with a dead engine which donored some parts (doors, trunk door) and helped refinance the rebuild by selling parts I hope I don´t need.

[XLarge]

More and more parts came off the car and a friend of mine who is a learned car painter did the sanding and filling at my garage and I checked the "new" doors for rust, resealed it after that what takes some time.





We also did some small mods as close weld the antenna hole in the roof as well as the holes for the washer nozzels in the front hood and filled the groove that crosses the stock doors.

I´ve put some borrowed VW Polo wheels onto the MR2 to keep it moving. The tiny wheels without the spacers where so narrow that there was enough space left to work on the wheel arcs without removing the wheels.
After all that I trailered the car to a painter:













In the back You can see my garage with the donor MR2 in.

The car was fillered grey:





and than sprayed in a colour of a 99 Ford Mustang with some pearl effect added.

Got it back and wasn´t happy as the paint job wasn´t done to my standart. Choosing a cheap painter was a big mistake.



But as it was no garantee job and my budget was more than streched at this point I had to live with the worse paint job until I got the money to get it done proberly.

So i jacked the car up again, borrowed the wax gun from the body shop who did the metal work and blew six liters of wax into every corner of the car to protect it from start rusting again.

Time to put the big puzzel back together:





The windows received a new tined by a professional before reinstall and I swaped to late spec JDM tail lights:



The car came with a all rusted exaust endbox from Sebring. I could get my hands on a brand new old stock TTE endbox I had to cut out the new painted rear bumber for:



The rest of the exaust system came from the donor car as Dicker came with a cat exaust (while it´s a no cat car ) .

I love the Borbet A wheels who came with the car as they fit the AW11 so well from the form and the time so I modded a spare set of center caps, get the rims high gloss polished and the wheel centers painted matching the car:

[Charged]

Also I bought a cheap MR2 Mk1b T-Bar with a dead engine which donored some parts (doors, trunk door) and helped refinance the rebuild by selling parts I hope I don´t need.

very sensible and I do the same to finance my Mk1 projects

[XLarge]

Also the inside of the car was in progress. All carpets and the seats was cleaned using a water jet. Took two weeks in the mid of summer to get dry again but looking like new after that. The worn red Raid steering wheel was replaced by a used black one, a new aftermarket shift nob and car mats was used and the arm rest that is alsways worn on Mk1a´s war wrapped in black leather. The ruined door cards was replaced by used ones without speaker holes and every tiny bit got a good clean up before reinstall.

The result speaks for itself, I think:



Did a small tech service, put new tires on the refurbished rims, new mesh in the front, replaced the broken fog lights with daytime running lights from Hella, replaced the signal light glasses by the well known USDM Camry parts, drove it to the TÜV check ( equal to Your MOT ) and got it registered to my name. While doing this I had trouble as the size of the mumber plate is regulated really harsh here (like everything in Germany ) and to get the necessary small licens plate in the back caused by the JDM tail lights I had to drove the car to the county government.

The day before a bigger Toyota enthusiasts meeting the car was done and had his rollout there:





The guy in the middle behind the car is me BTW




I was happy. Still small things to do and totally burned out of money, but happy as I got much words of encouragement for my work.

But it dind´t kept this way. Two month later on the way back from a MR2 meeting the engine gave up. The shell got more than 250 k km on and the engine was unknown age but I was still out of money. So I parked the car and made plans again.

As I wanted a power upgrade anyway I searched for a 4A-GZE to swap it to my MR2. But not the old GZE from the MR2 was the target, I wanted the late spec one out of the JDM only AE101 Levin GTZ. After I had saved the money I bought a front cut and get it shipped to Germany:

[Charged]

Would you like to be our guest at our annual show in September - Japanese Auto Extravaganza?

It would be great to see your Mk1 up close. There are a few members from Germany who have travelled over for the last few years, I am sure you'd be welcome to join them (bring Jaegermeister)

Details here:

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewforum.php?f=112

[XLarge]

Times go by and I was collecting parts and infos for the swap, but dind´t really start to do.

The project lost more and more attention due to my new daylie driver I bought 2004, a Corolla TSport I modyfied to my targets in the next years:



and the 1992 Celica Carlos Sainz I bought 2008:



Finally in 2011 I decided to restart my old project again, kicked the plans for the GZE swap and bought a used 4A-GE I planned to rebuild in the winter month.

But my plans changed again, or got changed by a heart disease of me that caused that I wasn´t able to working on my cars in the end of 2011 to end of 2012. Now I´m healty enough again and started working on the engine for the MR2 in dezember.

[Ben]

Would you like to be our guest at our annual show in September - Japanese Auto Extravaganza?

It would be great to see your Mk1 up. There are a few members from Germany who have travelled over for the last few years, I am sure you'd be welcome to join them (bring Jaegermeister)

Details here:

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewforum.php?f=112

That's an excellent idea! Your car would get a lot of attention

[synXero]

Amazing.

[XLarge]

The 4A-GE I´ve bought came out of a late spec cat AT160 Celica had much kilometers on it but was running fine. I´ve choosed a late spec 4A-GE big port as it will fit bolt on and is more durable because of the different piston bolt bearing and the thicker rod bearing points.
Didn´t want to do to much to it, but don´t like to put my handy on it again so soon so I decided to give it new seals and new bearings.

At first took off all the parts that have to go, wash it inside and outside with diesel and a brush and a water jet:



That we took out the crankshaft:



replaced the bearings which was a good idea as the rod bearings where worn:



and picked up some camshafts of a early spec non cat 4A-GE big port out of my collection (stored in my basement since 20 years, came with my first AE86 as spares )



Put them in to measure valve clearence:



and ajusting clearence by using the shims out of the head from my basement, the engine of the black donor MR2 and the new engine.

As I had the opportunity I decided to give the engine a nice finish so I brushed the rust from the outside with some steel brushes:





as well as the oil pan:



and painted both with Hammerit black:



Put the oilpan pack on using original Toyota sealing material (freaky expensive ) . As You may note the water pipes where refurbished too:



We build the engine in the garage of a friend as his garage is heated in opposite to mine and currently we´re working on his tractor so my project is having a brake.

Gives me the time to search and order parts. I already bought a upgrade radiator:



and a set of high power fans from Spal.

Also bought a stage 1 upgrade clutch kit from Exedy and some parts to replace the stock exaust parts:



Biggest problem to the moment is to find a properly exaust manifold. I bought this one years ago, but the pipe goes together in the wrong combination:



The header of a 4A-GE 20v would be nice, but it won´t fit as I can´t move the starter due to the older type gearbox (and the fact that I´ve sold the one from the donor car ) Bought a additional header from UK, but it is tatal crap:



Still didn´t decided what to do. If I had a header flange made out of stainless steel I would get a custom builded header at a local shop, but the shop ower can´t make the flange

This is the end of the writeup so far. Hope You´re not to bored from all the stuff I´ve wrote. Was a bit more than planned, but as above: Plans are not woth the time to make them as they fail anyway.

[pk_090]

That kit is sublime, and it looks amazing with the Borbet A's and huuuuge spacers! I love this!

[XLarge]

Would you like to be our guest at our annual show in September - Japanese Auto Extravaganza?

It would be great to see your Mk1 up close. There are a few members from Germany who have travelled over for the last few years, I am sure you'd be welcome to join them (bring Jaegermeister)

Details here:

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewforum.php?f=112

Thank You for the invite, but I will be in Switzerland visiting the all year Celica GT Four meeting at this weekend.

But the date is noch totally fixed, so if it will be moved I maybe drive to Great Britain as I´ve read about this meeting before and alway wanded to participate.

[XLarge]

Oh, BTW: Thank You all for the friendly words for my car and my work !

[Charged]

Oh, BTW: Thank You all for the friendly words for my car and my work !

No, no, Thank YOU for sharing

ps, we have similar taste!

My old Gt4:



My Old Corolla T Sport:



My Mr2 Mk1.5:



Keep up the good work!

[Neil_turbo]

I have had a link to your page in my favourites for years.

Fantastic to hear it is still around!

Great Project

Do you know what happened to any of the other kits?

[stenky]

I am observing a scheme here...

I have ST182 Celica, 2x AW11 and I am really considering getting a ZZE12 TS Corolla because having 20+ year old cars as daily may be a bit... troublesome.

If I only could beg my GF for a permission to buy a 4th car

[XLarge]

Mostly only by rumours. Some of the Fritzingers was crashed, some of them are kept well, but they are noch so popoular, even in the german scene.

The previous owner of my Fritzinger had a dark green one before. He crashed in unter a truck and get nearby killed in that crash. Car was totalled.

The original rally car was sold in 2010 oder 2011 together with a normal body Fritzinger turbo AW11 for parts to Belgium. The current owner plans to rebuild it and drive it in the rally series "Slowly sideways" .

Years ago a black Fritzinger was sold via eBay. Gone to a guy in south Germany. Never heard of it again.

A bright blue one, the only T-Bar Fritzinger I know, is owned by a guy from east Germany. Got some 17" OZ on the car. Met him on a meeting 2003. Nice car.

A guy from south Germany owns two Fritzinger. One crappy red one with worse repaired front crash, welded side panels, but not molded extensions he trys to sale since years. He also bought the last set of this bodykit, including a used front from the rally car and put that kit on a AW11 with a 3S-GTE swap. Car is primered and unfinished.

A guy I know a bit more have a withe Fritzinger I´ve only seen on pictures. Seems to be not so worse. He is thinking to sell it.

[XLarge]

My family calls me insane as I´m thinking about to buy a 4th car, but that probably won´t stop me. It a 1975 Celica TA23 GT, or more a big puzzel of one as it´s split to pieces and the shell ist already sandblasted.