I'm now at almost a year of happy MR2 ownership.
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The car has been great.
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Used in all weathers and never once let me down, including a couple of long road trips.
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I've also really enjoyed the benefit of getting help from such a great bunch of people both here and on the other forums.
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It's made owning and working on the car a total delight.
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Yesterday I gave the car a really good wash.
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The first decent one for a few months as the sun was shining and the temperature was above freezing.
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As I made my way around the car I noticed more and more little signs of rust appearing.
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Nothing too crazy, but rubbing back to metal and painting over is just like painting the forth rail bridge
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- I'd be doing it every year and I just dont have the time! The main culprits are the rear arches
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(strangely one has one particuarly bad spot of rust and the other is perfect!) and the front wings, but there are smalls spots in a number of places.
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The car is due its MOT in a few weeks time so I'm going to wait until I have the outcome of that before deciding what to do.
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If I had the money
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(and it was a manual) I'd consider replacing the arches, putting fibre glass front wings on and having a full respray but it just seems over kill for what is a cheap car.
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For what that would cost I could sell and buy the nice Super Edition Supercharger thats still up for sale I think!
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So just looking for ideas of what level people have taken their cars to in a cost effective way? I HATE the idea of watching the car rust to a slow death over the next few years and I know the more rust appears the less I will drive it.
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My heart says keep spending the money, but my head says get a couple more good years out of it and then move on.
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What should I do?