Project - 4th time's a charm

[Chris_9011]

My background:
I have been an MR2 owner since 2001 when I bought my first MK2, a rev1 3S-FE GT Sports model. After 3.5 years I then moved onto a rev2 GT-S turbo T-bar which I owned for all of 4 months and had to sell due to buying my first house.
After a few years I was then able to buy my third, a rev5 UK N/A T-bar, which was sold to fund a new house.

first - rev1:


second: rev2 turbo:


third: rev5 n/a:



So onto my new car, after leaving the MR2 scene for just under 3 months I found myself with the urge to buy a new one... so I placed a bid on a car on eBay and ended up winning it...

...a rev3 G-limited tin-top, with 46k on the clock and completely standard in every way:

[Chris_9011]

So, over the few months I was MR2less I found myself collecting a few bits and pieces in the hope of one day getting a new MR2:



My first task was one of most importance:

rear winscreen looking a bit bare


soon fixed:

[Chris_9011]

The next job was to fit the chrome dial rings to the instruments:

before:


during:




after:


fully fitted:


...a nice little mod that updates the dash slightly and great for around £30 from eBay

[Chris_9011]

Finally for today was the fitment of the JSP induction kit that I bought second hand from a chap off IMOC for £55 delivered. My previous car had one of these coupled with the Mongoose exhaust and the note and sound was just what I was looking for when I was looking previously so when this came up for sale I knew I had to have another one:

before:




fitted:

[Chris_9011]

Performed some more modifications today, mainly the ICE... I have now replaced the Kenwood double din MD player with the Pioneer double din, DVD, CD, radio touch screen and iPhone connector that was in my previous MR2 (it was in it's holiday home of my family Ford Focus until around a week ago... so here we go:

out with the old:



with a bit of a clean up along the way:



and in with the new:


...with a cheeky little hiding place especially for my iPhone:

[Chris_9011]

Another little modification I completed today was the front number plate... I received my show number plate through the post mid morning, and due to the previous owner taking a hack-saw to the edges of the JDM plate holder I had to source another one... this came last week so I've been itching to get these attached.

the parts:


Old style:


New more refined look to the front of the car:

[Chris_9011]

Busy day on Saturday on the Rev3:

First off was to tackle the suspension drop, I was fitting some Apex lowering springs that would hopefully drop the suspension by 30mm.

Before photo's:




Luckily all the droplinks undid without and need to replace... lucky me as I hadn't bought any new one's just in case. With the car having only done 46k miles all the components came off without fuss, except for the drivers side from which looked as though it was a replacement part from a car with much more miles (possibly confirming that the car has had a bump in it's lifetime)

Mellow yellow:




Got all four corners fitted without any major problem, and this is the result so far (need to give it a little time for the springs to settle though):

[Chris_9011]

Next up on Saturday was to swap over the exhaust from the standard unit to a second hand Mongoose:

Before:




This proved to be a little more difficult, the bolts holding the exhaust onto the cat were rounded and rusty, and wouldn't budge, so the angle grinder had to make an appearance and both bolts needed to be cut - not an easy task on the top bolt but managed to make just enough room by dropping the exhaust off the passenger side bracket and wedging a piece of wood in on top of the exhaust.

The second job was to cut off the flange of the cat to allow the Mongoose to couple up to it flush - out came Mr Angle Grinder again.

Whilst the exhaust was off, I had to take the grinder to the rear grill to show off my shiny new can... however the aftermarket rear fog light was attached to this, so that had to come off to be relocated into the lighting loom at a later date.

The Mongoose was then coupled up and bolted in place.

The end results:

[Chris_9011]

Couple of more modifications to add, purely for cosmetic purposes...

first off, I tinted the rear windows:



just because really, I really liked the look that my rev5 had and wanted to have a similar appearance


secondly, my Dad bought an X-brace off eBay that turned out to be a non Toyota one that didn't fit over his V6 engine due to not having the slight 'kink' in it... so he gave it to me and it fits perfectly. It does need to be colour coded, but during the winter when the cars off the road the engine will be getting special attention so this will be going at the same time...

[Chris_9011]

I have now sourced a set of wheels for this, got them at a steal price, some proper JDM rims in staggerred set-up...

...so let me introduce my Enkei Evolutions, in 17"
8J et35 up front
and
9J ET38 at the rear

As luck would have it, a chap at work sold his 200sx a year ago and has stored these in his garage ever since, he asked if I wanted to take a look so he bought them in. I pretty much snapped his hands off at the price he wanted. They are very ropey at the moment and need a good clean up and maybe a damn good polish, but there is minimal curbing to the rims so not much work I hope.

Anyway, some photos:

[Chris_9011]

Centre's split...

[Chris_9011]

Bit of an update on the wheels, I sent the centres off for powder coating whilst I was away on holiday... a week later and with £80 taken from my wallet, I have them back. So I fitted them back onto the outers that I had polished up as best as they could be with the equipment we have at work yesterday morning... I found some nice stainless steel bolts and some serrated flange nuts (one of the benefits of working for a fastener manufacturer) and here is the result:



I did get the tyres re-fitted yesterday after work so they are in the back of my family Focus awaiting fitment.

(Tyres - 215/40/R17's Falken's up front and 245/35/R17's at the back)

[Chris_9011]

Now fitted:

A few images for you to drool over:






Offset on the rears is perfect, although I think they may be rubbing slightly on the struts. Going to get some 3mm spacers to try and help this. It will also bring the rears out in line with the fronts as the fronts are ET35 an the rears are ET38:


Final image showing the fat tyres... 245's anyone? (although I think these will be changed to 255/40's instead of 245/35 when these tyres are shot as they don't quite fill the arches as I'd hoped they would):

[Chris_9011]

The postman always delivers

...these just turned up on my desk:


eBay special at £25 delivered, bit more pink than I'd like, but at least they'll match the paint work

[Chris_9011]

Right, my project thread has been forgotten about for just over a month so I think it's time for a bit of housework...

First off - JAE
So, I had the wheels and tyres fitted just in time to make it to JAE without the standard wheels... photographic evidence of it on the stand (dusk on the set-up evening):



A couple more for your appreciation after a little T-cut, a coat of red color fast polish, a coat of super resin polish, and a coat of high definition wax:



I also managed to fit the red wheel nuts that I previously mentioned on this project thread, you may just be able to spot these on the above photos

[Chris_9011]

ext up was a couple of fairly easy mods, the front and rear badges. I bought a new front Midship badge direct from my local Toyota main dealer for the pricely sum of £19. An easy fit that brings the front of the car up to date and takes away that awkward polishing around the Toyota badge issue:


I also changed the rear badge to a MK3 style, I won this on eBay for the vast expense of 99p:

[Chris_9011]

I fitted some new brake discs and pads on Saturday ready for the long trip down to the Ace Cafe meet. These discs came courtesy of MR2Jay and are nice grooved discs (they were a little rusty but with a quick coat of HT black paint, a blow torch to dry, and then a quick sand to remove the excess paint they came up pretty well). At the same time I also painted the calipers in my favourite colour - RED:





As she stands today:

[Chris_9011]

I found a ford so decided to take some photos whilst it was nicely polished:

[Chris_9011]

Got my turbo engine lid and rain tray delivered around a month ago with the intention of completing a design on the rain tray like the one that was on the rev5...

...so may I introduce you to the 'Red Death Star Rising' artwork:


...and I had to find a little place for my much used, and loved, Rebel Alliance symbol:

[Chris_9011]

Hi all, been a while... 2 reasons really, the cars been off the road SORN since December, and second is the rather tired battery that kept me from starting it.

I have since replaced the battery with a more powerful item:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120863849612? ... 1497.l2649
(although I am still in communication with the eBay seller as the battery he sent me had figures of 510cca and 60ah, where the one on his advert stated 580cca and 68ah - it works perfectly adequately as it is better than the standard, but it's not what he was advertising - hoping for a partial refund at the present moment)

So, I replaced the battery and turned the key, and seeing as though I hadn't even attempted to start it up since the 8th December she fired up first time. It did run slightly rough for the first 5-10 seconds (possibly due to old fuel and very little oil in the system) but then it settled down ran perfectly. I left it to run for around 10 minutes to get it up to temperature and circulate some essential fluids and then turned it off - job done.


My second job of the day was to fit my new steering wheel and boss, I recently bought a second hand MOMO Millenium steering wheel and boss kit from a seller over on IMOC... so I broke out the socket set and got to work - 10 minutes later and I had this set up in front of me:


Much better than the standard rev3 set-up...