Paul's Rev2 turbo

[craig]

Excellent news mate, really happy you're taking it forward and getting her back to former glory! Best of luck with the repairs!

[Pauln]

Just the smallest of updates on progress so far. I've fortunately been able to get hold of most of the parts needed from IMOC members and through ebay, but what as really slowed things down is trying to source a replacement lower rear panel. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good news on that front later today.

In the meantime the body shop has removed the damaged boot lid and un-stitched the damaged rear panel so she's not a pretty site at the moment.





But until they have a replacement panel, they don't want to put the car on the jig and start getting everything sorted. Unfortunately with the end of the month looming, it's starting to look as though I might not get her back until the new year

Paul

[craig]

I wouldn't focus on the negatives mate, think of the positives, there's progress. You're going to get the car back to its former glory, and not just a stack of cash from the insurance company and no MR2.

[Rev5GT]

Hi mate,
What lower panel do you need as I have a rev2 shell laying about so could get what you need foc...

Drop me a pm of what you need..

[craig]

Hi mate,
What lower panel do you need as I have a rev2 shell laying about so could get what you need foc...

Drop me a pm of what you need..

[Pauln]

Thanks for the support guys. It's just frustrating at the moment with everything ground to a halt, but once we've sourced a body panel things should hopefully start to come together. And I'd much rather the guys took their time and did the job right, than end up with a quick bodged job. At least the body shop is only a short walk away, so it's easy to pop in and keep an eye on things once the work gets under way.

Paul

[Rev5GT]

Anyone local to Bradford with a grinder available to help me cut off this back panel for Paul...?? Drop me a pm if so..
If not I can ask a local garage but may take a week or so but would like to get it done sooner rather than later for Paul.

Cheers

[Pauln]

Christmas came early this year, and a replacement rear lower panel and boot floor is now sat in the body shop awaiting Bernard's return from his holiday in Barbados. So as this should be the last piece of the jigsaw, repairs can hopefully get under way in the new year.





Many thanks to Gullzter for getting this section cut out of the car he's scrapping, and for also finding a way to ship such an awkward object to South Wales.

What a great guy

Paul

[craig]

Glad you got sorted with a new panel. Certainly on her way back to former glory! Nice save.

[Toyota nut]

FairPlay on getting her fixed pal
hope all works out
And it's sitting her best like before

[Gullzter]

Looking forward to seeing the results in the new year, glad part of my shell lives on
And yeah was awkward, i was asking the lad at the garage to pack it for me aswell but he was having none of it

[Pauln]

After further discussion with the guys at the body shop, as the option was available, we've decided to replace both the boot floor and the rear panel. Whilst this means a bit more work, the general feeling was this would be stronger in the long run.

So the exhaust has been removed and the boot floor cut out ready for the replacement floor and rear panel to be fitted.



The car was then put on the jig to make sure the chassis was lined up correctly. Just a bit of tweaking of adjacent panel work, and then it's out with the welder.



One useful outcome of all this is that its been confirmed that the rev2 lower rear panel and boot floor can be replaced with rev3 items. The advice has always been that this should be the case, but I couldn't find anyone who had actually done it.

Hey does this make it a rev 2.5 body wise

Unfortunately the recent snow and ice has resulted in a massive surge of "insurance" repairs at the body shop, so further work has had to go on hold for a week or two. Which is a bit of a drag, but as insurance jobs are his "bread and butter", that's life.

Over the Christmas break I rewired the rear light/ reversing light loom which was a bit of a mess. A previous owner had made the quad/fog light mod using 3 rather than 4 diodes, and a generous supply of scotch and chocolate box connectors. Whilst using 3 diodes will operate as expected, it doesn't totally isolate the near and offside lights, which I prefer to see.

All joints are now either soldered or use soldered bullet connectors, and insulated using heat shrink connectors.

The lights themselves have also been given a good clean and polish, and everything checked on my na before delivery to the body shop.

Next up is to try and find a bit of time to give the exhaust a good clean and a lick of paint on the brackets linking the back boxes.

So slow progress, but progress none the less.

[craig]

Good stuff mate, glad she's on the mend! Every bit of progress, no matter how big, is progress toward the finish line!

Looking forward to seeing her back on the road.

[Pauln]

Now all the insurance jobs have been cleared the body shop are hoping to re-start work on my tubby this week.

In the meantime I've been putting together a replacement speedo cluster ready to swap over when I get the car back.

Not that there was anything wrong with the previous cluster, other than it's next to useless at night due to the previous owner fitting the dreaded combination of white Lockwood dials and blue leds. I also miss the voltage gauge of my na, especially as the stock boost gauge fitted is redundant as I have a much better boost gauge in my pillar pod.

So my plan is to replace my current cluster



with this



It's not a radical change, and I know most folks seem to prefer the look of black dials, but I kinda like white ones, and my main aim was to make them more practical in daylight, night and in between.

So when I saw a set of s/h na Speedhut dials at the right price in the forums last year I snapped them up. They illuminated blue so would match my colour scheme, and would allow me to swap the existing stock boost gauge for a voltmeter.

I was originally going to modify my existing cluster, but given the long delays following the accident, I decided to acquire another turbo cluster to modify so that I had something to do whilst waiting to get my car back.

I also managed to make it to the front of the queue for a Stef delimiter Peter was selling, and that has now been fitted to the rear of the new cluster. I wasn't sure which position to run the switch in, but with a temporary 12 v supply attached it hit 120 then 60 then zero in test mode with kph is selected, so I assume the switch markings refer to units the speedo was actually made for, rather than what you want to display.



As the +ign track to the speedo looked a bit iffy I added a new connection for this, and also added another couple of layers of insulation tape to the back of the delimiter to hopefully avoid any future problems with the solder joints it sits on.

Next up was a quick mod to the additional pc board for the stock boost gauge. This just involves removing two of the screws and linking the other two to create a pass through for -ign to the voltmeter. Which makes it very easy to revert to a stock boost gauge. Though at the moment I can't think why I'd want to.

I then used the temporary 12v supply to test the voltmeter was working OK.

The hardest bit was trying to match the mileage reading on the replacement cluster to that of my current cluster. I found this a bit fiddly and it took several attempts to get all the numbers lined up correctly, but a few test sweeps of the speedo resulted in the odometer clocking up another mile, so all seems to be well.

The n/a donor cluster came with a carbon fibre effect front panel, which I had intended to use. But when I came to fit some gauge rings to add a bit of bling, I found that I couldn't bend them over at the back due to the extra thickness of the panel. So I ditched that idea and went with the stock black panel.

Powering up the leds and the Speedhut dials with room lights on, it looks as though this setup is going to be much better at dusk than the standard white Lockwood dials which really aren't very clever at that time of day.



and with room lights out, its also looking good with the needles easy to see



My only reservation is that perhaps the white leds are a bit on the bright side. The test also showed that a bit more black insulating tape was needed to cure the light leak at the top through the outer clear plastic cover.

I've also decided to change all the warning lights to led whilst I'm at it. Well all accept the low fuel light.

So well pleased with what it looks like "on the bench". But the real test will be when I fit this in the car. I just hope everything works OK.

It will also be interesting to see what sort of delimiter is currently fitted. So if all goes well I should be able to get a bit of cash back by selling off surplus bits.

Paul

[mtechmatt]

Ouch looked nice then 'wack' crash damage...

Hope it all goes back together well for you - just having some paint done on mine where a lorry scraped it whilst it was in a storage yard - put a rip in the rear qtr...

Matt

[Pauln]

The replacement rear panel and floor have now been roughly fitted to the car. It's largely fixed in place with screws at the moment whilst everything is lined up, but so far so good.



There's still a bit more tweaking to do to get everything lined up correctly, particularly on the nearside, but once that's done it can all be welded together.



So I now have a rev 2 with a rev 3 lower rear panel. Which is good 'cause it means we don't have to start bashing it around to make the rev 3 reversing lights fit properly.

Unfortunately I only had my mobile phone with me when I called down the body shop earlier today, and with the car in a tight dark corner the photos aren't brilliant. But they do at least show they seem to be making a tidy job and the car is slowly coming back together again.

Paul

[Pauln]

Starting to look a bit more like my car again now. The boot floor has been welded in place. Welds now need cleaning up. Then its out with the seam sealer.



The replacement rear slam bar, rear bumper boot lid, centre panel and the old rear lights have been temporarily fitted to enable the final tweaks to get everything lined up correctly.



The offside wing is looking good, but there's a bit more work to be done on the nearside to get everything back where it should be.



As the replacement rear lower panel was "pre trimmed" to reveal more of the exhaust, I thought I'd better try and clean my exhaust up whilst it's off the car. I've wire brushed the non stainless steel bits and rubbed them down with some wet and dry, and then applied a coat of rust treatment.



Once that's dry I'll give those parts a coat of fresh paint. I can't at the moment decide whether to stick with black for the "hangers" and silver for the metal work in the middle, or black for that as well.

Any way once that's painted and I've applied some solvol Auto-sol and elbow grease to the stainless parts, it should look much better.

Paul

[Draven]

Have to say mate i'm so impressed with this. Most people would just have this happen to them and then just scrap the car. I have the upmost respect for you and the work you've done.

[Pauln]

Thanks David, I must admit at the beginning it was a bit touch and go whether to scrap her or not. But it took me a long time to find this one, and to be honest I really didn't want to start that process all over again. It's also helped having a stubborn streak and friendly body shop less than a quarter of an hour's walk away from home. Which is what got me past his initial "that's a write off reaction"

I just try not to think too much about how much I will have spent in the end.

Paul

[craig]

Have to say mate i'm so impressed with this. Most people would just have this happen to them and then just scrap the car. I have the upmost respect for you and the work you've done.

As per the above. Excellent job! Coming on a treat.