Kiddo's '91 GT T-Bar

[Kiddo]

Not sure why I've left it this long to start a project thread, but better late than never..!

Basically, after selling my 400bhp R33 Skyline, I had a car-shaped hole I needed to fill. With only a short journey to work and a lot of twisty roads where I live, I was after something small, lightweight and fun. This is where I didn't buy an MR2 but a mk1 Honda CRX 1.6 16v. Great little car, roadworthy too but to be honest, it was a bit of a project. With a lot of welding required, it became unused and the car shape hole reappeared..!

So this is where I started looking for MR2s, mk1s to be specific...but...like the CRX, they were all either affordable rust-buckets or unaffordable minters

Then I saw this...

[Kiddo]

Here's the original add for some more pics...

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=184877

Pete took me out for a spin and I was really impressed with the handling, I basically wanted it from the first corner!

It was perfect for a summer-project car that I could use and enjoy and from the moment the keys were in my hand, I was hooked!

The first few jobs were simple enough; wire up the horn, replace the switch on the drivers door lock to sort the central locking and move a wire to sort the alarm.

Next up was sort the leak on the cam cover and give it a service as the date on the oil filter was 2007, so guessing it was nearly due







New cam cover gasket from Toyota






Guess which one's the new one...


Much better...




The car was now leak free. I'd given the engine a complete flush before the oil change and thoroughly cleaned the throttle-body and it ran really nice and smooth. More to come...

[pistol pete]

Well done looking good
Cracking car

[Kiddo]

It really is mate, it's off the road for winter and there's a pile of upgrades waiting to go on before spring

[Kiddo]

Pete happened to be breaking a G-Limited that ended up being a wealth of spare parts - that's where the X-brace came from. I'd stripped the sub, amp, front speakers and cables out for some weight saving and managed to get the little storage box cover behind the passenger seat to replace the hole from the sub, so now had T-bar panel space.

I wanted to freshen up all the ignition side of things, so managed to get some Magnecor leads, brand new but with 20% off using an eBay voucher code, result
New rotor arm and dizzy cap too...

[mister two]

Another member coming from an r33. Mine was a daily which got written off last year. Got a beemer for my daily duties now and a rev4 mk2 for my next project. Not really got started on it yet though- life gets in the way lol

[Kiddo]

Haha yeah tell me about it - I did all the work on my R33 before I was a shift worker, now I have to book some sneaky holiday and not tell the Mrs if I want to get anything done!

[Kiddo]

Next up was the interior. The seats were pretty tired and worn but dead comfy, so I bought a leather repair kit off eBay for about £20 and set about giving them a budget refurb...

Quick sanding to get the bolster perfectly flat


Trimmed this missing section


Built-up the missing foam with some sponge


If I was doing a refurb again, I would cut a section of leather the approximate size of the hole and glue it in place, then fill. I ended up just filling the hole (with the filler!) and sanding. It took ages and doesn't have the finish of leather (but it's better than it was)




Leather paint applied


Really improved the cars interior, but I felt there were a couple of things the inside still needed

[Kiddo]

The interior was starting to come together, and for a late 80's/90's car, I think it'd aged pretty well. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the door cards that I had - they might have been out of a UKDM car with leather interior, I'm not sure, but they were the fake black leather look and were just a bit too black...

I'd got a pair of cards from Pete, only problem was the arm rest was starting to go on the drivers side. Time for some fibre glass...




The new cards really helped to break up the black of the interior and a bit of eBaying had turned up something that would really finish the interior off...


Man in dandism mats. Not mint, but not bad considering their age.

[Kiddo]

This brings things up to the present, well, the last few weeks anyway...

I want to go on a few track days next year so I've decided to concentrate on the brakes and suspension. The plan: upgrade brakes to turbo/rev2+ spec, braided lines and brake stopper. Rebuild suspension with new inserts, new top mounts for the front and Apex lowering springs. Poly bush and new ball joints, maybe strut braces and finally get it all aligned for fast road/track. Oh and get a set of staggered OEM 15's...

Well, eBay turned up trumps again; a localish garage clear-out of old MR2 parts, some of which looked like brakes and wheels..!

Everything in total for £80. Completely filled my mk3 Mondeo estate with the back seats down too!



Well, the calipers turned out to be two rears (22V) with carriers, but just the one 36T30 front caliper and no carrier in sight...so it was eBay to the rescue again and £30 got a replacement carrier and a complete caliper and carrier. New KYB top mounts and Apex 30mm lowering springs arrived too.



So next on the list is some rebuild kits for the calipers, but before then a lot of wire-wheel work and caliper paint to get them looking the part

[craig]

Looks tidy

[Kiddo]

Well it's been a while..!

Basically, the MR2 looked like it was done-for, got replaced by a 3.0 Z4 and spent ten months off the road. I finally decided to sell it, jump started it and took it round the block only to instantly want to keep it!

The reason it came off the road was down to a few things, but mainly a goosed alternator and more worryingly, possible head gasket failure (losing coolant and gunk in the oil cap). With those factors and needing new tyres and possibly a windscreen for an MOT, it was looking costly so it ended up SORN'd.

I couldn't get the engine up to temp to do a compression test with no alternator so I decided to take the plunge and got a new one and new Bosch S4 battery. I could finally take it for a drive (on private roads officer ) then compression test it, only for the readings to be all good and make me wish I'd done this ten months ago!

Next up was to put it in for an MOT, which it only failed on tyres, result! Even the massive stone chip in the windscreen was just an advisory! I'd sourced some OEM 15" wheels and got some new Toyo Proxes T1R's as I wanted to focus on handling over looks. One MOT later and it was back on the road!



I then sourced everything I'd need to rebuild the suspension and upgrade the brakes and got cracking. First, the brake refurb...









Budweg seal kits and just a silver Hycote caliper paint were used.

[Kiddo]

Next up was the suspension rebuild. To keep the price down, I went for new shock inserts rather than replace the whole strut (four times..!).

With a couple of days booked off work at the end of the week and the weather looking decidedly average, the work began...



I ended up taking the rear shocks into work that evening as I couldn't get the gland nut off. This gave me a good head start for the next two days.



I reused the old top mounts (still solid) but replaced the dust boots, bump stops and rusty springs with some new Apex ones.

I did have a bit of a result when I took everything apart - the rear calipers were refurbished rev2+ calipers mounted on rev1 carriers and discs so I only had to replace said carriers and discs after cutting the backing plates off. Gave them a couple of coats of paint so they'd match the fronts too. New tie-rods and Hel braided brake lines finished the rears (I used a drilled-out 12mm P-clip to secure the brake lines, they just hadn't turned up at this point!)

[Kiddo]

Time for the fronts...shame as they look so new





As the gaps between the spring coils are quite large on the fronts, I loosened the gland nuts off with the struts still on the car, saving me a trip to work and a good couple of hours.



I've got receipts for all the struts being replaced in the early 2000's and they'd covered around 40k miles since, but three out of the four struts had absolutely no rebound...





New top-mounts and spring-plates for the fronts...



I was planning on poly-bushing the whole car but time wasn't on my side so all I got fitted were the front ARB bushes.



For some reason I haven't got photos of the fronts all back together, but it's pretty much the same as the rears; new tie-rods, refurb'd calipers, braided hoses, springs, dust boots etc.

Then came the time to bleed the brakes, with no helper and no EZ-bleed with the correct fitting... This was by no means the final bleed; but it was enough to stop the car (just!) but man did it take ages! Queue A-Team music...

[Kiddo]

And finally, a before and after shot...





The ride height has settled a bit since then and the brakes bled (with a helper!) so all-in-all it feels much better, very comfortable over the bumpy roads. Next up when I've got a few days free will be to tackle the poly-bushes and get it all aligned, then it's ready for summer

[craig]

Excellent work sir!

[pistol pete]

Good man.. thought i hadn't seen it around in a while!!

good to hear the love it back. it is looking good

those z4's are a lot of fun aren't they

[Madabout]

Some good work getting it back on the road.

[Kiddo]

Thanks for the comments, yeah it's getting there slowly... Really want the wheels refurb'd now.

I do like the Z4 Pete, goes well, handles well, plus it's fully loaded and the Mrs likes the heated leather, but if I just fancy a drive, I'll get in the MR2!

[Ben]

Blimey. I must have seen or been in (possibly even driven?!) this while Pete had it, but his cars have all blended into one and I don't even remember it!

Good to read the progress though, amongst all the mega builds here it's nice to see an early NA getting some decent attention. Keep up the good work