Luke (Skywalker's) 2GR-FE MK2- Full restoration/build

[Race Idiot]

No, its a different shell. He decided a while back to commit to a different one. not too sure why! It is an import rev 3 though.

I remember him telling me why he ditched the old shell but I can't remember what the reason was.

The current shell was imported by the same people though, I think it was NVI and the reg numbers were pretty close iirc.

Looked like a pretty messy and hard job stripping all that underseal off haha!

[jbliss]

Thanks for that! good to know the info. I do wonder why he got rid of the original shell. i think it was cleaner than this one, could be wrong though!

Yeah its a very messy job, but its gotta be done!
J

[Charged]

Old shell was cleaner but I think he may have cut it about a bit.. I was very surprised when he told me it had been scrapped.

[Rory]

How's this coming along? Any progress?

[jbliss]

Hi Rory

Yeah theres been some progress, but its relatively slow!

Ive been continuing to strip all the underseal and deal with any issues we find

We're waiting to get the rear arches replaced as with a borescope, you can see they're starting to rust. I'd rather have these replaced now, than do all the work and have the problem in a few years!

After that, its going to go for blasting underneath and the wheel arches, just to remove everything and any surface rust that might be there for good. Then its going to be hot zinc coated. Its a pretty cool process where zinc is melted through a gun and then sprayed onto the surface. Its essentially galvanising but without the dipping. It will mean that its a completely solid base and zinc has great anti corrosion properties.
Once that is done, it will be epoxy primered followed by the raptor bedliner.

Hoping to get all of the above done by mid Jan. The hold up at the moment is trying to find someone to weld the arches!

More soon i hope

[Rory]

Wow you really are going to town on this. Sounds like it's going to be amazing when finished.

[Buster]

Following this build for sure.

[Driftlimits Performance]

Hi everyone.
Im aware there haven't been any updates for quite a while. Finding time to work on the car is quite difficult!

Anyway, we are hoping it will be ready for the memorial which does not give much time to get it completely built and back to the bodyshop

Here's whats been happening:

I bought a Rotisserie and made mounts that bolt to the front and rear crash bar. (this will be for sale in a week or so if anyone fancies a full resto!)


Then the car went to the bodyshop to have the underside 2k Epoxy primered before we bedliner. Took a while to get it to this stage!




I also had the frunk and the engine bay sprayed in the final colour so that we could build the car and get it running, without the worry of damaging fresh paint. Im not going to upload those pictures because i dont want to give the final colour away yet!

Julian

[Rory]

Looks amazing. Gutted I can't make the memory day this year though. Unfortunately I'm away but I'm looking fwd to seeing the pictures.

[muckyman]

I know the final colour

Its lush

[Driftlimits Performance]

Apologies for the silence on here, been pretty busy!
This is going to be a pretty big update!

So i got the car back from the bodyshop where they epoxy primed the underside and painted the bay and the frunk. The next job was then to seam seal and Bedliner.

Before bedliner and after seam sealing


And heres after Bedliner.


Very happy with the result and it looks brand new!

After that it was time to get the powdercoated running gear back on the car which had all been fitted with SuperPro bushes.
I also took this opportunity to change the steering rack worm gear to a MK3 one. This means its less turns lock to lock.

I am going to change the suspension bolts for new ones!


And finally it was time to get the 3.5l V6 engine in the car. This went in surprisingly easy!

And in the hole!



And after dealing with endless amounts of wiring, and phone calls to the legend that is Paul Woods- She lives! Went for paint the other day so next time i see it will be in a month or so!

[craig]

Absolutely outstanding work!

Looking forward to seeing it finished. Luke would be proud.

[Charged]

Well done mate, it's looking amazing and I can't wait to see it finally finished!

[Driftlimits Performance]

Thanks everyone.

Also, can't forget about the interior...
I decided to go with Genuine Alcantara in Black. One of Lukes good friends, Ayo Blake is a master. Usually hand making luxury leather goods Ayo does everything by hand and here is a teaser of the interior.

Hand quilted/stitched pattern..takes days to do!

The image makes it look grey, however its deep black with black stitching.

[Driftlimits Performance]

Julian here

So the car is at the bodyshop and lots of time has been taken to make sure everything fits perfectly. its nice to have the car at a bodyshop that is as picky as i am.

Anyway, we're about ready for some more Primer now... We're hoping to still have the car back by saturday, ready for the memorial on Sunday. It will be incredibly tight, but we will see!

Getting everything lined up



Rubbing down and ready for the next coat of primer.

]

[Driftlimits Performance]

Hi all

Julian here again. I realised i never updated the thread

So the car is now sprayed and most of the external work has been done.
There are a few outstanding jobs to be done, but im hoping to get the car ready for MoT within a month or so.

Anyway, here are some pics of how it stands. Luke wanted a kind of midnight purple, but not regular midnight purple and i think this does that pretty well

Next up is the interior and getting some wider lips for the rear wheels!

[ste_brough]

Hats off to you, that looks amazing. Can't wait to see the interior

[jbliss]

So its been a bit quiet on the car recently due to being away quite a bit, but managed to spend a week getting some stuff done. There are just lots and lots of small jobs that take time.

I redid the fuel lines and changed the regulator. previously there was three lines, Rail-regulator, Regulator-fuel filter, Fuel filter-tank. With the new regulator it eliminates one line and two fittings. Its all fit together with -6 fittings, rather than just hose and clamps. Thanks to Wilhelm Raceworks for this and the fitting. Will get a pic in the next few days,

I also modified the coolant neck to include the filler on the top rather than having a pipe to mate up to the standard filler on the strut tower. Then had it powdercoated. Cleans up the bay a bit.


And finally here is a pic of the finished engine bay, with only the strut braces left to fit. Had some more parts powdercoated and i think it looks pretty good!


Just the rad fan wiring and radiator bleed valve to install, then ill upload some videos of it all running.


I

[Race Idiot]

Looks great!

Did you get the seat stuff sorted out? Sorry I completely forgot your text you sent me about it. I was gonna say just come and have a look at my car but I've parked it in me garage waiting for body parts to arrive.

[jbliss]

Funnily enough im about to order some Recaro Pole Positions. Yours are the regular FIA ones right, or are they the ABE ones?