New Plan - A good idea?

[Chunky Monkey]

Ok last night I formulated a new plan for my MR2.
I had planed to do a full nose to tail restore on it inc every nut bolt & washer. As I plan to keep it for some years, collecting & fitting the options list, making a pretty valuable car.
Then came talk of cruise & air con & such like which I would like. Then I thought maybe a better way to go would be to proprly sort my current, not fitting any of the toys I have for it, sell it making some ££
Buying a tatty supercharger & doing a full resto on that.
That way I would have a top sepc mr2, with alot of the options list, including aircon & poss cruise, very clean, that I can keep for many years & it hold - if not increase in value & there would be nothing that I would think, I should have bought a supercharger!

Does this sound like a good plan?
What sort of price can tatty superchargers be picked up for? - I paid £100 for my N/A
& it really wants to have a LSD fitted & be in Red as we all know thats the best colour

[anthonyg]

The cheapest ive ever seen a genuine sc was £1500. Theres one on here for sale at mo for £2k.

But the plan is good, i restored my n/a but turned it into sc by default as the n/a give up the ghost!

[Tony jinxy froude]

Ask Crazylegs ( Kev ) about this, he paid around £1800 for a supercharger & has just paid in excess of 5K for a rebuild on it to top quality, so sometimes buying cheap doesnt always work out to be the best option. Jinxy

[Charged]

I've just sold a non running supercharger for £1500. The trouble is finding them, they only come up once in a blue moon.

Oh, and I've never seen a red supercharger in this country.

[anthonyg]

My sc engine came from a super red sc auto that i found in a scrappy in wigan so they are about! Just a shame it had no front end!

Infact it was an 86 car in super red which happens to be the same colour and year as mine, i re-wired it to run manual of course

[Chunky Monkey]

well one thing I do have is plenty of time to wait - I've got to get mine all fixed up first.
Red isn't really a problem, I can always give a white one a new coat

[HT]

well one thing I do have is plenty of time to wait - I've got to get mine all fixed up first.
Red isn't really a problem, I can always give a white one a new coat

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/toyota-mr2-mark-m ... otohosting

Try here for an imported N/A with aircon - could be a good project.

[SuperRedMR2]

When i bought mine (N/A) back in April 2005, i bought it from an Essex town called south benfleet

and just as i was on my way back with my mate (another white n/a at the time) on a driveway we saw a super red super charger! only one ive ever seen in red!

[Lauren]

Just buy the best SC you can afford and use that.

[kevin..in]

Just buy the best SC you can afford and use that.

yes getting the best to begin with will be the most cost effective way in the long run

[anthonyg]

Just buy the best SC you can afford and use that.

I agree. I spent thousands on my n/a, body work, suspension, engine etc but nothing compares to my sc conversion which cost around £400 so if i was doing it all over again id definately just start with an sc.

[Chunky Monkey]

this would/is a long term project, maybe 3~5 years.
Being abit handy with a weilder & a metal basher & also not afriad of getting mucky all labour costs would be nil. Dad was a sprayer & is more than capable of blowing a car over, so other than meterials & a few pints thats another cost that would be nil.
It would be a labour of love, keeping one eye on the wallet but not afraid of spending a few quid when needed.
My ultimate would be to find a quite rusty one, stripping it right down & doing a full nose to tail restore including a complete strip & rebuild of the engine. - what someone might call scrap I'd call a oppertunitiy

[anthonyg]

this would/is a long term project, maybe 3~5 years.
Being abit handy with a weilder & a metal basher & also not afriad of getting mucky all labour costs would be nil. Dad was a sprayer & is more than capable of blowing a car over, so other than meterials & a few pints thats another cost that would be nil.
It would be a labour of love, keeping one eye on the wallet but not afraid of spending a few quid when needed.
My ultimate would be to find a quite rusty one, stripping it right down & doing a full nose to tail restore including a complete strip & rebuild of the engine. - what someone might call scrap I'd call a oppertunitiy

I also bought mine as an 'opportunity' at £120, a few grand later (a good few grand later) and its an immaculate sc conversion
Just be aware how much the rust can cost you though dude, nobody replicates the panels or no where that i could find anyway so i had to go to MR T, front wings were about £110 each side, rear wings £250ish each side and the inner arches were £150 ish each side then theres the front lower panels £100 + and then a new wind screen if your doing a proper strip and rebuild like i did, list goes on but...
Before you know it over a grands gone just buying panels :-&

Dont get me wrong i love the car but if i was to do it again i'd start with a decent base car of the sc variety

[Chunky Monkey]

panels I don't see as a problem, IIRC nissan cherry arches? will sort those, sills could be made - or folded by a engineer, I'm friendly with our local panel supplier so any sheet metalwork won't be a problem.
I also have a good stock of healthy body panels & a whole T-bar in jelly boxes in my garage - so I'm only for 'stuff' lol
Yeh I could go out & buy a good one, but where's the fun in that? Your driving someone else's dream. Yes it may get you the instant fix & yes it won't cost you anywhere near as much but if you have all intentions of keeping it until your old & grey....
If you take a wreak & rebuild it, its yours, you've put the hard work in, you've made it happen, not only do you have the satisfaction you have everything else that goes with it.
Now if I could find a charger at 120......yeh I'd probably be hung from the nearest rafter!

[AW11 Forever..!]

Mac Sheavills who helps run the North East region of the Club has a 1989 MK1 Supercharger TBAR in red.

It's a beautiful car...

[waynestoyotamr2]

I sold a shabby white over silver SC for £1900

[MWallace]

I sold a shabby white over silver SC for £1900

Hmm, makes me think I'm pitching my blue t-bar SC too cheap! (See MR2s for sale section).

My car would be a great starting point for Chunky Monkey; top spec, great drive and an easy resto, with far less rot than your average UK MR2.

I've had the car for over 4 years and have become very attached to it, as one does with these cars. My plan was to fix the few less-than-perfect bits and keep it indefinitely, but a change in circumstances mean I'll soon be in the market for an Alfa 147 (probably less reliable than my 19 year old MR2, but it's the only 5 door hatchback that doesn't depress me to look at).

Wal

[Chunky Monkey]

right, thought about this some more.
I think what I might do is a full nose to tail restore as before & convert it to a supercharger, doing it properly of course so it looks just like it would if it were a real SC. The reason for this is my car I have needs quite abit to restore & I have a very nice history / wedge of paperwork for it so I think this might be best - & would save on the ££?

[Lauren]

right, thought about this some more.
I think what I might do is a full nose to tail restore as before & convert it to a supercharger, doing it properly of course so it looks just like it would if it were a real SC. The reason for this is my car I have needs quite abit to restore & I have a very nice history / wedge of paperwork for it so I think this might be best - & would save on the ££?

tbh i don't think history is that important on an MR2 as they will all be sold on their actual condition when seen rather than how many stamps they have from toyota.

Converting to SC is expensive. It will likely cost you around 2.5K if you do it yourself if you want it to be to a reasonable spec ie big pulley, exhaust etc. Also sourcing the bits can be quite difficult. Gearboxes are harder to get hold of and you'd want one with an LSD which are rarer still. Then there is the rarer than rocking horse poo driveshafts and of course the engine lid and lights.

I really think you'd be much better off buying an SC and sorting that out. I had a turnkey conversion five and a half years ago which cost me 3.5K. Sure the AE92 spec engine (like i had) is a better engine than the AW11 spec SC engine, but i could have easily bought a complete car for that money.