I need a kick up the ar$e.....

[Owen @ Kent Car Craft]

As i'm still putting my engine together bit by bit as some of you may know and i'm getting seriously depressed as its been 8months since i last drove it.I'm feeling a bit of "xxxx it,sell the thing and go by an already fast car and just drive it" things pi55ing me off....
1)Looking in the garage for parts,
2)Finding the car slowly building up a film of grey dust in the garage,
3)Spent over £4500 on it and still no-where near completion,
4)Having no bl00dy transport as i cant afford a run-around-sh1tter
5)Parts in my bedroom,parts in boxes in the garage,parts UPS have decided to lose for me,parts still in the US
I consider myself a v. competant mechanic,(christ i've been working on Renaults for the last 5years!!) so i'm capable but jeez,i'm on the edge of buying summat and just driving it
Has anyone felt like that?or do i care too much bout the b@stard car?
Or am i just thinking negatively?.......


I hate cars.

[raptor95GTS]

As i'm still putting my engine together bit by bit as some of you may know and i'm getting seriously depressed as its been 8months since i last drove it.I'm feeling a bit of "xxxx it,sell the thing and go by an already fast car and just drive it" things pi55ing me off....
1)Looking in the garage for parts,
2)Finding the car slowly building up a film of grey dust in the garage,
3)Spent over £4500 on it and still no-where near completion,
4)Having no bl00dy transport as i cant afford a run-around-sh1tter
5)Parts in my bedroom,parts in boxes in the garage,parts UPS have decided to lose for me,parts still in the US
I consider myself a v. competant mechanic,(christ i've been working on Renaults for the last 5years!!) so i'm capable but jeez,i'm on the edge of buying summat and just driving it
Has anyone felt like that?or do i care too much bout the b@stard car?
Or am i just thinking negatively?.......


I hate cars.

that all sounds deeply sh!t matey but look on the bright side. At least your girlfriend hasn't started complaining yet (cue the begining of a moan)

[Owen @ Kent Car Craft]

Actually, she's been really cool and doesnt seem to mind me spending every penny (£4500 on an engine rebuild?!?!? i'm dumb) which kicks a55 i guess.
still pi55ed:(:(

[raptor95GTS]

Actually, she's been really cool and doesnt seem to mind me spending every penny (£4500 on an engine rebuild?!?!? i'm dumb) which kicks a55 i guess.
still pi55ed:(:(

sounds like the perfect girlfriend if you ask me

[shafster]

rebuilds sound nice and easy in theory but when left this long can be a major pain in the @ss.

hope you get it sorted soon mate

[Owen @ Kent Car Craft]

Tell me bout it,even the bits i got marked up,the ink has gone maky and unreadable (almost)
wanna cry

[pizza boy]

Its the winter blues....you cant get a get a runaround!? Bollards! £150 minimum your laughin...my mate bought a "sorted" (lol) 96 sunny workhorse for 450 quid! 120miles to a tenner! He runs a 287bhp Nissan Skybus GTS-T normallybut has shacked it for winter and is usin the sunny for now.

[Terry]

Its not just you, my 2's been sat with its ass in the air for 9 months.

2 grand down, another 4 to go.


Got a AE92 Corolla GTi to run around in, fantastic little engine that 4AGE.

[Ben]

Just keep telling yourself, that it'll be worth it in the end.

Keep your chin up.

Ben

[Andy F]

Hey mate,i spent 16k and could't get anyone to build the engine, after being promised by 2 people that my car would be ready for TOTB3 which was exactly 12 from when i striped the engine, it still wasn't ready. The engines in now but still not mapped, if i were to do it again i would build it myself. Keep going it WILL be worth it

[Owen @ Kent Car Craft]

I guess it'll be worth it i have borrowed more money than i'm worth to do it but thats either dedication or stupidity.I have ever only taken on smaller projects like fiddly tuning and ECU stuff,not entire rebuilds although we do at work (im only 22 so experience isn't lending too much of a hand)
Just when mates say "lets go for a hack in my Evo eleventeen blah blah" whatever no. they're up to now,its a bit disheartening.
So has anyone else got any record months for their '2 being off the road?

[Paul R]

Hi,

Well I bought my tubby in November....so far the engine is out and I've spent about 500 quid on bits and pieces (uprated clutch, knock sensor, turbo/manifold/downpipe).

I need to get the head off next and get it repaired( stripped studs on exhaust manifold)

I'm planning on 2 months max and another 500 quid to rebuild the engine! I'm doing it all myself after work in the week.

You can do it mate!! stick with it. If I can lend a hand then I will!

Paul.

[Chris Downes]

It will be worth it mate, dont worry!! Keep plodding on. I can imagine the grin you will have when you first drive after doing the work... You will immediately think "it was worth the wait - and the money!"

In the last 12 months, my car was off the road for 9 having engine rebuild, bodykit and respray done. Still makes me smile everytime I drive it now!

[Jayng]

Hi Elmo

A few years ago I was also in you situation.. Felt exactly the same way as you do now..

My tubby was pretty quick when I had it shipped over from JPN. Lent it to someone and he came back after blowing it up.

My car ended ar$e-up for about a year and I didn`t have a second car to run about in except for borrowing a car once in a while.

Had the old engine out, new rebuilt engine next to it with all the ancillaries swapped over.... just couldn`t find the enthusiam to get it finished...Luckily for me I had a good mate that gave me a kick up the ar$e...Many of you know of him from the list and probably some meets.... Dino used to pop down my place quite a bit and I think it got to a point where he had enough and he came round more often to help me put the car back together. I started to enjoy messing around with the car again thanks to Dino.

Maybe you need to meet up with a few MR2 guys to get your enthusiam back.

Whereabouts are you?? I`ll be back from Japan in a couple of months and will be staying around London and East Sussex for a bit before I go back. Maybe I can return the good deed and give you a kick up the ar$e.
If you can take a bit of time off, I can give you a hand putting the car back together. It`s been a while but methinks I still know my way round the tubby.

Yeah, you can sell the car and bits at a loss and buy another car. But who`s to say that the next car won`t need work!!
Get this done and you`ll know that the job has been done properly.
I`m not saying that it`ll be all fine and dandy afterwards as there will be a few niggly things to sort out...just sods law...but you`ll know what to do as you put it back together yourself.

In the meantime....

GET OFF YOUR LAZY ar$e AND GET ON WITH IT!!!

[PW@Woodsport]

chin up elmo,big projects like this need just as much mental strength to see them through.My projects generally take around a year from conception to roll out day and the time in between is full of hair pulling out,desperation to drive it again,loss of momentum and watching your bank account being sucked dry is not good for morale! But! at the end of the day the reason you are doing it is to own a special mr2 and the feeling of accomplishment when you do finish it will be worth all of the torment.

My current V6 mk1 project is now into its 18th month of build including the 6 month planning and research and its still nowhere near finished.Theres days when i feel like just selling up and building another mk1 turbo (would probably take 2 weeks from start to finish this time around) but i know exactly how you are feeling.You got to stay focused and dream of the day it starts up,making an engine run that you have built and fitted yourself is the best feeling in the world,worth all of the pain.Try installing an engine that doesnt even belong in the car and you have a fistful of 60 or so ecu wires that need to find a home! Now thats demoralising!

Bottom line is we know you wont give up and you WILL finish the project,WHY? because you are an mr2 owner,mr2 owners dont give up.

Looking forward to seeing the end result and a full write up please!

[spudgun]

I can't see how you can't get yourself a bit of a run around elmo?
I'm knocking around in a metro that cost me 20 quid back in septmember. Even with an MOT it still owes me less than 100, and cost a tenner a month to insure. Not class motoring, I will give you that, but warmer and faster than walking.
It must be a nightmare being in your postion, but get yourself out to some meets and your enthuisiasim will soon come back. You know it makes sense.
All the best

[PW@Woodsport]

but warmer and faster than walking

thats open for debate mate! oh the shame a metro! i'll let you in on a little secret...i used to own an MG version,and even worse i had aspirations to stick a 6R4 kit on it...there you go,im out.

[nutter]

I'm right there with you mate. i am £4k through an engine build. I've run out of funds temperarily so i have a car that might work if i caould afford a i/c but cos i can't I don't know if everything is right! When i get depressed i always think about the labour. just imagine if you hand employed a garage to do the work you are doing. You could easily add another £2K to you current bill. Plus how would you know it's been built right? I had a guy build me an engine for an escort i once owned (dark times they were) i gave the guy £5k (alot of money for an escort non-turbo engine) it ended when i broke a valve and the peices went bouncing round the engine knocking a hole in one of the pistons. I vowed from that day on I would do it myself!

Chin up mate think of the pleasure when it's all finished

[Owen @ Kent Car Craft]

wow,i've had quite a reaction from this.I was just pi$$ed off and hung over so i typed all the xxxx thats pi55ing me off with the car.
Much appreciated guys
I have a good mate who virtually runs an engine reconditioners and we are both good fitters,although he is more 'shut up and lets get the job done/why are you whining' type so thats good i guess.
I know i'll appreciate it when its done,but when you got a pile of stuff worth nigh on £5k dotted around and an engine in thats 1/2 built its hard.
Can i mail someone a pic of how far we got,to host it on this page?[/img]

[Nelo]

Hey mate, you can mail the pic to me if you want: [email protected]

Just keep positive about the build, anybody who has done it on an MR2 before knows what you're going through. Yeah, it's hard and will probably be the most depressing few months of your life but just keep thinking of what it'll be like to drive...... there's light at the end of the tunnel!!

My car spent 2 months ar5e up after it went on fire at a trackday looking at it's donor brother that had been wrapped around a pole and was now been gutted by yours truly to give the firebird life again.


But seriously, don't leave it sitting there, luckily I had a deadline to meet in that the circuit where my car went on fire decided to give me a free trackday if I could get my car ready for the next event which was 2 months later so there was no way I was gonna let that slip!! And then when I met the deadline by 2 days the car was pasted around the track over a duration of about 7 hours....... that'll teach it for taking 2 months of my life away hahahah

/waffle

Cheers
Pete