TOM'S 96 Rev 3 GTS - BREAK ME UP, BEFORE YOU GO GO

[slipping clutch]

Thanks again, I'm flattered by the positive comments!

Bumper won't be for sale I'm afraid, I've learned the hard way to keep all/any old parts in case I change my mind or ever decide to sell the car in the future.

And yeah, I bust the old interwarmer to get it out, which was a shame as I wanted to hang onto it.

Tbh, although the side mount is up to the job at the min I might change to a boot mounted charge cooler in the future, I get as much pleasure from building as I do driving (engineer by trade and general engineering saddo as a hobby too) so I like any excuse to tinker

The mrs is definitely a keeper, a real girly girl but she shows a genuine interest in what I do.

If you want to start collecting parts for your charge cooler project Ashley on here has/had a boot mount radtec charge cooler core up for sale a while ago.

[ashley]

Sorry mate- sold it a while back, it's now in the Netherlands...

[C35Rob]

If you want to start collecting parts for your charge cooler project Ashley on here has/had a boot mount radtec charge cooler core up for sale a while ago.

to be honest, if it does come to fruition I'd use something better than the Radtec core, while it is alright in its intended position where the standard I/C fits, it's much less than ideal given a bigger space to play with, the core is tiny, the end tanks are odd shaped and restrictive and the core is only a single pass for the coolant.. I'd want something bigger, twin pass and better flowing, maybe even swap to a drivers side exit exit exhaust like the KO Racing, and mount the core under the boot floor on the passenger side so not to intrude into the boot.

either way, that's very much on the drawing board and low down on the list of priorities at the moment.

[ashley]

the core is tiny, the end tanks are odd shaped and restrictive and the core is only a single pass for the coolant.. I'd want something bigger, twin pass and better flowing

Radtech core is twin pass.

Single pass beats twin pass in my mind.

Other than that, agreed

[C35Rob]

not a great deal to add, more of a question really..

I've been rustling around in the boot and noticed some really poorly spliced wires that I had to re-do, I hate poor quality wiring work..

firstly it seems that the ECU is not the original one, its obviously a Toyota ECU but with "sw20 turbo, 5F" written on it, which suggests it's been bought from a breaker in Japan



unfortunately no pics of the twist 'n' go mess before but I soldered and heat shrunk the wires back together..



here the blue with black stripe had been cut, along with the black wire

I also noticed witness marks of scotch locks on a few other wires



here the white wire has obviously had a scotch lock on before



and here the purple/grey and black/yellow wires have been scotch locked


so, from what i can see:

white- IGT = ignition timing?

black/yellow - 12v+

purple grey - speed sensor

black - o2 sensor

blue/black pim - map sensor


so I'm guessing it's had a speed limit defender and fuel cut defender??

anyone care to enlighten me?


also, in more exciting news I've made a deposit on a set of wheels which I'll be picking up next weekend

[JD]

Sorry I can't be of any help but just wanted to say that I've got that HKS oil filter and bought it just because it was hot pink and said HKS on it

Very, very nice car.

[tubby_tony]

Nice car you have there and I like the mods you are doing. I'm just down the road in Wardley. Will be bringing my babe out of winter hibernation in May (possibly April) so I will keep a look out for you.

[C35Rob]

I picked these up today, wasn't going to fit them yet but couldn't wait...

car is in desperate need of a wash and polish.. but here goes











as can be expected I'm relatively happy...

got a few more nice bits and pieces in the post too but will wait till they turn up before a decent update..

[matt-mr2]

Those are some gorgeous wheels

[craig]

Lovely motor. Wheels look perfect on it.

[C35Rob]

Thanks, I love them, really suit the car, although I'm toying with the idea of going back to amber indicators and then when it needs tyres again I'll be splitting them down, re doing the centres in a pearl white, getting the bolts and possibly the lips gold plated... I need to look into how well gold plating would stand up to brake dust etc.

[JD]

Thanks, I love them, really suit the car, although I'm toying with the idea of going back to amber indicators and then when it needs tyres again I'll be splitting them down, re doing the centres in a pearl white, getting the bolts and possibly the lips gold plated... I need to look into how well gold plating would stand up to brake dust etc.

I got recommended this as a good wax for wheels and I imagine it would do a good job of protecting plated rims: http://www.finishkare.com/sub_Big_White ... m_2_14.htm

[david123]

Wheels look lovely. The white on white looks really good.

I would recommend Gtechniq C5 wheel armour or carbon collective wheel sealant however not sure how they would work on gold plated wheels.

what you doing with the work wheels?

[C35Rob]

Wheels look lovely. The white on white looks really good.

I would recommend Gtechniq C5 wheel armour or carbon collective wheel sealant however not sure how they would work on gold plated wheels.

what you doing with the work wheels?

I'll give that a try, got a couple of wheel sealants at the min but they aren't much cop..

As for the work wheels, as yet I'm undecided, I will probably refurb them as I had originally planned and put some track tyres on them, maybe go for a gold or gunmetal centre , they've got minimal kerb damage which will easily sand out and are still a rare lightweight forged wheel so I might regret selling them but then everything has it's price...

[Libertine]

I knew they would finish the car off mate.. looking at them now I'm gutted i've sold them! but i'm glad they've gone to a fellow MR2 owner

If you come to sell, be sure to give me first refusal.

Hopefully I can find some equips and they suit my car better than these did or i'll forever kick myself!

[C35Rob]

just a small update to keep things ticking over...

a couple of things I've ordered haven't turned up yet so not a great deal has happened to be honest..

I started to prep and paint my PP spats, surprisingly for ebay parts they fitted relatively well and only needed minor tweaking to get them to fit, the 'glass was a bit thin and cracked on the passenger side one so that needed another couple of layers of mat and the crack grinding out and filling which I've done today so I'll paint that one tomorrow.

pics are a bit sporadic unfortunately but I'll try to keep things in some sort of logical order

rubbed down and primed




heat gun to flash off the primer (too cold to paint really, but I'm a danger seeker so I cracked on)



onto the colour coat.. although I do have a compressor I chose to paint them with an aerosol because it's quick, easy and doesn't require any major prep.. I'm by no means the best painter in the world but I'm not bad, I won't go into how to paint parts here cause there's plenty of guides on the net and frankly, I do lots "wrong" (dusty garage, no ventilation, no tack rags/panel wipe, dusty hands, too cold etc etc)



first coat, orange peely, not fully wet



second coat, wetter, starting to flow



final coat, fully wet



after a few hours of drying on top of the fridge in the kitchen it was hard enough to flat back.. no pics of this, but basically I flat it back in the kitchen sink with 1200 w&d under trickling water

after that I polished it up with some cutting compound, then some autoglym SRP, followed by some poorboys ex-p sealant

results:



not too bad, certainly better than lots of "pro" jobs

next was fitting, I'd removed the OE lower trims and all of the bolts snapped which was delightful, but I had no intention of re-using them anyway

the spats were drilled to line up with the two standard holes, and an extra hole added for security, then the spat was attatched to the bumper with three big cable ties - this keeps it really securely in place but also means it can be removed in seconds if I need to



the spat was attached at the top of the bumper with a single 4.8mm rivet.



I then moved onto fitting the replica bomex bumper I bought off ebay, I should really know better by my age that replica parts are usually crap and things are cheap for a reason.


anyway, the standard bumper came off easily and I offered the "bomex" up - it didn't fit, I fiddled on with it for a while, trimming and adjusting and decided that while I can make it fit I'm never going to be happy with it so I put it in the shed and called it a day - anyone want to buy a cheap bomex rep?













so I bought the genuine Tom's kit that was for sale on here.

in other news, I fitted the genuine Broadway mirror that came in the post the other day

[Bricknall]

Hi rob. Stunning car mate, they look so well in white, Let alone a one in this condition! Thought id shout up as im also a fellow Gateshead'er. I should be heading down to the American car meet when it fires up agen if I still have the mr2 by then and its not as tatty as it is now...
How did you find the 2 on the hartside? I cant wait for the weather to pick up and get back up that way, however I'll be heading via Stanhope and Middleton before getting to Alston. Much more fun than the 69.

Steve.

[C35Rob]

Hi rob. Stunning car mate, they look so well in white, Let alone a one in this condition! Thought id shout up as im also a fellow Gateshead'er. I should be heading down to the American car meet when it fires up agen if I still have the mr2 by then and its not as tatty as it is now...
How did you find the 2 on the hartside? I cant wait for the weather to pick up and get back up that way, however I'll be heading via Stanhope and Middleton before getting to Alston. Much more fun than the 69.

Steve.

Thanks, it's nice to hear that people appreciate what I'm doing, it makes updating this worthwhile

as for the Hartside pass.. it was a nice day out but the first half of it is too narrow and twisty for the mr2, it's fun but frustrating as you can't really drive it hard.. I know I would have had more fun in my old MX5 which had a lot less power and handled better so it could be driven in maximum attack mode all the time. It didn't help that the MR2 was on hard old J-spec Dunlop "le mans" tyres though and maybe when I've got more seat time in it I'll be a bit more confident in its limits - it really needs softer suspension too, the KYB's are rock hard and not really suited to that sort of road.

anyway, progress..

my new wheel nuts turned up, not exactly something to rave about but the work nuts that were on the car originally were a bit crusty and I didn't trust the china spec alloy nuts that came with the desmonds. these are pretty blue nuts, but forged steel not alloy so a win-win deal.





my Takata harness turned up too, I went for the "Drift 3" which is road legal, has 3" shoulder straps and 2" lap belts. I chose black because although I do like the original green it is very "played out" and people automatically assume a green takata (esp with bride graduation seats) is a fake, and I don't like fakes.



that'll be going together with the bucket seat I've had in my spare room for well over a year - I bought it for a previous project but never used it, it's not an amazing brand but it's nicely made, mega comfy and the most important thing is its FIA approved, unlike the fake ebay recaros and brides that the scene kids love.





at some point in the future I'll probably buy another one for the passenger side, maybe if I'm feeling flush I might upgrade to a real set of brides, or give the new Takata seats a try - which are really just re-branded Cobra suzuka's

also yesterday I did a 500 mile round trip to pick up the toms kit which is now living in my dining room.. it's had some repairs in the past to a reasonable standard and needs some work to get it up to my standard but it shouldn't take long - I'm going to pick up a litre of paint today after I've done some welding on my dad's car so hopefully will get at least the front bumper painted and fitted this week.

[C35Rob]

this turned up this afternoon too...





looks to be a reasonable bit of kit, as with all GRP stuff it needs an amount of prep before it can be painted but will crack on with that tomorrow.

I couldn't resist whipping the original spoiler off and test fitting this one



I really like how it looks by it's self but I'm not sure how well it's going to work with the tom's kit at the min.. I actually liked how it looked with no spoiler - maybe something to consider for the future.

[ashley]

this turned up this afternoon too...

Nice