Patrick's 1999 Cosmos Blue NA T-Bar

[pnelson]

Hi everyone.

I've been lurking around the forums for a while now (I don't post much) and thought I'd start a little section on my current MR2. She's on 63K miles, has a K&N filter, and Magnex exhaust as fitted by previous owner. When I got it I serviced her and changed a sticky front calliper. I also recently fitted a decat pipe. It's my daily driver.

I haven't had a chance to take any decent pictures of her yet so this'll have to do for now!



Here she is after being crashed into a couple of months ago (woman couldn't be bothered to check her mirrors before changing lanes out of stationary traffic):



Strangely enough, after leaving her for a few days the dent popped itself out! I'm half way through fitting new indicators in this picture:



Still need to get my replacement bumper resprayed and fitted.... keep putting that one off!

I took her round Snetterton in the wet in November... it ended rather predictably with a spin! Note the mud in this picture!:



Fitted a decat pipe at the weekend (shiny!!):




Here's my previous MR2, a red 1999 NA T-Bar:



She was stock apart from 16 inch Wolfrace Alloys and a Mongoose exhaust, both fitted by the previous owner. Check out the laquer peel:



I drove it to Belgium a couple of years ago - she was a good car. Sadly had to go because at the time I was driving 300 miles a week to get to work.

Here's me with my old MBG (bone stock):



Currently on my to-do list:

• Get replacement front bumper resprayed and fitted
  New numberplates front/rear
  Paint underneath boot (above exhaust) when weather gets warmer
  Think exhaust might be blowing a little after fitting decat
  Polybushes... maybe
  Replace rear tyres (Toyo Proxes?)

[SonicSW20]

Edit: nevermind, images are working now! Welcome

[aussieGT]

noice

[Draven]

Super lucky that the dent popped itself out although a bumper wouldn't be all that much second hand

Looks lovely.

[pnelson]

Thanks!

I already have a replacement bumper sourced. Just need to organised getting it sprayed, then I can fit it.

That'd also be a good time to replace the broken foglight bulb as the screws are rusted in there pretty good!

[Draven]

The screws on the foglights are a pain, you'll most certainly need to drill them out but you have to be super careful as it will get hot and melt the plastic. It is very very rare to get the fog lights off without breaking the tabs. I did have a special bracket made to reattach my fog lights.

[SonicSW20]

Special bracket = cable ties? That seems to be how a lot of the broken ones are held in! Both of mine are chipped, one has a hole in the lens... 25k miles a year isn't kind to it.

[Draven]

Well if they are completely snapped there isn't much you can do with cable ties, had a alloy bracket made which was riveted to the top of the light in the right place, then bolted to the correct holes.. easy and solid

[craig]

Nice motor

[pnelson]

I'm hoping changing the fog bulbs will be a lot easier without the bumper on the car. Fingers crossed I can extract the screws somehow and fit bigger screws in their place.

If not I'll come up with something.... perhaps a 3D printed replacement.

I have a similar issue with the rear number plate lights. Not really sure how to get to the back of them.... thinking about it now I should have looked into it whilst I had the silencer off at the weekend.

[pnelson]

Where there's a will there's a way....



My road bike fits in with the passenger seat removed and the wheels go on the rack!

[pnelson]

Fitted some stainless chassis reinforcement bars from Drift Limits. Don't think the old ones were doing much as on one side it was literally in two pieces!



Surprised it passed its MOT like that.

Not 100% sure what the bars are for. I would guess rear crash protection as they aren't in a great orientation for chassis stiffness.

[Madabout]

Nice on the new stainless steel bars. I have them for my car although mine are alright. Just a upgrade to do.

Nice looking MR2 BTW.

[pnelson]

I have been away for almost a year doing various things so haven't seen much of the car...

Since I've been back have had the sills cut out and repair panel welded in:






Car is probably a couple KGs heavier now!

Wasn't sure what to do with wheels, I looked at RP01s or RPF1s.... settled on a set of Advan RGIs. Very pleased with them.... the tyres are a little big but no sense in throwing them away so gonna run them till they're used up.





I've also had the bumper off a load of times sorting out the fog lights...



Managed to drill and extract all but one of the bolts. I swear it was made of unobtanium... i sacrificed most of a brand new set of cobalt drill bits to it before giving up and drilling out the nut from the rear.



Now that I've done all that work and rivnutted the holes I think I actually prefer it with no foglights! Has been good to get the front end off and sort a few bits. New crash foam is in, nut plate is pop-riveted to the bumper and so on. I'd advise everyone to buy shares in stainless bolt suppliers as I'm buying obscene amounts of them.

Speaking of which.... Had a stuck bolt on the dizzy cap. Was held on with cable ties for a while but needing sorting before hitting the track again... Wouldn't want to have to explain that to the marshalls if it fell off and caused a red flag... 'Well you see guys, my dizzy cap was held on by cable ties...'.

Plan was to drill the holes out and helicoil it.



The dizzy didn't like this plan. Got a secondhand one off of eBay and moved my new(ish) cap and rotor arm over. Car seems to run a little better but it's probably in my head.

That's been it for a little while... Just been cursing lack of AC over the last few days. It's unbearably hot in the car due to black interior and glass roof!

[Rory]

Looks great! I love those advan wheels!

[pnelson]

Thanks Rory, I really like the look of them.

They're pretty heavy though so worth keeping that in mind!