[Jumbosrule]

Nice looking car and lots of good work done by you. I like the side skirts. Do you know who they are made by?

Thank you... but my plans change daily based on what I find under the skin.

The Side skirts are Kaminari. And I have the matching rear bumper lip too. Are you interested? :grin2:

This weekend when I tried to remove the damaged bumper and fenders, the side skirts had to come off in order to get the fenders off. It was a mess. The side skirts had a couple inches of material MOLDED IN to the body. So to get the fender off, I had to first remove the side skirts, which required breaking away the molded seams. Here she is with fender and side skirt off. I've started sanding out scratches and dings on the driver's side.

That gave me a chance to clean off the underbody and anywhere I saw rust, I cleaned it and sealed with self etching primer. The front bumper support looks like it was cut at the ends, so they were rusting. THere was white overspray everywhere and lots of dust and dirt. Front end now looks minty fresh.

UNFORTUNATELY, the previous owner did an amazingly CRAPTASTIC job of modifying the paint and body of this car. I took this one photo to illustrate 4 different bad decisions made.

1) rubber side intake shroud painted - trying to strip off this paint to leave them black
2) Bondo filling the door trim line the length of the entire car. It's cracking and sagging in some places.
3) side skirts partially molded into the rockers (broken off)
4) Unpainted original side skirt/rockers, overspray from loose aftermarket side skirt, fiberglass resin leftover

BUT, on the upside - engine mechanicals seem to be sorted. She starts right up.

New fenders and bumper have arrived.

 

[Jumbosrule]

I'm just gonna post updates like it hasnt been a year since my last post.

So yeah - the bumper and fenders I ordered didnt work for me. I ended up trading the bumper for OE, and then just buying some aftermarket vented fenders. Yes, completely functional - I not only cut the fender liner, but I also painted all the structure black so it disappears through the vents. Installed, but in dire need of a full body paint job. Here she is driving to get her first tank of gas in 6 years.

Now that the body is complete and she is running and driving, I needed to address the computer. The old setup was on a bunch of Alphabet boxes - HKS VPR, Greddy BC, Greddy TT, etc... and all of that came out of the car in favor of a new Link ECU tuned by Danny at Unrivaled Tuning. The install and tune showed us some dead sensors, a bad timing belt install, and some other annoying details that will need to be fixed. But we got through install and tune, found the limit of the stock fuel system and made it derivable; 210whp at 13psi.

Limitation was intake temperatures and injector duty cycle (as expected) so not 24 hours after getting the car back from the tuner, I pulled the trigger on an intercooler upgrade.

Install revealed a few other small issues that will need to be fixed... but for the most part the IC went in very smoothly.

I honestly cant deal with the blue couplers. Got black on order.

And completely for fun, and because I had the parts in my garage - a vacuum block manifold to clean up the vac line routing.

I also spent a good number of hours cleaning, looming wires, rerouting and zip-tying anything that needed it. Found a LOT of total BS done to this car and un-doing it as best I can but will never be able to go back to stock. She's too far gone for restoration so it's just gonna be my own thing - as usual.

 

[Jumbosrule]

Short update. Since I removed the O2 sensor (which was OBVIOUSLY not being used due to the fact that the wires were cut off the sensor) I found a block off plate.

Removed the stock heat shield and masked the "dont touch" sign, then sprayed it with high temp engine enamel. You can see the O2 block off plate installed on the downpipe. Also, the black silicone couplers arrived, which makes me so much happier than the blue couplers.

And all back together.

Pretty excited to get this car on the road. Re-Registration process has started and I'm getting the car smogged this week! Hope to be officially back on the road before the end of next month.

 

[Jumbosrule]

Progress continues in a big way! The IC loop install was completed successfully. The car has now been registered, tagged and smogged int he state of California, and has been performing daily driver duty for the last THREE DAYS. Literally the first 100 miles the car has seen for 7 years!!!

The worst part of my build is the exterior, mostly because I was not the one to make many of these choices. But I am working with what I got... and embracing the rice. You already saw the OE blue bumper and black aftermarket vented fenders. I have a problem with non-funcitonal... so they are. Fender liner has been cut, and the chassis painted black to make it dissappear through the vent holes.

Then, I spent about 4 days prepping, filling, priming and painting the fender and bumpers with straight up rattle cans from OReilly's.

Fitted with the side marker deletes and new clear signals (amber bulbs). Also refinished the bottom lip.

Definitely some shade differences, but the rest of the body needs all kinds of work as well. For now - it hits a minimum standard for me and Im fine driving it like this!

Registered for MR2 Assemble on the 19th - my first MR2 event. Plan on hitting Cars and coffee this weekend!

 

[Jumbosrule]

Did the MR2 Assemble 7 event this past weekend. The car handled the GMR cruise like a champ.

Made it to the lot and hung out with a bunch of bad influences. MR2 Heaven was there, and I couldnt help but pick up the engine lid fan and shroud kit, which was then installed just a couple hours after I got back from the event.

I never showed engine temp problems, but my oil temps were starting to creep up in traffic coming home. My thinking here is that the dual fans will totally encourage both the side intake IC loop, by helping to pull air out of the bay, making the side mount fan more efficient. It should also increase airflow through the other side, where the air intake and one of the oil coolers is located.

Wiring this thing in was a breeze - I just used a simple 15A add-a-fuse to the 20A fuse in the box and wired the fans to come on with ACC, like the side mount IC does. Everything is working as it should be, but I haven't tried taking the car out with these fans installed yet.

The suspension was actually really great on the mountain road, but doing my reading I've found a few things I wanted to do just because of the age of the car. I'll be getting a new set of axles for the E153, along with a set of poly bushings, which should compliment the Wilhelm Raceworks Geometry kit, along with all new ball joints and tie rod ends from Centric. These are the parts waiting for install.

Along with the bracing, HKS coilovers and front/rear sways already installed, this should bring the suspension up to standard for my planned future power levels.

Finally, I repaired the Kaminari side skirts and rear trim, painting them the same as the OE lip. After installing them, I think I like the kit 100 times better when it is blacked out against the white body. And after going to the meet this weekend and seeing none others... I think I gotta keep it long term.

 

[Jumbosrule]

Marching forward. The fan shroud eliminates the standard hood prop... so I had to go with the gas shock prop. Seems like it should be bundled together with the shroud kit since its kinda necessary to retain normal function.

Also, my new Prothane bushings showed up. ALong with the Wilhelm geometry kit and the new ball joints and tie rod ends... I got some work to do for install!

Also received a new set of E153 Axles - my CV was clicking on the right rear. Plan to have my old ones rebuilt to have as future spares if I can find a place that makes that worth doing.

 

[Jumbosrule]

Marching forward! The Geometry kit new ball joints and poly bushings are now installed, but my rear RCAs wouldnt clear my wheels... so I had to get new ones.

When I got the car it had OE Solara wheels on it:

But through an importer I know, I got some Volk CE28 wheels for a deal.

Immediately mounted with Falken Azenis

And another piping tweak - single piece pipes from Turbo to IC and IC to throttle body. Engine bay is starting to shape up!

 

[Jumbosrule]

KW V3 installed, followed by my first alignment with all the new stuff installed. Time to run some canyons this weekend.

 

[Nabera]

Great updates! That geometry kit is fantastic, have the same on mine. Wilhelm is one of the best, great support and quality products. Love how the car is looking with the black lip and side skirts. One day I'll focus on the exterior of mine haha.

 

[sinistar]

View attachment 69002

KW V3 installed, followed by my first alignment with all the new stuff installed. Time to run some canyons this weekend.

Looks great. It has evolved nicely under your care.

 

[Jumbosrule]

Great updates! That geometry kit is fantastic, have the same on mine. Wilhelm is one of the best, great support and quality products. Love how the car is looking with the black lip and side skirts. One day I'll focus on the exterior of mine haha.

My exterior needs a lot of help but I have learned how to hide the defects in my photos with a little creative lighting and focus. The black front lip, sides and rear trim came out much better than I had imagined... and I put some thought into why. Usually the side skirts give the car a lower look, because they drop down closer to the ground. But when black, they almost dissappear and that lowering effect isnt as strong. Neither is the shape effect, so they become very understated. Its only when you get up close that the detail is obvious and I really like the way it looks up close.

I took the old stuff off the car, repaired it where needed with some fiberglass and resin, sanded and then sprayed with rubberized undercoating, so its textured and matte. At some point in the future I'll have the entire car painted but I think all the trim is going to stay black, and textured, while the body stays white. No plans to restore the beltline trim. Gonna roll with it.

Looks great. It has evolved nicely under your care.

Thanks man. It was really hard to be motivated to work on this car for 3 years without ever having driven it, or ANY MR2. But once I got it on the road... I got it. And that's why I pulled the trigger on the suspension stuff. This is almost entirely a new car underneath now and with what was figured out long before I bought the parts, it should handle better than it ever did from the factory. Been looking for an excuse to buy some KW V3s and this was it. Can't wait to feel them out.