Belgian AW11 - full nut and bolt restauration

5304 Views 61 Replies 10 Participants Last post by Perre, 5 d ago

Perre

Discussion Starter · Oct 15, 2021 (Edited)

2

Hi everyone. I hope it's okay for me to put up a project page here.
I'm Perre and I am rebuilding an AW11 in Belgium. The car should be good as new.
There won't be to many mods or upgrades, mostly OEM parts.
A few non-OEM things that will happen are: Polly bushings, Koni shocks, C161 gearbox out of a Corolla G6R and some rims.
At the moment the car is still red (pink), but in time it's going to be painted Dark Blue. I'm a bit undicided between the Midnight Blue (code: 20353 - some claim 8E4) of the Super Edition and Dark Blue (code: 8E3).
I'm quite confident in this project because my dad is overseeing everything, and he knows his way around AW11's (there's currently 5 in our warehouse) and he is an absolute 4AGE Guru. Also he just finished restauring his own AW11.

The first posts are from the past. I'll post them time to time untill I'm caught up.

Here's some pics of the car how I found it:

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Perre

Discussion Starter · #2 · Oct 15, 2021 (Edited)

11

MARCH 2021:

Some pics of the first jobs on the car

Taking things apart pt1:

Engine out:

The engine looked promissing until the pistons came out. I thought it was just a cause of rust removal, but 1 of the walls was really deeply scratched.
The upper side of the bottom block was obviously cleaned with een iron brush on a drill. So I had the bottom block flattened just a bit. The upper part of the engine couldn't be used.

Parting the car out even further. Since it was completely empty we could clean it with steam on the Carcher.

The car is now inside and can get its new pieces of steel and some sanding.

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Perre

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 20, 2021 (Edited)

10

APRIL 2021:

Scored a new motorblock and cleaned it up.
Sandblasted the whole thing and cleaned up every grain of sand afterwards (and that is a hellish job). ps. the white and silver two-tone AW11 is my fathers.

The inside needs some cleaning too

And finaly a nice coat of paint

I would like a new piece on the front of the car (see pic below). Does anyone have a donorcar with that piece intact? And would you be willing to part with it?

The sils in the back also have some rust, but we'll make those pieces to weld in.

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Perre

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 20, 2021 (Edited)

7

APRIL 2021:

In the mean time the valves have been grinded with valve grinding paste so everything fits nicely

Also the cranckshaft is in its place

Some more engine pieces that are refurbished and that look awesome.
Only the valvecovers still need to happen;

The last pieces to finish the block arrived at the workshop, with exception of the piston rings. Those things are hard to find, even aftermarket.

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teranfirbt

· #5 · Oct 21, 2021

I love a good build thread! This person is scrapping out a couple of shells, they may have the cut you're looking for:

www.mr2oc.com

AW11 body cuts.

(GONE) I don't know if we can make it worth each other's while, but hate to scrap usable parts. I'm loading this shell up for a run to scrap. There is rust painted over in the arches and rockers, but some sections may be OK for repair patches. Quarter panels look fine. Rear looks fine. Radiator...

www.mr2oc.com

Winks42

· #6 · Oct 21, 2021

Perre said:
Scored a new motorblock and cleaned it up.
Sandblasted the whole thing and cleaned up every grain of sand afterwards (and that is a hellish job). ps. the white and silver two-tone AW11 is my fathers.

The inside needs some cleaning too

And finaly a nice coat of paint

I would like a new piece on the front of the car (see pic below). Does anyone have a donorcar with that piece intact? And would you be willing to part with it?

The sils in the back also have some rust, but I have those pieces to weld in.

I have a white 88 parts car I can get the piece out of if you need it. But I’m in the states so shipping would be a PITA.

Perre

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 22, 2021

Winks42 said:
I have a white 88 parts car I can get the piece out of if you need it. But I’m in the states so shipping would be a PITA.

Do you have any idea how much it could cost?
I am willing to pay for the shipping.
This is the last piece I need to make my body perfect.

sk8salomon

· #8 · Oct 22, 2021

Nice! Looking forward to watching this one.

Eloquaint

· #9 · Oct 22, 2021

Excellent work so far! I have to say watching you that it feels like you save a lot of work in the long run if you strip it down to the shell like you have. At the beginning of my restoration I kept taking things on and off over and over to get to what I was working on.

There are several MR2 parts resalers on ebay UK, they may have that part of the chassis you're looking for and the shipping wouldn't be nearly as bad as from the US.

Perre

Discussion Starter · #10 · Oct 22, 2021

Eloquaint said:
Excellent work so far! I have to say watching you that it feels like you save a lot of work in the long run if you strip it down to the shell like you have. At the beginning of my restoration I kept taking things on and off over and over to get to what I was working on.

There are several MR2 parts resalers on ebay UK, they may have that part of the chassis you're looking for and the shipping wouldn't be nearly as bad as from the US.

That's actually a very good idea! thanks for that.
It seems like a lot of work now, but I will trust this car to the fullest when it's done. I am planning to do a few small test and then take it on an international roadtrip.

Winks42

· #11 · Oct 22, 2021

Maybe check this guy out, he’s in the UK and probably has what you need for cheaper shipping.

www.mr2mk1toyotaspares.com

Toyota MR2 MK1 Spares Home | Cheshire

Quality Toyota MR2 MK1 New and used Spares For Sale Cheshire

www.mr2mk1toyotaspares.com

www.mr2mk1toyotaspares.com

Perre

Discussion Starter · #12 · Oct 22, 2021 (Edited)

6

MAY 2021:

I've been cleaning rubbers and plastics. Long live the ultrasonic cleaning machine

The exhaust is almost ready. The OEM one was really fried, so we cracked it open to see how it is made.
This exhaust is made about the same, but in stainless steel.

This awesome key is handmade. It's a blank Supra key (which has the same shape as the MR2) with red kevlar, real golden inlays and resin

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Perre

Discussion Starter · #13 · Oct 22, 2021 (Edited)

14

MAY 2021:

Finaly found some pistonrings, so the pistons can go in. To make it a bit easier we made this ring. This ring holds the pistonring together so the pistons go in the block better.

Some gasoline over the valves, covering the holes with a cloth en blow in some air to see if all the valves close perfectly. Concluded that 1 valve did not close 100%, so grinded it again until it was okay.

Next job: shims. Inlet needed 20mm of space, exhaust needed 25mm of space. Luckily we had some extra shims laying around. The ones that were in the engine just weren't perfect enough to my liking.

Also I was able to pick up my first batch of galvanised materials. So the engine got assembled a bit further.

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Perre

Discussion Starter · #14 · Oct 28, 2021 (Edited)

10

JUNE 2021

More progress on the engine. The black spark plug plate between the valve covers needs to be redone with black crinckle paint. Also intake, fluids and sparkplugs need to be done.

First steps in suspension are made. These KONI's did not fit well. You would think a piece that's made specific for a car would fit said car. Yes it's the right KONI's and yes it's for a MK1b. So after some persuasion with a grinder everything now fits.

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Perre

Discussion Starter · #15 · Oct 28, 2021 (Edited)

15

AUGUST 2021

The wiper mechanism needed some love. My fingers are to big for these small rings!

Some more work has been done to the undercarriage. Most of the bearings and ball-joints have been cleaned and regreased. The dustcovers are in place again.

After the front brakes had been done a while back, it was now time for the rear brakes. I missed 1 smal part of the handbrake mechanism, but that's all okay now. The golden galvanised brake was a shelf ready spare of my father. I could use it as cheat-sheet.

This AW11 will steer wonderfully after this.

Some more pics of clean parts:

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Perre

Discussion Starter · #16 · Oct 29, 2021 (Edited)

10

SEPTEMBER 2021

During the beautifull weather we've been glass bead blasting with glass beads of 100-200µm. ridiculously fine.
The plans are to frankenstein the OEM 5-speed gearbox with the 6-speed gearbox out of a Corolla G6R.
It's a bit harder than we originaly thought, but we will succeed.
It's obvious which outer pieces we're going to use of both of these gearboxes. (Hint: it's the beautifull looking blasted parts)

Also did some more work on the engine. The intake was allready glasbeaded together with the gearboxes.
After that I used compressed air and gasoline to clean everything. The last grain of glass had to go!
Trust me, that took a while.
The rest of the cleaning I did by hand.The valves are supersmooth now.
Put the correct gaskets on the engine, and put the inlet on. Looking good!

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Perre

Discussion Starter · #17 · Nov 6, 2021 (Edited)

18

OCTOBER 2021

Some more has been done.
First of all it's no longer a coat hanger for all the raggs and coats that are thrown on there.
On the pic you also see some paintwork in heatresistant primer. Not for my car, but the most is for an AW11. The rest is for the Mercedes.

The most greasy job that has been done this month? Cleaning the drifeshafts!
The driveshafts that came out of the rack was super dusty on the outside, but still very greasy on the inside.

To be sure of the condition of these driveshafts we needed to take them apart and clean them thouroughly.

We also started fighting the devilish rust.
Stripped the affected places to bare metal, marked what had to be cut out, cut that part out and shape the new metal to perfect fit.

Not only did we weld in some new pieces, we also started sanding the frame.
The previous owner repainted the car, and did a terrible job.
On top of that, the car will get a new colour, so a good base is necessary anyway.
sanding is not my favourite job, but it has to happen.

The Poly-bushings have finaly arrived.
Black, for a high stealth level!

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Eloquaint

· #18 · Nov 6, 2021

Great progress, you will have really earned the finished product with all of this work.
Are you able to find the seals/ trim OK? I'm at the stage where I need to start sanding and getting trim off and I'm really afraid I'm going to break some of it. So much of it is NLA from Toyota.

Winks42

· #19 · Nov 12, 2021

What color are you gonna use? I’m also in the process of fixing rotting body panels on my two , fun job Lol.

Perre

Discussion Starter · #20 · Nov 12, 2021

I'm going for dark blue pearl (8E3)

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