Belgian AW11 - full nut and bolt restauration

NOVEMBER 2021

Not much has been done to the car this month. Here's a little update:

In my previous post you saw some spots of rust on the car. Those have been cut out.


The body has been prepared for new metal.
A special coating on which you can weld has been used for protection.




This bumperbar needs some work. First of all I removed the broken bolts by welding a little head on it, and while it was hot I used pliers to turn them loose.
On wednesday it will be prepared for the powdercoater.



And finally an image I don't want to withhold from you guys
yellow: My 4AGE
white: My fathers 7AGTE in the making
red: 4AGE for the white AW11 in the background of the second pic. This one is from a friend of the family.

DECEMBER 2021

Not that much has happened due to the hollydays.

I removed some more rootex from the enginebay



and apart from that we did some more rust repairs on the right-rear quarter.
This part is done (with exception of body filler etc.)




This part needs some more fitting and adjusting.




Wile the welder was out, we also did an antenna-delete

JANUARI 2022 (pt.1)

This is a BIG one!
We managed to mate the C161 6-speed gearbox of the Corolla G6R with the 4AGE. It shifts in all 6 gears + reverse without any issue. We still need to do some small touch-ups, but nothing major. The thinking, fitting and testing part is over.

We started with cleaning everything up. The casing has been blasted with glassbeads, blown out with compressed air, flushed with gasoline and a clean brush and cleaned with break cleaner.



After that, the internals went back in. Normaly this would just be the internals of the C161, but some pieces were worn beyond repair, so we made a hybrid of C161 and C52 parts. If somebody would want to do the same thing, they could just use the C161 internals if they're decent.






With the easy part done, we started with the more custom work. First of all we had to drill a hole in the box so the rod would fit through. We fabricated a bronze cilindrical hub and fitted it with an oil seal.


The rod itself also needs some adjusting. You need to use the rod of the C52 5-speed, but this one misses a hole to connect the metal thingy for the reverse (yeah, awesome English right here, I have no clue of the right words in English). The rod is extremely hard, so you need a special drillbit for hardened steel.
When this is done, you put on all the pieces of the 6speed's rod onto the 5 speed rod.
We decided to use one of the springs of the 5-speed (left in the pictures) because that just gave it a little better of a feel. (It would be possible to use the spring of the 6 speed though).





We also had to make 2 custom brackets to mount some of the mechanisms on. one of those will also have the engine mount on it. We made sure we could use existing holes in the gearbox.

JANUARI 2022 (pt.2)

Here's some photos of the gearbox fitted to the motor (these where taken before the shifting rod was installed).
P.S. I know that the engine mount in the first picture is fitted wrong. It's just there not to lose it.




Also, unrelated to the gearbox, the radiator and the fans are finished.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2022

We did a bit of extra work on the MR2.

First of al, we made this covering plate to close up the gearbox (because the gearing system is now on the other side).
The engine mount seems to fit really well on the custom bracket.



Also, we mounted rubbers and vacuum-lines.





Further we did some more bodywork. The second last corner is welded in and the dent on the rear light has been hammered out.






finaly I did some sanding(but not a lot)

APRIL/MAY

Not a lot of interesting things happened these months.
We reshaped this corner in the front. It took a lot of mesuring, reconstruction and banging with various hammers.
The result is fine. Everything fits nicely. We put back the hood and the fender so we could fit the headlight. Everything lines up perfectly and the headlight has all the space it needs.



Some extra care for this corner.


Other than that, we've mainly been sanding, sanding and sanding some more.






Some atmosperic images to end:

JULY-AUGUST

It has been a while since the last post. Mostly because I've been traveling, but also because pictures af sanding aren't that interesting.
Today, the sanding and filling of the outside is done!

Some pictures of the whole car before paint




And some more details, mostly on the parts with new steel












The first pieces are in primer! It feels so good to start this step.
It started to feel as if there was no progress.
(which is nonsense ofcourse, the prepwork is the most important part, so it's normal it takes some time)

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER
Get ready for another picture-heavy post

Remember when I said I was done sanding on the outside of the car? ... Well, I'm not.
I still had a pile of parts I forgot about (wishfull thinking I guess).
So some more sanding was in order and we got the engine-lid, sideskirts and rear spoiler done.
The sills also need some work in the future, but that's a job for future-me.






My AW11 didn't have the sideskirts from factory, so I was missing some holes. A moment with measuring-tape and a drill later and there they were. Luckely we had an AW11 with it's skirts removed in the shop, so the measuring wasn't to much of a job. After the holes were drilled, we filed them square so the original mounting hardware would fit perfectly.
A quick fit later and the skirts are ready for paint.




We also painted quite some parts in primer. Some parts got some epoxy (the yellow parts). These will not get an extra primer, but will be painted directly over the epoxy.

NOVEMBER

Next update, and it's a big one!
The body of the car has been primed.
The trunks and engine bay need a bit more sanding before they get a coat of paint.
I am unbelievably happy with the results. We've been staring at the lines of the car for hours.




Below some pics of some 'good practices' to the bodywork

The body didn't have to much rust, but all corners needed some new steel.
My father made all these replacement parts by hand. With just hammering and bending he made perfect replicas of the pieces.


This dent has been hammered out instead of just filled with bondo, as you see often.


Personally I thougt this corner was unsavable. I ordered another one overseas, but got a cancelation after a long time of waiting. My father did some more miracles with his hammers, and here's the result.


We did an antenea-delete. I would never use it anyway, and I like the tight lines without it.