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I’ve actually bought a 1986 reg (C plate) that’s on a retention certificate. I was going to wait until I’d MOT’d the car before transferring it but there’s really nothing I can see that prevents me putting it on now.
A couple of folks have seen the back of the car when the garage doors have been open with the 06 reg plate on it and said that’s the only give away for it being a replica. I know from the front you can tell it has an MR2 Roadster screen :-)
I think you’ve just spurred me on to do the reg change in the morning and get a set of plates made up - would you believe it the online service is only available 7am to 7pm!
I made a start on applying the vinyl to the passenger side today, and turned the car around after struggling to paint the Plasti Dip on the other side of the garage which has limited space.
Was nice to see the car turned around and have a different view from the garage doors :-)
Didn’t have that much time on the vinyl, but made a solid start and should hopefully have it finished if I can get another good afternoon in later in the week. I managed to finish the other “ear” yesterday as well.
All the old “wrong” stickers have come of the passenger sill and I’ll apply the correct ones once the vinyl is on. I should hopefully also get a couple of plates back in the post tomorrow for the C reg, and get them on before the next update.
Those following my build thread will remember a question from Nostromo on the flag just above the side repeater. I’m thinking of applying the drivers names from the no 6. 1986 car and spent a bit of time trying to source the font. Was impressed with an online AI driven font finder (you upload a couple of images of individual letters in the font you are looking for). Seems to be a close match and I’ve gone back to my favourite sticker/decal maker on eBay to get a couple of stickers printed and will let you know what they look like. You can see the masking tape in the picture above where I was working out the dimensions for the stickers. This is the font I managed to download.....
Stickers arrived in the post today. Think the overall effect looks ok and is a close match to the original.
Issue is that the gel coat on the bonnet area/sides is probably the most yellowish in terms of shade of white hence the white gloss vinyl backed stickers with the driver / co driver name script stands out quite a lot against the panel.
I’ve found someone who can do the same size script in black die cut vinyl so there would be no gloss white background and they would be applied straight to the body work (eg like the Shell and Pirelli logos). For sake of £20 which is the cost of a pair of these I think I will go ahead and do the job properly.
The gloss white vinyl background on the sill stickers I had made up doesn’t seem to stand out at all so I guess the sills must be a brighter shade of gelcoat or you don’t notice it so much given they are lower down on the car, shadows etc ???
I managed to get most of the vinyl completed on the passenger side today. Those who’ve followed my thread since the beginning will be aware that the passenger side of the kit is often described as the “ugly sister” to the drivers side ... lets just say there are quite a few imperfections in the sills/door mouldings compared to the drivers side.
Anyway it meant that the measurements I’d used for the large blue vinyl wrap piece for the door on the drivers side were a bit out when it came to the passenger side. Luckily it needed to be slightly smaller to line up and get the angles right rather than bigger so no wasted vinyl in the end.
I also added back the correct sticker/decals for the sill on this side.
Looking back over the pictures I’d taken with the car outside, I realised earlier in the week that I’d not got the black Pirelli stickers on the rear bumper centred between the outer grilles - I think I’d centred them on the lights but on the original cars they seem to be centred against the lower grille. Pedantic I know, but I had a spare set so decided if a job is worth doing it’s worth doing properly.
New number plates fitted ... decided to stick these on rather than drill them. Will see how the pads hold up but may need to go back and drill them later ... you can just about see it in the pic above and the one below :-)
Will get the car out of the garage to have a closer inspect in the light tomorrow as there are a few rough edges I need to tidy up, particularly where the rear screen buts up to the blue vinyl, and the recesses for the door handles on each door.
I then need to get back to my remaining list of jobs as they sort of went on hold whilst I replaced the Plasti Dip with the vinyl. If I remember them it’s largely around fitting the mudflaps and sorting the interior out. I’m also thinking I should reinforce the door mirror mounts as there’s a bit of movement in them. I also want to run a black line along the centre indent in the panels - should have really done this before I applied the coloured vinyl but I’ll find a way of getting this fitted - going to try a 9mm vinyl strip first but may end up having to resort to paint.
Largely a day of tidying up rough edges having applied the vinyl and stripes over the last week. This included a bit more patching under the door handles which blended in rather well (ps. The pic below was taken earlier in the day before I’d patched the drivers side door handle recess!)
The black vinyl 9mm stripe also arrived for applying to the centre crease/indent along the side of the car.
If I’m honest I’m not sure about this, particularly around the front bumper area. Original cars had it, including those in Rally liveries so I’ll leave it on for now and see if it grows on me. Would be interested in what folks think who have been following my thread.
I then indulged myself in applying the Ghia badges I’d bought way back even before the kit had arrived from Tribute. And yes the original cars had these, as a nod to the fact the Ghia design studio in Turin played a major role in styling the RS200.
Final task for today was to redo the matt black paint around the rear screen recess. The use of masking tape to apply the stripes had taken its toll on this. Once it’s dry tomorrow I will fit the battery isolator and then put the rear screen back in using the hex head DZus bolts I’ve bought to replace the D-ring fasteners I’d been using so far. Oh and I must make time to fit the mudflaps - they’ve been on the to do list for too long now :-)
Thanks molleur - decided the black stripe along the centre has grown on me overnight :-) I have removed them though from the front bumper side quarters as a) they didn’t look right as the indent/lip sort of ends abruptly when it comes to the wheel arch and b) they don’t seem to be on all the original cars.
I haven’t been able to get much time on the car today, so decided I should crack on with fixing the battery isolator in place and then I can bolt down the rear screen and not have to keep removing it to access the battery.
I found a mounting point for the isolator on the rear frame between the engine and the rear of the clam, low down enough for me to reach up under the back of the clam without having to lie on the floor, and high enough up not to be covered with grime/water from the road.
The key is now on a short piece of cord attached to the isolator itself so when it’s unlocked it can’t drop down/get lost.
I used the junction box I mentioned in a previous post to take the existing negative wiring from the battery terminal and run the extension wires to the isolator down the rear of the engine bay.
Last couple of jobs before I had to call it a day where to have a go at wrapping the strut brace bar in the engine bay. I was going to paint this but thought I’d see how the dark blue vinyl wrap holds up. I suspect it won’t last long and will peel with the heat from the engine bay, but will give it a go.
The die cut vinyl lettering also turned up for the drivers names on the bonnet. The Image Works produced these for me and got them out to me overnight for a very reasonable figure (£15 all in with next day postage) given they are cut so no white background. Think they look a lot better anyway :-)
Jobs for the weekend are to get the rear screen back in and fit the mudflaps. I’m undecided if I should cut these down to half their size (top to bottom rather than across) given you see a lot of each one, particularly the front two, when looking at the front of the car. They are blue vinyl universal “Sparco” ones (although the Sparco stickers come separately so was planning to leave them off).
I did a bit of a trial fit and took some pics so will have a ponder on this overnight and then decide in the morning.
Many thanks DaveP - I sort of got carried away with the stickers and it became a bit of a challenge to myself to create as much of the 1986 Rally Livery as I could. I think though I will stop short now of applying the numbers!
Your comment about weight of stickers reminded me of some research I read in one of those RaceTech racing magazines a couple of years ago where someone in the US had researched weight of paint vs vinyl wrap for use in NASCAR. Outcome was the vinyl was half the weight of paint - on average paint was 15 lbs whereas vinyl wrap was 7lbs. Wasn’t clear if that was a full paint vs wrap job. There’s also plenty of research that says matte paint vs gloss is better aerodynamically (I guess stalling the air flow??) which is why Red Bull and now Ferrari have gone this route.
That means I must be well in on the weight vs performance stakes with matte white and vinyl :-)
Not a lot of time in the garage yesterday but enough to get the rear screen back in swapping the Dzus D rings for hex head Dzus bolts.
Before fitting the screen I gave the engine bay a good clean out - it was covered in dust from when I was sanding the panels. I also fixed down the intercooler pipes just to stop them flapping about. The strong cable ties don’t really show through the rear screen given the bronze tint.
Job for this afternoon is to cut down and fit the mudflaps. Looking back at pictures of car no 6 from when I was last at Goodwood FOS I’ve decided to reshape the flaps I’ve bought so this are wider and less deep.
I don’t really want a lot of the blue PVC showing in the arches when you look at the car front on so think this approach will sort this. Here’s a rough idea of what they will look like but they’ll be closer to the road than shown here.
Hopefully get some pictures posted later with them on the car.
Mudflaps fitted to both front and rear arches. Pleased with those on the rear ....
The front ones need a bit of adjustment ... the sills on my kit had a step/cut out in the front arch which means the flaps are at an angle. I’ve already made a cut out towards the inner edge of the arch. You can’t really notice it given the angles etc but it does mean that on full lock at low speed they are rubbing on the inside of the tyre. Probably an MOT warning or worse so will have to trim them a bit on the inside edge.
Was good to get the car out in the sun and inspect the vinyl wrap and stripes. Overall looks ok and as I’ve said previously million times better than the Plasti Dip.
....
Overall really pleased with the result and just the interior to sort out now.
Cheers - just spotted the one on the drivers side in the last picture here looks like it isn’t on level. It is (as you can see on the earlier pics) but the PVC seems to have a bit of memory still from when the flaps arrived in the post and were bowed.
Upshot is that they are angling towards the front of the car - nothing a good gravel stage won’t sort out :-)
Looking fantastic with all the decals and mudflaps! Oh and final piece in the jigsaw for me is the change of registration number.
Definitely looks the 'business' now!
Thanks Wozzy - worth the effort on the vinyl and wrap. As I said in Facebook PM, the ears are by far the hardest parts to wrap due to the compound curves.
Managed to make a start on tidying the interior/doors up today after a couple of days off from the car.
I wanted to beef up the frame around the window of the door skin, which is supplied with a metal bar bonded in to the GRP skin. I wasn’t happy with where this attached to the MR2 door outer skin (the metal outer skin) so took the Perspex side windows out and strengthened this area on both driver and passenger side.
Whilst I had the windows out I also painted the upper visible part of the MR2 door skin that shows behind the perspex side windows matt black as I felt the gloss black of the donor car doors made this stand out.
I also painted the inside edge of the door mirror mounting plates I previously fabricated and glassed in.
Windows all back in (I added another rubber channel strip to provide a better join with the door mirror plinths), matt black paint work touched up (yes, it does seem possible to patch up PlastiDip!).
Next on the list for tomorrow is refitting the door cards and giving the interior a good clean, before fitting the RS200 door mats I had made up nearly 3 years ago now!
I was a bit curtailed today by the weather, as I really wanted to get the car out of the garage and give the interior a good clean, before refitting the door cards.
So instead, I decided I would try to sort out the front wheel arch/inner wing area. Ever since I’ve seen the car from a distance I’ve been bothered by the view looking into the front wheel arch.
Having thought about it, it was too much white GRP in the inner arch area from the upper area of the sills. So out came the matte black paint, this time I decided it was too tricky to try and spray with black PlastiDip so decided I could sacrifice these areas in terms of using normal paint (e.g. paint that doesn’t come off!) so bought a small pot of rustoleum matte black universal paint that I’d heard lots of good things about.
Wow, this stuff is great. Coverage is excellent and it appears you can brush it on and get a really good finish ... no brush strokes visible.
So I decided to paint the inner arch area to cover the white GRP sill area and I’m pretty happy with the improvement here. Note in the picture here the bonnet isn’t locked down.
Armed with the Rustoleum paint and brush there was no holding me back, and with the rain beating down outside I set about the front bumper arch area and inner bumper top as well as the inside area of the door jam.
Hoping the rain eases off over the next few days and I can sort the interior out. Then it’s off to the MOT station...yippee!
Oh... I nearly forgot .... ever since I started my build I was inspired by Retro200’s (Mick) MRS200 build. I remember early on in my build he sent me a picture of his kit and the shut lines of the front door, sill/bonnet area and how it compared to the original car. So for Mick if he’s still following my thread here’s a similar picture ... I don’t think they are too far out compared to the originals :-)
