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best of luck with that the roof is about the fiddliest part of the build to get right ,getting it to fit around screen and down pillars , thinking about it ,it might be easier in 3 pieces !!! have fun .
To be honest I did think it might be easier to keep them separate and bond them to the MR2 pillars as I align/bond the roof in. Will hold fire from fibreglassing them back in for now
The a pillars on mine are going to need some work. You can just see that on the right hand side, there's a step which has made the rest of that section wider than it should be. It shouldn't be there so will have to be cut out and re-done. Just want to get it all lined up so that I can fix the clam in place.
yes i can just see it in your roof pic a job for mr angle grinder my roof section had a return edge all round that i managed to fit into the small gap between windscreen rubber and "A" pillars /roof managed to get it to sit in all round took hours +hours to get right but worth it in the end only thing is if screen ever needs to be replaced its a big job !!
I've decided to make my roof removeable for exactly that reason and come up with a plan on how it's going to work. It'll be nut and bolted along the sides, silicon sealed all the way around and probably a rivet or two at the bottom of the pillars. It's gonna work.
just a thought , only other way i can think of would be to reduce edge of roof panal all round then blend the f/glass into the pillars and screen top area with filler, feathering it out then paint as one to leave windscreen rubber free for future removal only thing is i dont know how vunerable it would be to movement of the joint due to any flexing that might occur when driving , mick.
I've been wondering about fuel, maybe someone can advise. Obviously the fuel in the tank isn't going to do much over the next 6 months to a year. Theres a drop in there and i'll only occasionally start her up to move her out of the garage and onto the driveway. As we all know, fuel can go bad over time. Is there anything I can do to combat this? What have all you builders done with your projects?
hi nicki dont worry about the fuel it takes it a fair while to go off mine was off the road for nearly 12 months all i did was run engine every couple of weeks for half an hour or so to keep things moving i just kept putting another gallon or so in every two or three months to keep it fresh other thing is your battery its a good idea to trickle charge every few weeks to stop it calcifing a motorcycle battery optimiser is ok they slowly charge the battery then discharge and recharge to keep it in good order mine was knackersd when i got the car so i used an old one while i was building the car then got a new one when it was finished
Actually managed to do some bits on the car today!!
Using a couple more bits I found in my recycle bin at work (box section) these will be my brackets for the clam. Pretty much the same as Retro200's hinge but most of mine came out of the bin. They will be reinforced with some 3mm stainless plate to give the footprints a larger surface area then bolted and glued through the hardtop.
Next on tonight's agenda is to prime a couple of wheels!
Mick, I don't suppose you removed your hardtop headlining? Easy to do?
hi nick nice work on the hinges ,no i left roof lining in i bolted thru it with some flat stainless plates on underside to spread the load with lock nuts and covers all painted black so you dont really see them
2 x prepped wheels. Came out even better than expected! No idea what colour I should so for. I think they can only be gold, white or the rota bronze colour. Anyone?
Hi Luke, haven't even touched the doors yet. The sills have been trimmed a little and drilled a couple of holes to keep them in place but there's a lot of adjustment required. I need a dry day when the wife is at work so that I can get the car out of the garage and properly line everything up without being disturbed. The mr2 doors will need to be 'trimmed' at the bottom to fit. I've just purchased a set of spacers so that I can get the rear wheels on and have something else to line up the bodywork with.
This is my hinge which will go inside the clam. The bits of box section (not in the picture) will be bolted through another piece of plate, through the hardtop then through another bit of plate underneath in a cross shape for a bit of extra rigidity.
This is my hinge which will go inside the clam. The bits of box section (not in the picture) will be bolted through another piece of plate, through the hardtop then through another bit of plate underneath in a cross shape for a bit of extra rigidity.
that looks like it will be spot on for the job
good work, keep the pics coming
Had a couple of tyres fitted earlier today so that I could get some colour on the wheels. I did it this way round as I was worried about the tyre machine taking the paint off if I'd sprayed them first. The paint won't go mega hard as I'm not able to bake the wheels. Think the wife would be upset if she came home to find a wheel in the oven. Here's where I'm at this evening:
Lacquer tomorrow and I'll hopefully have my spacers by the weekend so I can properly line up the clam.
hi nick , wheels looking good ,what coulor did you decide on, a modern tyre machine and plenty tyre soap shouldn,t go anywere near your wheel rims i had mine fitted to new wheels with polished rims .no problem. the foot that puts the tyre on should stand away from the rim and not contact it , the old way were they use a long bar around a central post will damage them, obviously .
Yeah that's right, but the tyre still has to be stretched over the rim until it pops on. I just didn't want to take any chances as the paint wouldn't be super hard. I got him to fit and balance the wheels, then let the air out and push the tyre off the bead so that I could spray all the way round. The colour is actually halfrauds generic gold enamel paint. A friend's son works there and gets a nice discount otherwise I'd prefer not to set foot in there. The paint gives a really nice finish and at the moment seems to look a bit darker than expected. I'll see tomorrow once the lacquer has dried and the papers off.
Nick, I really like your choice of colour. I wasn't sure about gold but it looks good and I'm sure they will look great with laquer - looking forward to seeing them on the car.
I bit the bullet and ordered a set of Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2s in white on Monday - unfortunately there is a 6 week wait to have TD cast them so any final alignment of panels will have to wait til they arrive.
