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Cheers Mick - I also need to work on the inner area of the roof panel so it sits lower onto the hardtop itself. I did wonder about how true my rear clam support bar was that came with the kit and whether that's sitting too high causing the whole clam to be too far off the car but I'll go and check the measurement to the top of the crash bar and see how it compares to yours.
I know what you mean about getting the old exhaust out - it also weighs a tonne compared to the new one so a bit of performance improvement coming there :-)
Here's a quick update on progress over the last couple of weeks - many thanks to Mick and Luke for all their help in sending through pictures of the roof/clam measurements and where to cut the doors (that's the next job on the list before putting them back on the MR2).
Rear clam has now been separated from the roof panel and the return edges around the door shut area have been trimmed. Both doors are off the car and the sills have been loosely fitted using the MR2 top rear wing captive nut on each side for alignment. In the pictures below the front bumper and bonnet are just loosely fitted/clamped into place to check alignment.
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My roof pillars had to be separated from the roof/clam panel as I had the kit delivered from Tribute so they need to be bonded back to the roof panel before final fixing and my plan is to fit a sunstrip with a "fake" windscreen rubber surround the screen area to give the effect of a taller screen. Still need to mock up what this will look like and may involved letting the screen rubber into the roof panel at the top.
Wheel arch liners are now off the car and the clearance from wheel top to arch looks massive now. I'll fashion some new liners and fit these next, along with the cut down doors to get the door skins lined up.
Plan is to do complete trial fitting of all the panels before moving on to hinging the clam, cutting out the remaining holes/light apetures and then bond/bolt all the panels on with a final alignment.
I think the front bumper may still be sitting to high in the pictures here so may need to move the front bumper support bar down (it's already lower than it was with the original holes as supplied).
I so badly wanna get out and do something to mine!! All I've done recently is order some tyres for the front and painted some blue bits black. Yours is looking great mate. How does it sound with the new exhaust?
I know what you mean Nostromo - it is difficult to find time. They say projects like this are never finished but I've also deliberately not set myself a completion date/timeframe and just trying to fit jobs in when I get a spare couple of hours.
Exhaust sounds great - wouldn't say it's mega loud but it's definitely louder in a good way than the stock exhaust. With the induction kit it seems to rev easier but that might be more mind over matter on my part!
QUOTE=SwiftyDS;86859]I know what you mean Nostromo - it is difficult to find time. They say projects like this are never finished but I've also deliberately not set myself a completion date/timeframe and just trying to fit jobs in when I get a spare couple of hours.
How true that is haha
I started this one 7 years ago
haha
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Can't believe it's approaching 3 months since my last update - apologies for the gap but work has been progressing, just lots of finishing off needed to certain areas that I wanted to sort before posting.
First off I cut the MR2 doors down - wow, I was told this was one of the hardest parts of the build but still hadn't managed my own expectations of how long this would take. I haven't posted any pictures of the doors themselves but if anyone wants to see where the cuts are just let me know and I'll add some pics. Trickiest part was in the B pillar area where I ended up cutting more metal than I expected and spent a lot of time digging out the resin/GRP in the pocket on the trailing edge of the MRS200 door skin itself. Retro200 told me this was an area that would need working on as Tribute hand mould this when the panels are laid. Some adjustment of the metalwork left around the old lock/handle area and the drivers door is pretty much spot on. I've fitted the Sierra door handle and linked this up to the MR2 door handle mechanism.
You will see from the picture that the bottom edge of the door has quite a gap so I have some UPVC cladding that I've cut a strip off that will be glassed to the bottom edge of the door and filled. I still need to build in some additional support in the door itself at the lower edge before bonding given the lower edge of the MR2 door has been cut away.
Repeat of the above on the passenger side as well which is back and fitted.
I then focused on the front bumper/bonnet. The bumper support bar was lowered c. 25mm as it sits to high as it comes with the kit. I still think it's sitting too high so plan to lower it another 10mm. Bumper has been fitted with support brackets in the wheel arch area as well, and appetures cut out, indicators and Hella 1000 lights fitted. Passenger side light is sitting a bit too high in the pictures here.
I decided to try and go for a more authentic look with the headlights and bought a pair of headlamp panels from the Evo RS200 kit. The light appetures in the bonnet panel were extended out to fit these and next job is to glass in threaded bars under the bonnet to mount the Golf MK2 light units (thanks Retro200 for this) and then bond in the headlamp panels. Once I've done this and lowered the bumper support bar I'll attach the bonnet hinges and locking bonnet pins.
I had a couple of weeks where there wasn't much chance to spend more than 30 - 40 mins on the car at a time so spent a bit of time dressing up the engine bay (Ford stickers and a Ford RS200 plate that nicely covers the Toyota emblem on the engine cover) and making an RS200 panel to cover the Midship Runabout panel in the frunk.
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Final area I'm still working on is the rear clam. All appetures have been cut out and I decided to leave some fibreglass around the edge which will be painted black (just mocked up in the picture below to get the gaps right). I've made a set of grills that will be fitted flush and are edged in thin rubber trim - you can see one trial fitted in the picture here. I also managed to source a decent set of original RS Cosworth 3 door rear lights with bulb holders and gaskets for £50 so bit the bullet and have fitted these rather than the smoked Sierra Saphire units. I still need to fill in the area around the number plate panel which has a gap now I'm using the original units and the main area of filling needed which is in the wing areas each side.
nice to see your making progress dave, its looking good, keep up the good work, reminds me of my build each step gives you a bit more enthusiasm to get to the next bit ,keep chipping away at it that will look good when its finished , i did the same with the spare wheel cover and rocker cover those red "rs200" decals dont arf come in handy.
You've really done an awesome job there Swifty! Looks great regardless of work that still needs doing. Can I request some additional photos of the doors please? Am so close to finishing off the house now, I can hear the MRS200 calling to me to get on with it! On the rear of the roof intake, I see you've left a section of the fiberglass, I assume for a bit of extra rigidity or just for the look?
i left a section in the roof vent as well about 3 inches wide ,it helps tie that area to the top of the rear window surround it will become very weak without it i painted it white but everytime i look at it i think it needs to be black to match the mesh in the grills also it wont be as noticable
Yep I left this section for rigidity. The edges need tidying up all round particularly in that vent area but I'd planned to have it painted black to try to blend it in.
I've also contemplated making a dummy intercooler to go in the roof area behind it but I think that is getting a bit silly!
Thanks for the kind words and feedback from you both - will post more door pics tomorrow.
ha ha seems two great minds think alike thats exactly what ive done made a dummy intercooler out of ally sheet and some ally channel section front and back to resrmble the core looks good thru the black mesh
the headlight surrounds look good dave , how well do they fit to the bonnet curves on the outside ? bearing in mind the bonnet is from tribute and the surrounds are for a evo 200, will they need any alterations to get them to sit right on the bonnet ??
the headlight surrounds look good dave , how well do they fit to the bonnet curves on the outside ? bearing in mind the bonnet is from tribute and the surrounds are for a evo 200, will they need any alterations to get them to sit right on the bonnet ?? ps i also fitted a ally sheet under my "dummy intercooler to block off the area between the "ears" and front / rear roof vents to direct the air flow straight through the top roof section
seems two great minds think alike thats exactly what ive done made a dummy intercooler out of ally sheet and some ally channel section front and back to resrmble the core looks good thru the black mesh