MadaboutKitcars

Bit of a frustrating week on the doors, mirrors and side windows. All started off swimmingly well with the drivers door - all lined up, brackets working great to reinforce where the MR2 door skin is cut down and eaves protector plastic used to create a new base for the door.



Panel gaps not too bad and close to the original which left a lot to be desired I know!



These are the adjustable brackets I used to push out the lower outer door skin after it was cut away for the door skin to cover. These have been bolted or bonded inside the MR2 - bolts on the inner door panel and bonded to the inside of the outer skin.



The bottom of the MR2 door is the recovered in a piece of plastic bonded/glassed in place and made from eaves protectors.



Before bonding the MRS200 door skin on I started to fit the Sierra door mirror, cutting the mounting pillars down first. I planned to bolt the bottom two pillars through the MR2 door skin and thought this would be enough given the top edge of the plinth rested against the door skin. Bad move as there was no way I would get a bolt or nut the other side of the skin. So plan B came into play and I am glassing in an ally corner piece to which the mirror will be bolted.

Here’s the template and just waiting for some more ally sheet to arrive in the next few days.



Many thanks to Nathanial the now owner of Andy’s original prototype car for sending me photos of how the Sierra mirrors were fitted to that one.

So while waiting for the ally sheet to arrive I painted the bonnet wing support pieces that I had already made and fitted from Perspex and also got round to buying an adjustable bonnet support as I decided I wouldn’t fit anything permanent under the bonnet.



I have decided to use rivnuts to bolt the Perspex side windows through and drilled these out today. Thanks Nostromo for the pictures of how you fitted yours. I will wait until the ally sheet is in before cutting the Perspex down for the corner piece where the mirror fits and then at least for the drivers door the bonding of the skin will be the final piece.

I say at least for the drivers door .... well the passenger side is another matter and I’m beginning to think the whole passenger side of the car is the ugly sister of the drivers side!

I spent most of this afternoon fettling the passenger door skin to try to get a better fit. The upper edge where it meets the roof line is fine at the rear of the door and a nice gap to the windscreen pillar but along the top edge for about 30cm where it meets the windscreen to halfway along the window top there is a huge gap.

I need to get some heat on the metal framework that surrounds the top edge of the door skin to see if I can reshape it otherwise I can see I will be taking the cutting disk to it and trying to reshape it with glass fibre.

More on that one soon.....

Good work there, keep it up.
The passenger side is a nightmare to line up. if you check the sills there is around 10mm difference. This then throws the door out. There is quite a large gap to the bonnet from the door providing you have the wheel arch running through.


I have just made a start on mocking Badrep up with the kit. I think i am going to end up cutting the sill so it has the same length as the drivers side.

Can you please let me know what the height is from the top of the bumper to the ground as i have not been supplied with the front bumper metalwork.
Cheers

Thanks Wozzy. Yes I had the same on the sills - tried to even it out and also adjust bonnet edge that side but it’s the top edge of the door frame that’s really out.

Will get you the measurement for the bumper in the morning now. Just remember mine is still on std springs and 17” wheels (coilovers are still to be fitted) and I did move the supplied front bumper bar down a good 25-30mm from how it was supplied (to try to remove the sagging in the middle look you seem to get as standard as you look front to back at the car).

Wozzy - measuring the drivers side at the wheel arch it’s 523mm from floor to the top edge of the bumper where it joins the bonnet.

Hope that makes sense - shout if you need more measurements

Managed to get the passenger door skin into a better shape today, thanks to applying some heat to the metalwork and bending it into shape. When I looked closer there were also a couple of places on the edges of the windscreen pillars and rear edge of the door where the fibreglass was catching on the door skin.

I had made adjustments for the sill on the passenger side (see Wozzy’s comments above) and needed to trim the bonnet edge back slightly to line up and also allow the door to open without catching. There is more of a gap at the bottom edge of the door on this side and the trailing edge where it meets the clam/sill, which once I’ve got the skins bonded on I will close up with fibreglass and filler. The bottom edge of the drivers door also needs the gap reducing.



Support brackets are now bonded in on the passenger side and the ally sheet arrived today, so tomorrow’s job is to fabricate the mirror support plinths and glass these in on both door skins.

Looking good Dave

cheers for the measurements

to remove the apparent sag, you'll need to modify the front crash bar.

The top of the new bumper runs parallel with the ground, but it SHOULD be the bottom that is parallel. The top should follow the channel in the door., if you follow me.

to fit as supplied it looks a little piggy nose up. mounting as supplied is much easier though.

keep up the good work chaps.

Thanks Andy and good to hear from you. Yes I did adjust the mounting points for the crash bar to lower it quite a bit (about 30mm if I remember possibly a bit more). It was enough that one of the mounting holes was lost where it was lower down.

I also fabricated brackets at the rear of the front bumper in the wheel arch area to pull this edge up as it tends to droop/sag down relative to the front of the bumper. Overall there is a nice flowing line downwards looking at the channel from the back clam/sill area towards the front bumper

Sorted out the mirror mount this afternoon on the drivers door. Ally panel that is bonded and glassed in to the inner edge of the door skin and the metal work that strengthens the top of the door frame. The plinths on the Sierra mirror are cut down with the top plinth bolting through the ally panel and a bracket attached inside the mirror frame for the lower fixing.



Quite pleased with the result.

Cut down the Perspex side windows for the mirror housing and attached these with M4 bolts and rivnuts.



The side windows really stiffen up the upper part of the door skin.



I want to add a rubber strip to the bottom edge of the Perspex and also paint the inner edge black where it sits against the door skin. Oh and the protective covering the windows came with are still stuck on under the little window runner strips so they need to come off.

Next job is to repeat this on the passenger side and then take the windows and mirrors off to bond the skins on to the MR2 doors - but everything is all lined up now so that should be the easy part. Wishful thinking anyway ....

Didn’t get time to work on the car yesterday, but I did get a lovely surprise when an early Christmas present from my wife arrived in the post......



A brand new set of rear lights!



I’m torn now between leaving the set on I have to get it through the MOT and save the new set until it’s painted or put them on now. There are a few cracks in the secondhand set I have on now, but nothing serious enough for an MOT fail.

I managed to spend an hour on the car earlier this afternoon. I had some 15mm rubber channel strip that I’ve fitted to the drivers side window - will wait to decide whether this is OK until I’ve painted the inner edge of the Perspex black but doesn’t look too bad.



I made a start on the passenger mirror and Perspex side window. Mirror ally support glassed in and mirror fitted. Side window cut down but ran out of time to drill and bolt this in.

Those mirrors look great Dave!! Almost making me think I should have another go at the Mondeo ones I've got. I've not managed to get out on mine for ages great that you're managing to hammer onward! Keep it up!

Thanks Nick. Not sure how the Mondeo ones attach but the pillars/plinths on the Sierra ones weren’t too difficult to cut down and then add some bracket work to raise the mounting points for the lower two.

You’ve already got the corner piece done on yours so might be worth offering them up and see how close you are.

A couple of fellow builders have asked for some photos of the changes I made to the Sierra mirror mounting points and the quarter panel mounting glassed into the door skin.

I will take a couple of close up pictures when I take the mirrors off tomorrow as the plan is to bond the drivers door skin on tomorrow and hopefully the passenger door on Wednesday or Thursday. Getting close now to being able to drive it again, albeit needing an MOT first and the coilovers fitting. Plus of course a long snagging list of little jobs that need finishing ....

I started to take the mirrors and side windows off this afternoon to get ready to bond each door skin on. Ahead of that I took the window slider out of each side and removed the protective backing to the Perspex.



I also added the rubber strip to the bottom of the passenger side window.



Here are the close ups of the ally sheet used for the quarter panel that the mirrors attach to. Note that most of the strength from the fibreglass comes from the corner area and the steel support that runs around the upper window section. The fibreglass is wrapped around the steel support and seems to be quite solid.



It will be sprayed Matt black but I don’t plan to fill or smooth the fibreglass on the ally sheet as 99% of it is covered by the mirror plinth.

On the mirror itself you can see here how the bottom two supports have been cut right back, and a bracket bonded in above these to make the bolts accessible from the inside of the ally sheet. I used rivnuts bonded to the bracket to allow for bolts to be used into the mirror plinth.



By the time I had faffed about with removing the protective backing off each side window and put them back on, then removed them again and the mirrors it was getting quite late and the temperature had dropped in the garage, so I decided it was probably a bit on the cold side to start bonding the drivers door skin and decided to put this off until Wednesday. Hopefully I will still get both door skins bonded on this week.

You seem to be making a lot of progress now Dave, it's moving along very quickly.
Keep the pics coming

Thanks Wozzy - will do.

Should hopefully get the drivers door skin bonded on tomorrow.

I bonded the drivers door skin on earlier today. Probably the most tense part of the build so far making sure it lined up and didnt’t drop or move as I clamped it down.



I did use a couple of tek screws in the bottom part of the metal work surrounding the window frame which are there for attaching the Perspex window to at the bottom of each corner. This gave me some security around it not dropping.



Fingers crossed for when the clamps come off tomorrow then it’s repeat for the passenger door then put everything back on (mirrors and windows, rubber seals) and link the door handles back up.

Awesome work fella,
I am with you on the daunting part. The engineering bit I am happy with but when it gets to the dark art of glassing and bonding so much can go astray when not fully fledged in it. Practice tho makes perfect! Looks like you have done a fine job from the photos and been methodical in your actions. Top work!

Thanks for the kind words Welshkiwi. I know what you mean about engineering vs bodywork and GRP. Engineering is pretty binary in so far as it works or it doesn’t. Bodywork is much more of a black art! I’m following your 275GTB build with great interest.

I got out to the garage this afternoon to bond the passenger door on. Those who’ve followed my build thread so far will be familiar with my comments on the passenger side of the kit being the ugly sister to the drivers side. I jest of course, but there are a number of places particularly the door skin and sills where things just don’t line up so well.



I need to see what it looks like once the bonding sealant/adhesive dries overnight. It’s lined up as well as it can be, but I know I may need to so some trimming back of the trailing edge of the door tomorrow.



Before I started on the passenger door I took the clamps off the drivers door, and I was really pleased with the outcome. Overall no dropping and apart from an area in the lower rear of the door it’s all pretty straight. I used adjustable brackets to support the outer door skin where it was cut away at the base of the MR2 door specifically so I could go back later and make some finer adjustments of the outer skin. Will look at that tomorrow or over the weekend, but with the side window, mirror and door rubbers back in it feels really solid, closes smoothly and apart from a rubber door stop needed in the top rear corner it’s nearly there now.


....

Good work, coming on well!

Looks great!

Thanks for the comments guys.

Just been out to take the clamps off the passenger door and it’s actually not too bad. Much better than I thought it was going to look like. As with the drivers door skin, there’s some adjustment needed on the lower edge which I can get through the adjustable clamps, and at the front edge of the door where it meets the sill there’s still too large a gap; I already adjusted this before fitting the sill as the passenger side of the kit is a bit out but will need some further filling.

Will get some pictures up hopefully later or tomorrow once the window and mirror is back on. Might even get to run it up and down the road outside of the house now both doors are on!

Exactly two years to the day since my MRS200 kit arrived from Tribute I have hit another major milestone with all panels now bonded on, lights all wired up and several trips up and down the road outside my house....a private road of course given I still need to renew the MOT!



The passenger side door skin turned out much better than expected and although they were only short runs on the road, I did get up to approx 30 mph without anything falling off.



There is still lots to do before booking the MOT, not least fitting the coilovers as I would rather get the ride height sorted first. It’s the front quarter view which shows the arch gaps up most at their worst.....



The panel gaps are pretty much there now, with just the area between the passenger side sill and rear clam needing adjustment. I’m undecided on the bottom edge if each door. I was going to fill this as the gap is greater than I expected. However looking at it on the road it doesn’t seem that far out and that’s maybe one I leave until I’m closer to paint.



I would have to say I am pleasantly surprised and very pleased with how it’s turned out so far. Still some way to go, included getting it painted or attempting this myself, but feels close now to being road legal once again.

Oh and it has to be this view every time I open the garage doors that makes it all worthwhile.....

Fantastic!