Hi all, about four months ago at roughly the same time as I was buying a house, I decided to bite the bullet and order myself an MRS200 kit and buy a half decent little MR2 to stick it to... much to my wifes dismay. This is my first go at a kit car and I assumed (naively) it would be a nice introduction into the world of building a car. I'll admit, theres a lot more to it than I originally imagined and it all seemed so simple when Andy described it over the phone! I haven't done a great deal to it as yet due to decorating and other duties that she feels are more important
So, below is a brief rundown of where I've got to with pictures n'stuff. I'll do my best to update as and when I manage to do something but as I say, progress is slow. Especially as there doesn't seem to be any other build threads for this model that I can copy from!
Delivery
The donor being collected. Managed to get a facelifted average miler with a non smokey engine! Facelifted model was essential so that I could get a decent return on bodyparts. This way, I could justify it to the wife that little bit easier.
Not wanting to waste any time, the donor began being stripped the moment it got on my driveway! Its pretty much a meccano set. Everything was soooo easy to remove apart from the soft top which ripped!
Front end off
Rear end off
Basically something from Mad Max now
Bits to sell plus lights, vents etc...
Collection and transportation of a hard top which turned out to be the noisiest and most terrifying 30 mile drive of my life. Kept imagining it leaving the roof and taking out a biker.
Resting the kit on the car
It all seemed to be quite a good fit.
Started off with some simple bits. Cutting holes and vents, mostly by hand with a pad saw. I didn't fancy using power tools on it as I was worried about shattering any of the fiberglass with the vibrations. Apart from the round holes that is. Have also set about rubbing down the mould lines and just trying to get it smooth(ish). Removing all of the yellow waxy stuff has been a bit of a mission too!
Cutting the roof away from the rear section was terrifying!! Again, all by hand.
Dug these out of the recycle bin at work as they have what I reckon will be a big enough footprint to make something to hinge the rear clam off of the hard top.
Got hold of some old skool Konigs (for £60!!!! :icon_razz
which ought to look pretty good. Not sure whether to go white or bronze.
I've bought quite a few other bits and pieces for it - lights, rose joints, new cat, little engine mods. Theres probably more but its all up on a shelf which I can't reach to dissuade me from working on the main bit which is to get everything fitted right. The plan will be to build an exhaust so it can be really flipping noisy. It will literally be all show and no go until I can afford to either go for a turbo kit or theres been a lot of talk of fitting Golf 1.8T BAM lumps which would be a great install!
And that's pretty much it so far. Its flipping freezing in my garage which is made of wood and one side was rotten and pretty much fell off the other day
So, i'm also having to put money into the house and the garage too... so that sucked.
Thanks for the welcome folks.
Paul, yes you're right, a few more kits have been sold in a final final final run of kits so yeah hopefully there will be some more build threads starting soon. All of this is really new to me. I've never worked with fibreglass before so it's all a bit of a learning curve. Good fun though. Thankfully, I've always prided myself on being able to bodge things together and as there's no instructions to it, bodging is the way forward.
Mick, thanks for the link. As it happens, I'm gradually getting through all of the 80s and 90s rally bids on YouTube. One of the good things about working where I do and having time in my hands. Unfortunately I can't expect my piddly little mr2 engine to sound anywhere near as good as them or perform as well... But there's always room for improvement!
I used my crate to rebuild the side of the garage that fell off
did the driver ask where your fork truck was to get it off the back of his lorry?
Thanks for the kind words Swifty and Wozzy. Believe me, it's a bit of a Mona Lisa at the minute... Looks good from a distance. Got the car out in the sunshine a couple of weeks ago and it really showed just how much there is to do. So I put it back in the garage fairly sharpish!
Am trying to decide on the best course of action for how to make the doors fit. Skirts and roof first? Skirts and clam? All three, then adjust everything til it fits? The bonnet and bumper can sit in a corner as they won't need to be touched for a while. I've noticed that the bonnet will need to be trimmed on both sides where it meets the doors, maybe 10mm. You'll see when you test fit it all on. As I've got the wheels now, I think I'll get the spacers to fit them in. That'll give me something else to line the bodywork up to. So many decisions... not enough money!
It definitely will be! I knownthat I just need to pace myself and was told by Retro200 (new member on here) that if I get upset or annoyed by anything to just leave it and have a breather. I don't feel like I've done that much to it but have certainly made use of his words already!
Started refurbing a wheel today as I could bring it to work with me. Got this aluminium-polyester filler which is meant for wheels and a mouse to rub it down with. Wish i'd brought all the wheels as I've just prepped this one in about 40 mins. Its not perfect but a bit of high lift primer should make a good base for the colour. Just need to decide on a colour. I think they'll either be gold or white.
Also, for anyone interested (and so that I don't lose the website again) heres a link to some spacers which'll fit the MR2 hub:
http://www.freakyparts.co.uk/epages/es120337.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es120337_es124285571161/Categories/Mazda/MX5/%22Mk1Mk2%20NA-NB%22/SpacersSpigot_Rings
You'd at least want them polished up for that price wouldn't you?!
Doing a bit of work on the roof today:
And getting the tyres removed off the old wheels tomorrow so that I can sort them out.
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.
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.
Brought my bumper to work and cut some holes for the indicators. Now, I can indicate
I may have also set the building fire alarm off in doing so. It apparently works on dust as well as fire
Thanks LeighV6... me too!
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
Cheers chaps, I think they'll look pretty good
still no bloody spacers
Not yet mate, as I say, the spacers haven't turned up yet. Also as the car has no doors, I don't particularly want put it out in the rain haha!
