I'm amazed the more I look into the history of the RS200 development the more I find a group of dedicated individuals who made something at the time very special happen. Not sure what John would think of an MR2 based replica though.
My wheels turned up late Friday and are now on the car. I went for 17" all round ET25 with Toyo Proxes 205r40 on the front and 215r40 on the back.
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I wasn't expecting them for another couple of weeks as I was quoted 6 - 8 weeks from ordering as they weren't in stock given the offset so I now need to pull my finger out and get the spacers ordered for the back; 20mm hubcentric spacers.
Nostromo - were you happy with your spacers when they turned up and did you have to wait a while for them to be delivered?
A couple of weeks back I also managed to source a pair of newly recovered seats in leather and alcantara to replace the red cloth in the donor I bought. I know stuff like this should be lower down the budget list but they were a bargain so they've also been fitted and I just need to replace the red cloth on the door panels with either black leather or alcantara - genuine alcantara is mega money so may well end up going black leather. They are pre facelift MR2 seats but I actually prefer them without the hole to the facelift versions.
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Thanks Mick - yes I trial fitted front bumper again last night and they looked OK on the front but I've only got 205 tyres on the front as I was trying to create some element of "stagger" front to rear so may need to go with a spacer still
Thanks for the kind words- will order a set of spacers for the rears tomorrow and then decide on the fronts once front bumper fitted
New exhaust arrived on Monday from North America. I took a bit of a risk on this one in pursuit of making the engine noise a bit more sporty (along with the K&N filter and pipe), it was on eBay from a North American supplier and there are a couple of MR2 Roadster forum owners who've fitted this so I could see/hear it on the car via videos they had made. All in with shipping and import duties it was less than 220 GBP and only took around 5 working days to arrive.
Quality is better than I expected and it comes with gasket and fittings. Plus it feels about half the weight of the stock exhaust.
I'm hoping to fit along with the induction kit over the next couple of days so I can get the rear clam on for a better trial fit and then get on with the sills.
Rear spacers on order now that I've got the wheels.
I received the mats I'd ordered today from Ambassador Mats - they managed to take the RS200 logo and create the stiching pattern to put these on the mats in a similar place to the MR2 logo on the original mats.
I wasn't too sure when they sent me pictures through of the finished article (I'd also ordered them black piped in red) but in the flesh they look great and rather pleased with them.
Now that they've created the stiching pattern with the software they use they can reproduce the design if any other MRS200 builders are interested.
£67 delivered but I would expect you should be able to get some off that price given that included setting up the stitching pattern first time around.
Lewis was the guy I dealt with via [email]info@ambassadorcarmats.co.uk[/email]
Many thanks for sharing the pics IanA
New exhaust fitted along with the K&N induction kit. Induction kit was easier than I expected, old air box and piping came off straight forward. I did a before/after compare of the exhaust/engine sound before I started on the exhaust and there was a noticeable improvement, also seemed to rev a bit easier.
Fitting the new exhaust was a pig - both removing the old one particularly the bolts to the cat and getting the new one to line up, but got there in the end and must say both the sound and the looks are spot on.
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I ran the car up to temp and managed to check it was idling ok once warmed up as I'd heard reports that due to reduced back pressure it could affect the idle. All OK and the combo of exhaust and induction kit really make a difference to sound and responsiveness of the engine - OK it may be more the sound and the rest is my brain making it seem to rev better!
I decided not to put the exhaust heat shield back on as the new one looks so good and with the clam on I think there will be plenty of air circulating.
I'm still waiting for the rear wheel spacers to arrive (should turn up next week) so I've held off from making a start on fitting the rear clam. To keep me busy there's a few jobs left on the interior including replacing the door card trim with alcantara and red piping to match the new seats, and I've decided to mount an old Android tablet on the dash top so I can run Torque Pro via an ODBII Bluetooth connector. Mock up below but will be permanently fixed using a Nav Pod which is on order and should arrive next week.
Still waiting for the rear spacers to arrive but managed to get the rear clam on for a trial fitting earlier today. I removed the 4" either side of the rear crash bar and the good news is my measurements were spot on with trailing edge clearing the top of the pipes from the new exhaust but it is catching slightly on the rubber hanger holding the cat - that may be as the clam is too far forward on the car (see below).
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Front edge where it meets top rail of windscreen looks less good with a big gap. I know there is a void to the hardtop that will need filling but I suspect I need to shift the whole roof/clam back a couple of cm to line it up and get the pillars anywhere near close (mine are separate due to getting the kit couriered).
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Will fit the sills first so next job is to remove the two doors and do the mods to the trailing edge of those. Alongside that will make a start on cutting out the various holes and light fittings on the rear clam.
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 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!
That looks great - proper old skool!
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.
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.
Headlamp surrounds were £50 plus VAT plus postage for the pair and you need to cut out the hole for headlamp itself in the back of the surround.
Sorry I've not posted the door pics yet ~ will get round to it asap.
Reto200 you've got me thinking again now about the dummy intercooler!
Yes I just emailed Bill at [email]salesdesk@ev200.com[/email] to get a price with VAT and postage.