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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.....
Cheers guys - yes I’m really pleased with the outcome so far.
My wife even said she was impressed with how it’s turned out!
I decided today I had put off long enough cleaning the interior out. I started the build with all good intentions of keeping everything clean and tidy but you know how it goes you end up spending more time on a job then you don’t have time to clean up afterwards.
Anyway the interior was quite a mess not helped by having the windows wound down. Now the doors and windows are in it was a good time to clean everything up. The door handle rods are reconnected also and I just need to put the door cards back in before moving on to the coilovers.
I also tried the mats I had made nearly 2 years ago .... a bit bright the red edging I think!
A quick question to fellow MRS200 builders - or anyone with Perspex windows - did you paint the inner edges black (where it sits against the door frame and the lower part where you can see the top of the MR2 through it) and if so what paint did you use?
I’ve tried a Matt black primer specially for plastics on an off cut of the Perspex (I’ve actually got macron windows as I paid extra for these with the kit) and it’s not bonded very well. I don’t really want to have to rub the edge of the window down.
Any ideas or tips?
Many thanks
No Wozzy didn’t try that - will get some and give it a go. Cheers
Thanks Nick - I have made a start on the flash lines just still some big ones left round the back of the clam and around the air intakes and scoops.
My wife also said originally when I started the kit ... “can’t we keep it as an MR2”!!
The seats came up on eBay. Someone had them recovered and never used them and I got them for a good price. They are MR2 pre facelift seats - I actually prefer the ones without the holes anyway. I did look into the company that did them - they are based in Ornskirk and can dig the name out if you’re interested as they provided covers that could be used to replace the factory fabric covers quite easily.
Bit of a slow week this last one. I knew I wouldn’t have two clear days to do the coilovers and I really need to get the car out on the drive for this as there isn’t much room in the garage on the passenger side.
So I decided to tackle the snagging list of little bits and bobs I need to sort before the MOT.
First on the list was to fit some additional Dzus fasteners to the rear screen as I was worried the forces on this when driving at speed may push it out. Seems pretty solid now.
I then adjusted the headlights and set the aim as best I could before the MOT. The garage door test seems OK so we will see what happens when it comes to MOT time. Whilst doing this I also went back and fitted some protective covering to the wiring for the headlights and indicators.
Final job this week was to trim the lower edge of the clam. It was as it came out of the mould and catching the cat hanger. No longer catches and looks a bit neater.
Will have to see what the weather is doing this week if I can get a slot in for the coilovers.
Thanks Wozzy for the tip about adhesion aid - seems to have done the trick on the off cut of macron/Perspex when I tried it over the weekend so will give it a go on the windows this week.
Another question for fellow MRS200 builders....how did you fix your mesh grilles for the ear scoops? I’ve bolted the rear clam vent grilles in and was planning on using Tigerseal to bond the mesh from the back. This looks like it should work on the vents in the front bumper but there’s not a lot of surface area to bond to in the ear scoops.
I’ve used this method before on other kits where I used wire and a piece of thin wood to hold the grille in place from the front of the panel whilst the tigerseal set, just not sure it will hold on the scoops.
Any thoughts?
Thanks
Hi Nick. No not had time this week to get to the coilovers and think I’m going to struggle now to get enough time before Christmas to get them swapped over - if I don’t do it next week it will definitely be done by mid January as I want it MOT’d by end Jan.
Will try to get all the other little jobs done in the next week so it’s just coilovers left.
Once there on I will post pics so you can see what the ride height looks like.
You managing to get any time to finish yours off ?