1992 MR2 MK2 Project: A big drive

More dustpan action! nice save that could easily have been fragged!

PART 2

Sky as she became known became my primary daily driver. We had some good shakedowns and ironed out a few small issues before the tapping started.
I made the assumption it was probably a valve and continued using the car but then it started getting louder so by the end of April 2017 it had started to get rather bad.
I took her off the road to investigate, found no issues in the top end.


But did find some issues in the bottom end.



I checked over the crank and it seemed fine so i flushed the sump out, put in new big ends and mains. Then flushed the whole thing through with some flushing oil and a couple of oil and filter changes.

I proceed to drive it every day to work and back making small changes including fitting a remote central locking with boot actuator.



Leds and chrome rings on the cluster.


As you can see i also painted the dash


All was golden and it made a great daily driver.

PART 4

I drove the car around for a while deciding what i was going to do.
Then mid december a Lexus RX300 came up for sale at a very good price, it had an MOT but really shouldnt have had and was rather rough underneath. The engine though was solid.


So the v6 conversion began.
I pulled the engine out over christmas 2017.



Spent a few months tinkering with it, working out the wiring and generally tidying things up.


The MOT was due and i wanted to do a few bits so refurbished the front suspension.



Gathering parts i picked up a cheap MK3 gearbox and pulled the LSD out of it.


I picked up an avensis diesel gearbox for the longer 5th gear


A cheap set of 16” wheels came up that i liked so got them


A few trips up to woodsport to get the required engine mount, Flywheel redrilled to match the v6 and custom intake pipe made. Aswell as merging all my gearbox parts into one unit. Once the gearboxes were apart we decided to use the full avensis gearset instead of the mr2 one as it would also give me a longer final drive.
By May 2018 i had just about everything ready.


Old engine out and spruced up the engine bay.



Quite alot of sprucing


And lifted the v6 in, or more accurately dropped the car onto the engine.


A considerable amount of time was spent wiring, plumbing and getting all the other bits done, including cruise control.




I built up an exhaust for it as i didnt like the locations of the stock manifolds i decided to make the full system up to the back box.



Not by any means a pretty or performance based system but it got me on the road

The wheels got shot blasted so i cleaned them up a bit further and painted them.


Complete with fresh and very sticky rubber



I also got around to fitting a mk3 tiptronic steering wheel but with a bit of electrickery i wired the shift buttons to the radio for controlling the track and volume.

thats a pretty broad skill set at play there!

That was the conversion done. So a week of daily driving gave me a bit of confidence before i hammered on some miles.
A week after i put it back on the road i drove it 500 miles to ben nevis and back one weekend, obviously the dog came with me, i think he rather enjoys it in the car even if he is relegated to the footwell.

A quick repair swapping gearbox input shaft oil seal due to a leak and the following weekend i drove it 1000 miles to Fontainebleau and back. A quick picture if front of the palace gates before the police chased us out.


A 2 week recovery space and we went for the big one and drove it to norway where i met some fellow mr2 friends for a roadtrip, 10 days and we covered around 3.5k miles. An amazing trip and some incredible driving roads over there.






A slight issue with the knock sensors on the way back but certainly nothing that stopped me from driving so we carried on and i changed them when i got home.
It had been an amazing month of driving and I really started to feel that this was the ultimate touring and daily car.

The suspension needed addressing though as the front inserts i had fitted a few months previously were shot so i bought a set of Koni sport inserts, Apex springs and Superpro full polybush kit. I blasted and powdercoated the arms and struts, rebuilt and fitted.




In March 2019 we got a brief feature in Practical classics magazine




Continuing the theme i kept driving the car every day for work and to the occasional show, In Easter 2019 i joined one of the mr2 groups on a spirited trip round the highlands. Which was alot of fun on some more great roads.



Driving this car every day for a year i really enjoyed it, lots of torque is always there waiting for you but its also comfortable and i had no doubts about getting in and driving it all day. It can also return around 35mpg on a long drive.
By the time we got to august 2019 i had racked up a considerable amount of seat time and thats when a lapse of attention when coming home from work one day changed everything.

Ouch that rods taken a fair kink. im surprised it ran at all without binding.

The old thing certainly has lived a life....or two!!

I have found some time recently and had a bit of enthusiasm to get back on with this car, so have clear out the workshop and unburied her from the junk.


Dragged out and up onto the stands so i can get cracking. While repairing the front end is the primary focus i also will be dropping the engine out for a rebuild and finishing up a few other bits that need attending too, including bodywork, underside and a few electrical quirks that she has picked up over the years.


First job is drilling out the spotwelds for the front bulkhead


While im going i decided to remove the capings for the strut tower, the main reason being that i know they rot behind there and i wanted to get it dealt with before it becomes a problem.


As it happens it did need attending too.
On both sides


The inner wing straightened out nicely. Any final fettling will be done as i line up the front bulkhead.


Onto the chassis leg.
It was apparent that it wasnt going to come easily without alot of tools i dont have so in an attempt to save alot of panel beating i chopped a section of it out and straightened the other half.


The c section will be getting replaced with a lump from the new front end.


This bit.


And with the bulkhead temporarily dropped in place you can see its coming together.


The cavities on the front strut towers got a good scrubbing,


Followed by some hydrate 80


And zinc primer, Once the caps are welded back on they will get fully coated in cavity wax


The inner wing cap flange on the driver side had a bit of rust on it so i chopped it out


And made up a new one.


Blasted and primed the caps


There was also a slight twist to the passengers side chassis leg so i cut off the outer skin so that the c-section could be straightened. Bit of remedial corrosion to be fixed in here too.


The first cap has been tacked back on, since my front cut had an end piece of the cap i decided it wasnt worth trying to straighten that bit of the old one so lopped it off.


Onto the passengers side there was a rust spot on the flange.


Chopped out and replaced


And onto the passengers inner wing/strut tower


A small bit just starting to creep through. Chopped out


Cleaned and prepped


New piece made up and welded in


And linished back


Cleaned up and blasted the replacement pieces for the chassis legs ready to weld in


A bit more cleanup, along with alot of measuring and trial fitting still needs to be done before i can weld the new front parts on but its looking promising.

Cheers mate just doing what i can to keep this thing going.