1992 MR2 MK2 Project: A big drive

the black and white plank is a looker!

With time pressing on i sharpened my scraper and got to work.
The idea here is to keep as much of the original e-coat as possible since its pretty well stuck and has done a reasonable job for the past 30 years. But the rubberised undersealer needs to go.


Slowly slowly we made progress


Exposed a few areas of rust hiding under the old undersealer but not gone through


But remember this is a 90’s toyota so before long i had found some that had gone through. Again in the top of the rear arch.


And at the front sill jacking point


Not to mention the plate on the suspension mount, not rotten but bent and when i made one for the other side i actually made 2 as i knew this was needed.


So it came off and I cleaned up in the cup.


Bit of paint,


Then welded on the new one.


The rest of this is update going to sound like a stuck record so bare with me. Hopefully this will be the last of the rust repairs on this car.
The front jacking point was brutally attacked with various tools,both power and hand.


Area painted and a bit of steel was mutilated with a hammer to fit.


Welded in.


Now then we have this thingamabob


Chop out the lurgy


Make a new whatyamacallit


And sparkly gun it in.


I chopped off the rear valence a few weeks ago, it was starting to rust and i feel its better without it. So that got tidied up a bit.


With that all the underside repairs are done.
I finished stripping back all the areas that had been missed and slathered all the spots that needed it in hydrate 80.


Im going to do a bit more prep and then we can get some epoxy primer onto the underside followed by seam sealer and Raptor.

Another evening at home means a bit more work.
Todays job is seam sealer. A trick i have come across is to tape either side of the joint when applying the seam sealer. Since im using the brush on stuff it gets quite messy.


Applying the sealer is now nice and easy as you dont have to worry about getting it neat. Although it is very smelly stuff so a mask is suggested.


Oh and peel off the masking tape once you have finished an area because it starts to set almost as soon as you get it on the car.

I continued masking, and had used a full roll by the end of it.


And got the sealer on the rest of the areas that i could access



Tonights job will be a bit less tedious i think.

Thanks.
It's starting to look decent.

I know I said tonight would be less tedious but I tsincehink I was wrong I'm still in the workshop and it's heading towards midnight. One more coat and I'm done. *Sigh*

Since Friday night is when we finally get to see the underside in some paint i rushed home from work only stopping to grab the barest of essentials.


While enjoying that i realised ii hadnt scuffed up the surface so out came the 180 and i started scrubbing. This took considerably longer than expected.


With my cuppa going cold on me i mixed up the first batch of raptor.
I had some basecoat left from the last respray i did on this car a few years ago so it only made sense to buy the tintable raptor to make use of it.
The first batch gets brushed on to coat any areas that i wont be able to get to easily.
And then the schutz gun splatters the rest of the chassis with it.


By coat 2 it was close but i just wasnt convinced we had coverage and i had 1L of Raptor left.
It was supposed to be for the arches on the other side so ill have to buy some more.
I thinned it down, promptly spilled it everywhere and shot the final coat with a big tip in the spray gun.
This resulted in a much better finish and i wish i had done that from coat 2.




By this point it was now past 1am so i poured some thinners in the gun and left the mess to be future me’s problem.

Saturday morning was spent wandering round the local autojumble and ignoring the mess i had left for myself. Was a good trip and i picked up a few bits, nothing too noteworthy for myself though.

Enough procrastination time to get tidied up and started on the next job.
The raptor datasheet recommends 5-7 days before giving it any hard use so i dont want to be bolting everything back on just yet id rather wait the recommended period of time than run the risk of messing it up at this point.
In the mean time what can we be doing?
Well i have a fuel tank thats looking a bit scabby.


The plan for this is a general clean up and while i have it out change all the hoses and seals for “modern" fuels. The car will be getting run on E10 most of the time as a daily so i want to be sure the tank is sealed and the hoses are suitable. I dont want to get a few yearsinto driving it and go up in flames due to a perished line.
In the spirit of that a box arrived.


On with the tank
I stripped it out and had a gander inside, I was rather impressed.


Just the outside to clean up then. I picked up a 3" da sander at the autojumble so gave it a test run. Am pretty happy with the results.


It gives a really nice finish with the 80grit and should key well with the paint.


Some areas got rust converter


Then onto the decision regarding paint. It wasnt a hard choice i have a tin of epoxy mastic that i bought for something else and didnt use. I might aswell use that.

After 2 coats its looking rather tidy.


It is grey though so im going to let it cure and then follow up with a black topcoat.

While its drying i can be working on something else. I have the front wings to sort out.
As a bit of background information for those who dont know the Japanese MK2’s didnt have side repeaters in the wings whereas the UK versions did.
Since my car is JDM it doesnt have the holes in the wings.
But back when i got the car i swapped one wing out due to rust and at the time just filled the hole with a plate tack welded on the back and then filler over the front which is less than ideal as the filler often ends up sinking.

Since i bent the other original wing i need to fill the hole in my spare.


Mildy annoying that these wings were once japanese ones too before someone hacked a hole into it with an angle grinder and im now having to plate it up again.


Im trying out a new method for a change and will be tig welding the repair in and then trying to straighten it out as much as possible afterwards with hammer and dolly.
With as little gap around the panel as possible i tacked it in place


And fully welded


It was rather rough welding. Blew through in a few spots, maybe the metal was a bit thin or i didnt move fast enough.

Anyway cleaned back a little bit first and then start hammering out the welds.
From the little i know your aiming to only stretch the welds as that should be the only bit that shrank and distorted your panel.
After hammering dolly for a while and a little bit of clean up i was fairly happy with it. There will still need to be a thin skim of filler but thats acceptable. And i might go over it again once i have it bolted to the car.


And onto the other wing.
Chopped off my previous bodge.


Then tacky tack.


I dont know how people can do “fusion tacks" on the tig it just doesnt work for me. Rather than the 2 pieces welding together i just get both pieces melting away from each other. I nearly always have to add a bit of rod to my tacks.

I decided to give the pulse setting on my welder a try for welding it all in and was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked since i dont have a foot pedal i cant just back off when it gets a bit hot so this was a good compromise.


Happier with that one and again plenty of hammering till it looks like this


Once the epoxy was cured on the tank i gave it a top coat of gloss black. Its nothing special, just some celly that has been laying around.


I guess my next job is to start ordering fuel lines and gasket material. Get the paramedic on standby for my wallet, i think im going to need one.

Me and the Mot tester, providing it stays on all 4 wheels haha

In the middle of other things i also bought some new calipers
Yea yea i know the stock ones are very good especially with better compound pads, i had it on Pagid discs and pads for years without an issue doing mostly daily driving but a good bit of fast road. The whole setup never filled the wheels that well though and looked a tad on the small side so why turn down a chance to upgrade, atleast i dont have to mess about with the sliders anymore.
Got some 4pots from a nissan 200sx. In total they arnt much bigger but they are a 40.4mm piston vs the original 36mm ones.


Ill be putting the fronts on 315mm disks so i can fit everything under my existing wheels.
The rears are staying with the factory calipers but will be going on 323mm disks and im pretty sure i can fit them in especially if the wheel found itself 10-15mm further out. With this setup my rudimentary maths tells me ill have 61/39 f/r bias which is the same as they had from the factory. Ill just need to gut the factory bias adjuster.

The rear pistons on the calipers were very seized but came out eventually.


And there we go all stripped down and no serious issues to be found.


They should have nissan cast into the front of them but from the looks of it an angry ape went at them with a grinder in the past and made a bit of a mess. So i spent some time with files and cleaned up the faces so all the serious marks are gone. They still arnt perfect but unless i get the metal epoxy out to build them back up there really isnt anything else i can do about it.


While working on them i was pondering the issue of brake lines these calipers were designed to take a hardline to the strut and a flexi from there. While its not a bad system i think id prefer a flexi to the caliper with a banjo bolt.
The hole is designed to take a flare fitting


When seen from behind you can tell the little beggar is an insert.


So i tapped it out.


And bingo one hole for a banjo bolt even the correct m10x1 thread, once i have them all mounted ill get to find out if the original hoses are long enough.


Just need to clean up the face where the washer will seal onto it.
Since im doing calipers i stripped the original rears too and will be rebuilding them at the same time.

I ordered the rebuild kits along with a few other bits from Frentech brakes and they pulled through as always as the parts were in my lap by 11am the next day. They are good guys and have the best service of just about any company i have used in the past. Their kits are also good quality at a reasonable price.


Calipers prepped for blasting. Now i just need to decide what im going to write on the front and what colour they should be, i think the inner child might win through on this one