MR2 chassis restoration

What ho Zedders, something a little different here in the go in case anyone is mildly interested…🫣
This is my 12th MR2, I have an illness I know…🙄 It’s a 1998 red Tbar UK car with air con on 56k miles so is a pretty rare unit. Bodywork is fabulous, as is the interior, but as all Jap stuff there’s scant under seal from the factory and these cars suffer from tin worm quite badly, luckily here the sills, rear arches espy are all sound, a hotspot for rust, so really it’s a case of catching the mainly surface rust before it eats into it properly. I’ve made a start, front arches, a few areas underneath have been flap wheeled clean, Jenolite rust remover applied for any pits, cleaned, then painted with 3 layers of POR 15. Next step will be to apply seam sealer in the factory look, then finally painted with body colour red. The aim here is not to go overboard and ‘Over restore’ it, I’m wanting a fresh factory look ideally, so I won’t be painting the engine bay as a good clean and polish will suffice.
Anyhoo, some pics so far, everything stripped, engine is out, I’ll be soda and vapour blasting as many original parts as possible, but the suspension is shot, although you can’t really tell driving it, so where necessary new parts will be used. We’ll see how it goes over the next month or so…🫣😬
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0063.jpeg
    IMG_0063.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 7
  • IMG_0060.jpeg
    IMG_0060.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 5
  • IMG_0031.jpeg
    IMG_0031.jpeg
    1.3 MB · Views: 5
  • IMG_0030.jpeg
    IMG_0030.jpeg
    1.5 MB · Views: 5
  • IMG_0059.jpeg
    IMG_0059.jpeg
    1.6 MB · Views: 6
  • IMG_0061.jpeg
    IMG_0061.jpeg
    1.6 MB · Views: 6
  • IMG_0062.jpeg
    IMG_0062.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 5
Always admired the later generation mr2 from afar.

Decent to drive?

Yes very big, not as light or nimble as the 1st and 3rd generation, but they’re still reasonably light, and they do have that Boxster like feel, front end close to the ground feeling, excellent steering, much much better than Zeds with electronic racks. They’re slow by today’s standard at 173 bhp on revisions 3, 4, 170 on rev 5, but they’re very revvy, and you can use them hard without losing your license.
 
A heavy needle gun is your friend…and as you can see all we have is very light surface rust which is brilliant news. 😃
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0065.jpeg
    IMG_0065.jpeg
    1.6 MB · Views: 5
  • IMG_0066.jpeg
    IMG_0066.jpeg
    1.9 MB · Views: 6
When you say light restoration, presumed that you were just restoring the lights 😆

Looks like a heck of a lot of work but you obviously know what you are doing as you've been around them long enough.

I had a turbo version (import) back in the day and owned for a good few years but never did any DIY maintenance so don't know really know them that well. Took it to the Owners Club MR2000 event which I guess you might also have been at? After a bit of a gap when I was more into road bikes than cars, I bought a MK3 which I did a lot to and found far more fun. Then I wrote it off after 8 years and loads of money spent, which is how I ended up with a Z4.

Guessing that spare parts must be extremely difficult to come by now as all the specialist breakers are long gone?

Best of luck with the project :thumbsup:
 
great work, as an old school 2 owner have a soft spot for them. Owned 3 mk2's and 2 Mk3. 1 turbo one and one 2zz'd Monocraft GT300 car.
 
This is the kind of look I’m aiming for, clean oem paint and joint seal, along with vapour blasted ally engine mount that’s back again to oem look.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0074.jpeg
    IMG_0074.jpeg
    974.8 KB · Views: 6
That looks like a great project John - maybe it's the inspiration Fred needs to sort his one out. :LOL:

I've always liked the 2nd generation MR2s as they're a great shape, but by the time I got around to owning a 2 seater I became addicted to E86s!
 
The best looking in MR2 by a long way, the next model then got hit by every branch on the ugly tree.
 
Back
Top Bottom