GDII's SW20 MR2

[GDII]

RS*R have made the ride height perfect visually.

 

[GDII]

I borrowed a 10-22mm lens and had a quick go with it.

 

[SVX]

Very nice. 👍

 

[Punknoodle]

That lens is great for the interior shots. Not a fan of the fish eye approach for the exterior shots but cool none the less.

That engine bay would look good if it had a 3SGTE in it Come on, you live in New Zealand, it should be easy to find one

EDIT: And if the cover wasn't being held up by a bit of wood!

 

[GDII]

The exterior shots do look a bit odd but they are different. I like the interior shots but I need to get the camera positioned right as none of them are even or centered.

3S-GTE would be nice. But funds don't allow plus it would be cheaper to buy a whole car than do a swap.

As for the wood I will be getting a gas strut and some brackets so I can get rid of it and make it look better.

 

[Sly Guy]

I wish the paint on my turbo was as nice as yours 👍

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Why is it so clean? Wow man, that's a beautiful MR2.

 

[GDII]

The paint isn't as good as it looks in photos. Camera hides the bad parts and makes it look more red. From alot of other red MR2s that i have seen there aren't many around with decent factory paint. I wash it once a week and wax the parts that start to turn white/pink when required.

 

[GDII]

Nothing new added to the car.

I had a go at 'light painting'. Just wanted to try it out. I need to park the car where there is no light and photoshop multiple exposures together to get a proper effect. I just bought a battery powered LED work light which will help next time I try this.

 

[GDII]

I gave the car a wash, first time in over a month...

Then I had another go at light painting. But before I could do that the lens on my DSLR decided it didn't want to work. The aperture fails to adjust between 18-24 but after that it seems to work. Spent a few hours trying to figure it out.

 

[GDII]

My front swaybar mounting points are starting to crack. I will get them welded up (only small cracks so far) and bolt on some reinforcing brackets.

I made a mock up of my front swaybar reinforcing brackets. I'll draw it up in CAD and get them made out of 5mm steel and have them electroplated so they have that rainbow gold colour. I still need to figure out how much I need to get them bent so they mount up properly.

 

[Punknoodle]

Will they just bolt through the factory holes? Wouldn't getting those reinforcing plates welded to the chassis increase their strength? Otherwise you are still only relying on those 2 mounting points.

 

[GDII]

The middle bolt hole gets pulled down with the rotation force from the sway bar. Adding the third bolt (the one on the right by itself) transfers that force to another stronger point on the chassis. I could also get another layer of steel bent around the chassis rail and welded to it but as the plates will be free it will be cheaper to weld the minor crack and bolt them on. To be honest I am not sure how well the plates work but many manufactures make them and lots of people use them. Must work. I don't have upgraded swaybars (yet) but they seem to cause the cracking and apparently these brackets stop it.

 

[nissanfanatic]

Nice SW20. Years ago a mate of mine rolled his one 7 times racing a Prelude in Palmy. Both cars crashed at around 170-180kph. Both occupants in the MR2 survived with one of them getting a punctured lung. Lucky! One guy in the Prelude broke his back in several places. Always liked the MR2's tho!

 

[GDII]

Hey thanks.

That doesn't sound too good. Not sure if street racing is the best idea.

 

[nissanfanatic]

Yeah well when you are young you do some stupid things i guess..

 

[GDII]

Continuing the light painting theme, but this time I think I cracked it.

 

[Thatman]

Nice shots man! 👍

 

[GDII]

Thanks Thatman

Finally got around to getting the swaybar mounts welded up.

Cracks visible.

Prep surface for welding.

Weld crack.

Grind back weld.

I wanted to leave it sitting out a bit to make it easy for the WOF guy to see. I will have my brackets bolted on that will hide them but just make it easier to show.

Painted.

 

[GDII]

Spent the weekend washing the MR2. Also sanded back the paint on the lower front bumper in prep for a proper coat of paint. Waxed the rest of the car as it was turning white again.

 

[SVX]

That has gotta be the most clean and tidiest SW20 I've ever seen.

 

[GDII]

Thanks SVX. You will have to see it in the flesh. Hopefully your opinion doesn't change when you do.

 

[SVX]

Thanks SVX. You will have to see it in the flesh. Hopefully your opinion doesn't change when you do.

I'll probably be in more awe.

 

[GDII]

Painted the front lip black in prep for carbon fibre look vinyl.

I was thinking about what to do with the massive empty holes where the fog light were. Brake cooling ducts seemed the obvious choice. Mocked up some cardboard inserts to see how it would look.

 

[Skygrasper550]

I was thinking about what to do with the massive empty holes where the fog light were. Brake cooling ducts seemed the obvious choice. Mocked up some cardboard inserts to see how it would look.

What happened to the fog lights, BTW

That aside, the black front lip on the car looks nothing short of awesome 👍👍

 

[GDII]

Thanks. I'm very happy with how it looks. Used to be red.

I know the previous owner had the lights on the car as they were there on google streets. He said they were stolen but he may have used them on his other MR2. Not too concerned.

 

[GDII]

Driving home today and the car started spluttering. Then I saw steam/smoke coming out of the engine bay. Turns out the throttle body water pipe rusted out and snapped off blowing water everywhere. Had to get towed home. Now I'm after a new water outlet to get the car going again.

 

[nissanfanatic]

Could be worse!

 

[Punknoodle]

Get cold much in Wellington? That coolant connections for the throttle body are just there so that in cold environments the throttle wont get frozen, I think. Probably best to run it, all the same, but I know that for simplicity's sake on mine I considered bypassing the connections to the throttle body, as 1) I live in QLD, it never freezes here, and 2) I have a boosted engine, intake temps are always going to be above ambient.

 

[GDII]

I don't really have a way of stopping the water coming out so I will just replace the whole part. I'll do the water pump and cam belt while I'm at it seeing as its dropped most of its water. Maybe do the front crank seal to so I know its been done.

The whole water system needs a flush. Its all rusting out. I will have to check other parts to see what the damage is. Lucky I just finished doing the head gasket on the girlfriends car so we can use that while mine is broken.