GDII's SW20 MR2

[GDII]

I will get a new hose fitting tapped into the existing housing as it will be much cheaper than buying a new part.

Spent all day yesterday wrapping car parts in carbon fibre look vinyl. Pretty cool stuff. Stretches well with a bit of heat from a hair dryer.
My door mirrors were badly faded and had 3 tone pink colouring so I thought wrapping them in vinyl would be a good idea.

It is meant to be bubble free if installed correctly. The back side has this crazy pattern on it.

Door mount before

Door mount after

Mirrors

Door mounts and mirrors with the different pattern angle.

And the front lip which took quite some time as unsticking the vinyl to get all the wrinkles out was hard with so many large flat areas for it to stick too. Good result in the end.

 

[Thatman]

Are you going to do the side bit in a vinyl?

 

[nissanfanatic]

Looks sweet. I've seen this stuff on eBay, might have to give it a go. Gotta get a cheap hair dryer first tho!

 

[GDII]

Are you going to do the side bit in a vinyl?

I was thinking about doing the sills and rear end caps too. I will see when I get my car fixed and out of the garage. The front lip should look good.

Looks sweet. I've seen this stuff on eBay, might have to give it a go. Gotta get a cheap hair dryer first tho!

I got this from Trademe (you must know what that is) and it has no branding on the back. Just a nice 10mm and 20mm grid pattern for measuring. Was pretty cheap, $79NZD for 3.0x1.5m including shipping from Auckland to Wellington. The 3M branded stuff is $265USD for the same size sheet.
The hair dryer I used was very cheap. Just need a small amount of heat to get it to do what you want. It's pretty compliant with most curves. The tight ones like the edges of the mirror housing where the glass is wasn't the easiest. Definitely a bit of fun. Much cheaper than real carbon fibre. Only thing it does is look good. I also wanted to try something different instead of just red or black.

I know some people might think it's tacky and I agree somewhat, but I love my stock mirror shape but also carbon fibre. I have seen how hard it is to make good carbon fibre parts and now understand why they are so expensive.

 

[nissanfanatic]

I know some people might think it's tacky...

Looks better than faded paint!!! Yes, I used trademe lots, thieving buggers! So expensive to sell on there! 79NZ is like 50cents here so it seems quite fair

 

[GDII]

I have never sold anything so not worried. I'm a hoarder so never sell stuff.

It does look better than faded paint. I have mounted one mirror and it looks great. Now I don't have to keep waxing them to try (and fail) to get the red back.

 

[GDII]

I have slowly been doing some stuff on the car. Sent my water outlet to my brother so he could make some new hose fittings. He made them from 304 stainless steel so they should last for a very long time.

This morning I drained the remaining water from the car. There was maybe about 5 litres that came out. There should be 14.

Next is to reinstall the water outlet and try flush the system.

On a more positive note I have reinstalled the door mirrors.

I will bolt on the front lip after I have sorted the cooling system.

Also I have some 160watt 2 way pioneer speakers that I might install in the doors to replace the 20watt factory speakers. I've had these for years. They were in my EE90 Corolla previously.

 

[GDII]

Spent the last 2 nights flushing the cooling system. Filled it with water and drained about 10 times now. Water is coming out clear. Just need to buy coolant and charge the battery to get it going again.

 

[JrDarknes]

for the carbon fiber vinyal do you HAVE to heat it? If so why. I plan on putting it on my next 240sx.

 

[Azuremen]

I have never sold anything so not worried. I'm a hoarder so never sell stuff.

It does look better than faded paint. I have mounted one mirror and it looks great. Now I don't have to keep waxing them to try (and fail) to get the red back.

That red Toyota used back then fades so brutally. Any time of it not being taken care of extremely well shows regardless, and on a used car that is almost always happens.

Still, things are looking good with the wraps. Just don't go over board with the stuff

for the carbon fiber vinyal do you HAVE to heat it? If so why. I plan on putting it on my next 240sx.

I believe you have to heat it so it will mold to the contours of whatever you're applying it to. A friend of mine and I are looking into vinyl wrapping wheels for some cars to see how certain colors would look and this is more or less what we've found.

 

[GDII]

for the carbon fiber vinyal do you HAVE to heat it? If so why. I plan on putting it on my next 240sx.

You don't have to heat it for flat panels or minor curves but all the parts I have done needed it. The bonnet of your car shouldn't need any except maybe around the lights as you wrap under the bonnet.

 

[GDII]

That red Toyota used back then fades so brutally. Any time of it not being taken care of extremely well shows regardless, and on a used car that is almost always happens.

Still, things are looking good with the wraps. Just don't go over board with the stuff

I believe you have to heat it so it will mold to the contours of whatever you're applying it to. A friend of mine and I are looking into vinyl wrapping wheels for some cars to see how certain colors would look and this is more or less what we've found.

I think I will stop with the carbon now. Done all the parts I have wanted to do. Next will be to paint the rear wing so its not faded red. Will look good when done.

 

[Sharky.]

How's the reliability and running costs, GD? Half of me really wants an SW20 '2 but the other half is terrified of there being massive hidden costs and the thing being made out of paper (what sort of condition would I be looking at if I had $4000 to spend?). Poor man's Ferrari or whatever you want to call them, I love the shape!

Car looks nice, the black chin spoiler looks fantastic 👍

 

[GDII]

4k should get you an ok early model. I got mine for $2850 almost 5 years ago. I have had to do a few things to keep it going. Join the MR2 owners club forum. There is always a few for sale. A nice black Turbo one in Chch currently. Not sure on price though.

Main things I have had to do was alternator, front sway bar mounts and now this water pipe that rusted out. Other than that just replacing worn out parts, being 22 years old its expected. Great cars, lots of fun. Can be a money pit but I like it too much to care about that. If you don't spend extra money modifying it, they shouldn't cost too much. Rust isn't a problem.

I think they are pretty reliable. I have done almost all the work on it as it costs too much to pay someone. I get about 11-12 liters per 100km as I drive it abit fast haha. Plus alot of city driving. Burns abit of oil but the piston rings aren't too happy. Doesn't leak oil though.

 

[Sharky.]

I think a Turbo would be a bit OTT for a first car, haha. Insurance would be fairly steep too I would imagine!

Good to know they're not too bad to own, I wouldn't be afraid to have to spend some money every now and then to keep it running as long as it wasn't sucking everything out of my savings. Have you tracked yours at all? If I bought one I'd find it very hard to resist the temptation to go down to Ruapuna during a track day and have a bit of fun

 

[GDII]

I haven't had a chance to get it on a race track like Ruapuna but I have done a hillclimb and 2 grass Autocross events. Lots of fun. The first page has some videos of the events. I'd like to get up to Manfield but I can't afford to yet. New tyres will be about $950.

 

[Manuelos]

How's the reliability and running costs?

Great cars, lots of fun. Can be a money pit but I like it too much to care about that.

²
I have mine almost 4 years now. Had to overhaul the engine, gearbox and turbo in almost 1 year time ... If you have bad luck they can cost you alot of money. I think it all depends on the previous owner(s). I'm using mine as a daily driver, doing trackdays and cruising in it in the weekends. Did about 9.000km's last year and the only thing I had to spend money on, was a new pair of rear tyres and some brake pads.

 

[GDII]

I have put 80,000km on it since I got it. Daily driver so it goes everywhere.

As above the car will only be as good as the previous owner(s). According to the guy I bought it off, the engine had been 'rebuilt' by the owner before that. I saw an auction link saying that it had come back from the engine builder but I have no idea to what extent it had been 'rebuilt'.

Cam belt and water pump needs doing soon. I should be doing it now with the water system drained but can't afford it yet.

 

[GDII]

My brother made up my custom swaybar mount reinforcement brackets. Plasma cut from 5mm steel and then pressed to bend them 10mm.

 

[GDII]

I also got him to rebuild my water outlet with 304 stainless steel tubes

Before. With missing pipes and a rusty one.

After. Acid dipped and new tubes pressed in.

 

[Punknoodle]

That's pretty awesome dude!

 

[GDII]

Thanks. I'm pretty impressed with the results. My brother can make some cool stuff.

 

[GDII]

How's the reliability and running costs, GD? Half of me really wants an SW20 '2 but the other half is terrified of there being massive hidden costs and the thing being made out of paper (what sort of condition would I be looking at if I had $4000 to spend?). Poor man's Ferrari or whatever you want to call them, I love the shape!

Car looks nice, the black chin spoiler looks fantastic 👍

There's a black Turbo GT for sale in Chch well within your budget. But as you say probably not the best being Turbo.

 

[GDII]

I have spent the last few weeks doing visual mods and fixing the cooling system.

Here is a recap on the last few weeks. With better photos.

New water outlet pipes added to existing housing. Most shiny part on my engine now.

Carbon fibre look vinyl applied to door mirrors, front light surrounds and aftermarket front lip.

Custom front swaybar mount reinforcement brackets. I have painted them now. I will source new longer bolts and washers this week as the existing ones are too short to be safe.

 

[SVX]

I'm loving the carbon on the pop up surrounds! Nice touch.

 

[GDII]

Yeah I quite like it. Hidden away most of the time. I have done the rear end caps in vinyl. I think I will do the sills under the doors then stop with the CF look vinyl. I might grab some gloss black vinyl and do the faded trim that goes around the car. Easier than painting or buying new parts.

 

[GDII]

Yesterday I got a new WOF, picked up a few spare parts from another MR2 owner, went past another MR2 owners place to pick up some spring compressors and put the stock springs back in. Took about 3 hours of work to get that done with hand tools only. I also installed the front swaybar mount reinforcement brackets while the car was up on stands. Finally got the correct bolts I needed to install them. Now I have 1 stock bolt, 1 new silver zinc plated bolt and 1 new gold zinc plated bolt on each bracket.

 

[GDII]

I installed the pioneer speakers in the doors and moved the factory door speakers to behind the seats where the small rear speakers were. I used the factory plugs so just soldered the speakers to the existing wires. Much easier than rewiring the whole lot or trying to solder in the car.

I can now turn it up much louder without distortion and they have improved bass. Very happy with the result. Also with the factory door speakers being moved it gives a better sound as there is more bass coming from behind and it gives more of a surround effect.

 

[supersub7]

Nice i also have an MR2 but mine is the spyder. Could never imagine taking mine off road

Heres a pic of mine

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Its also from a newer generation...