1985 MR2

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Oh yes, now this is the kind of cosmetic work I can get behind:  

berkeley yeah. Those wheels look super duper awesome. 

Frankly your bodywork looks fine to me, I wouldn't be ashamed of it. The rust is gone, there is good steel there. Assuming you don't intend this to be a trophy winning show car I'd say it's a success. - But, I am admittedly a hack so take it for what it is. 

I'm watchin' this cuz in the basement of the house I just bought was one of these with it's ass up and no bullet.....but against the opposite wall was the original motor/powertrain on a stand not to mention  a camry V6 powertain (also on a stand)awaiting???? These intrigue me.....oh do you need to know about the first gen GTR in the main garage up by the house??

In reply to 759NRNG :

The original motor OR the V6 would be fun- both are correct choices.  And yes, I do need to know about the GTR...

After years of faithful service, the MR2 finally had a real issue- the 37 year old original fuel pump gave up. Pulling the tank on one of these is extra not-fun so let's get to it.

Siphon out the gas:

Disconnect two electrical connections in the center console and six hoses back by the engine.   Ready your fuel tank catching apparatus:

Ta-da:

Wheel it away to work on it and dump out the remaining fuel so it's easy to put back:

Old and new:

Looks good in there:

Installation is the reverse of removal and we're back in action:

If I were doing this with all the time in the world I'd probably want to track down new versions of the filler hose and stuff so I could just cut them off, that would make removing the tank much faster.  Overall I'm happy this only took a good chunk of one day, though.

Those wheels look great! I have the other set after buying Brian's Rabbit and parts stash (my parts stash as well that I gave him haha), my nephew has the car.

Changed the rear springs- stepped down to 325lb/in rather than 400lb/in.  Feels better, the pavement around here isn't perfect so it probably outcorners the old setup too since the tires stay on the ground.  I was also making a warranty claim on the rear Konis every 18 months or so, which seemed like a bit much, so maybe softer springs and the associated softer damper setting will help those live longer.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

That was part of my problem with my car. The driver's rear koni assembly disassembled itself the night we were supposed to leave. Is there anything else I should consider? 

In reply to singleslammer :

Disassembled like the insert came out of the strut?  Those top gland nut things need to be pretty tight to keep them happy.

Honestly if I were to do something else for suspension on this car, I'd probably build a set of 40mm inverted Bilsteins for it like I have on the front of the rally car.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

The top hat came apart and seemed to have killed the strut in the process. I will go check out your rally car suspension build.

In reply to singleslammer :

Tophat coming apart... was it a spherical bearing retained by a clip?  A lot of the time those clips are really undersized on aftermarket stuff.  One of the front ones on this car popped the clip out once, but I caught it before the bearing escaped.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

It was a stock unit. The only thing that was changed so far was the insert. I don't care for the adjustable units as I don't have the skill to set them up correctly so a higher quality non-adjustable strut is appealing.

I went through your thread on the BRZ and couldn't find a description of how you went about your bilstein install. Am I overthinking it versus just taking the Koni out, getting the appropriate sized bilstein to match the koni with whatever valving makes sense (research required, of course) and making it fit with the current stock parts?

In reply to singleslammer :

The Bilsteins I used on the rally car are a universal blank housing and inverted strut- you make some ears (say, with a handy plasma table), weld them on, adapt your top mount of choice, there you go custom chunky inverted strut.  You can email me if you want to talk parts lists... although if you have Konis already I'd just stick some new ones in there, their warranty service is quick and doesn't seem to reject much. 

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

For now, you are definitely right on keeping the Konis. I do think that would be a great upgrade later.

A picture I took to represent this car's continued role in my life:

It's still here, I still drive it, it asks for almost nothing and just keeps doing its' thing while I'm busy with the Toyobarus and rally in general.  I have been extremely, EXTREMELY tempted to make a mk1a into a rally car despite all its' drawbacks.  To the point where I've seemingly ruled it out (interior space, wheelbase, engine bay dust prevention, etc etc etc) and I'm still on the verge of doing it anyway.

For now, it just drives places, usually just with me in it, although sometimes with a dog because Ridley loves riding in it:

Good stuff, I loved my AW11, practical too

Been doing little stuff- some 13" momo wheels appeared for $70 and I couldn't pass them up.  Those got $40ea snow tires so this car can play in the snow; not the most responsible choice given my fear of rusting it out, but I figure some fun a few times a winter can't do that much:

Rerigged the intake to use less brackets and couplers and put an AEM dryflow on to replace the ancient K&N:

Replaced a couple small fuel lines just because they're old now, and began a mild weight weenie campaign- the car is a bit over 2100lbs as it sits and the idea of chasing the magic one ton number is appealing. This box is 10lbs of unnecessary bracketry that I removed or in the case of the battery tiedown, replaced with aluminum:

I believe that the kids call it "winter mode" now?

I did actually get some snow driving in, although it was rushed because rally car testing came first. I had forgotten how amazing these things are in the snow- it'll out accelerate and out corner the rally BRZ easily, just don't get it too sideways on corner entry or it'll swap ends!

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just in time...

AEM used to make prefilter bags (also called "air filter wraps") for the dryflow filters, it seems they still make a few but not the variety they used to. They're great for keeping heavy crud off of exposed filter setups like that. If you can't find one that matches your filter size, there are some generic knockoffs on Aliexpress that may fit: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000388016623.html

Installed a Techno Toy Tuning quick rack because I wanted faster steering and needed inner tie rods and to weld the rubber joint on the steering column anyway- it appears I only took one picture:

The steering is now nice and quick and the dead zone from the rubber thing in the steering column is gone, which is all quite nice.  This rack has a different housing length than the stock one, which is weird enough that I called Techno Toy's customer service to confirm I had the right one.  Ultimately this means I have to run with the inner tie rod joints about 5/8" out of proper alignment to get the steering straight, but with the very short suspension travel of this particular car I probably won't notice whatever side to side bumpsteer weirdness that causes.

Your car is bad-ass!  Keep it up

Oh! Now I want to drive it. I have a few miles in a stock one. That rack might make a big difference relative to the orange peril too, slow steering is a thing on the Fiat too. I was contemplating shorter steering arms.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Looks like there are options for the Fiat as well, although shipping might be pricey. Slow steering is no fun, although if the feel is good enough I'll take it vs over assisted numb steering any day. 

I have to admit that this isn't the most responsible use of a rust-prone car that I really don't want to damage, but it sure is fun:

And we sure have the landscape for such fun. Do remember that i had to re-shell the Fiat do to ferrous oxide...