1986 Toyota MR2 - We’ve got a damn great hump...

Yeah, well this was exactly the problem.

"Replace a section of a panel and all of it needs to be continuously welded wherever it's attached"

So when I replaced a the lower part of the wing it has to be "continuously welded wherever it's attached". It doesn't say "except where it was spot welded originally" so, following the rules to the letter, I have to weld across the bottom of the spot weld seam.

When I put the wing back on I'll plug weld it because I'm replacing a whole panel.

Ohh except... I need to replace the bottom section in front of the arch. So if I plug weld the wing on and then do the repair I'd have to weld across the spot weld seam.
However if I repair the panel first and then weld it to the car I don't need to weld across the spot weld seam???

If anybody asks I did the latter!


Yeah it's a nonsense. But actually I trust the bloke who MOTs it. He's good and fair and has an interest in the car. He'll let me know if he spots something that's not directly related to the MOT. So I'll take this on the chin and let it slip.
More over he only spotted the repairs originally because I'd left them obvious. I'll finish the job in future so he won't see them so easily!

James

A little niggle now.

In the last post I said that there was a large piece of internal structure that appears to be part of the wing. I went on to remove it.
The niggle is this… That piece of structure runs right up the inside of the B pillar and I’ve cut it off. Here it is, marked out in red.





Now if I was an unscrupulous person of reduced moral fibre I’d tack the outer part of the panel together and ignore the hidden strengthener that nobody will ever see. But if I then get killed in an accident because I didn’t do the job properly I’d go to heaven all grumpy and miserable. So we’ll be doing it properly. I need access to weld it together.





So I’ve taken this section off the car. It’ll allow me to rejoin the strengthener and then it gets welded back in, seamlessly blending the car to the new panel. Hopefully.
And if it doesn’t quite work ‘seamlessly’ it’s all behind the door and window rubbers anyway.

Next I needed to clean up the seam at the bottom of the side window.





The only bit I’ve left on the car is where the new wing will join to the C pilar. That will need to be trimmed when I get the wing hung and fettled into the right place.

So the question is… Does the replacement wing look like it’ll come anywhere close to fitting?





Er, well yes. Yes it does.

Thank &%@$.

I'll probably try one of the others in town but they aren't as convenient as my favourite one. Thanks for the tip though. I'll bear it in mind if the locals ones don't pass muster. (IE - fail my pride and joy!)

A chap called Ian (not of this parish) and I did a good survey before I took the car on. We concluded that although it looked like a total basket case the important structural bits were actually better than some other MR2s I read about. It looked terrible but was reasonably sound behind the scenes.
I have to admit that it's really pleasing to see so much of the green E-coat still in good condition though.
Rust wise any Toyota built before about 1980 ish would almost fizz in the rain. After about 1980 they were notably better.

I was thinking I'd save myself the bother of painting it...






No???

So having said that he wing seemed to fit reasonably well there was a problem.





Just ahead of the wheel the inner wing is a totally different shape to the replacement outer wing.
Now this isn’t a massive surprise. Firstly I’d had to repair the bottom edge of the replacement wing. And secondly, a few years ago, I’d had to repair the entire of the inner wing and the old outer wing. There wasn’t a lot left of it to copy so I made it as close to the original as I could. But then the original wasn’t even original there is no telling what shape any of it should be.

I cut the bottom corner off the inner wing off to get the replacement panel to fit. I’ll recreate it later.

My best guess is that the replacement wing is the right shape (or closest to it). As a test I offered the side skirt against it and it looks good. Although when I replaced the mounting flanges for the skirt I appeared to have got the top one a little high.

So wondering if the bolt hole in the skirt had ever been messed about with and I compared the left and right side skirts.
Spot the difference…





The bottom hole is actually in the same place on both. There is a photographic illusion going on there. But the top hole is definitely much higher on the left side of the car.
Really? Somebody has moved one of the bolt holes?

Well if they did it wasn’t the left side one ‘cos it doesn’t look like it’s been messed with.

Enter a trawl of the internet to see where the bolt hole should be. Look at this. This is a JDM Black Limited version of a MK1a.
Right side…





The top fixing screw appears to be set lower on the skirt.

Left side…





Right at the top.

It’s not very clear but I found a couple of examples which appear to show the same thing. The top screw is in a different position on each side of the car.
Anybody able to confirm that for me?

It was interesting seeing photos of that, apparently well sorted, black MK1. It really is a good looking car in black. In my opinion - but I’m probably biased.


Another oddity that I’ve found…
When the MK1b came out Toyota offered a T bar version with removable glass roof panels. That took some strength out of the roof so they added more strength into the sill with extra metal. My car has an inner and outer sill, the later cars have a middle sill panel.
What I’ve never seen before is that they added metal into the B pillar too.





See the extra vertical strengthener running up the red panel that’s missing from mine?
It would continue as a box section right up the B pillar to the roof on a real car. This one has been cut off.

So I’ll keep this and put it on my car. It won’t run right up the B pillar. I probably could create that but I’m not opening it all up so I’ll live with what I have.
At worst it’ll just add weight, at best it might add a little protection if somebody hits the side of the car.

James

Thanks jimi.


Interesting though. I wonder what caused them to do that?
I think the very early MK1a cars with out skirts has a plastic 'spat' fitted there. I wonder if it was a throw back to those days. But that just begs the question 'Why did they do it on those cars?'

And by extension the SV-3 prototype car looked like it had a production shell - apart from the glass roof. I wonder what they did on that? I can't find any photos that are clear enough to tell.

Anyway, I had a thought.
The left side has a plastic arch liner to protect the fuel filler pipe. Does the top mount for the skirt also form the bottom mount for the liner? If so they could have moved the fixing up to make use of it but not bothered to do the same to the right side.

My car is in bits and half of it is in the loft so I can't easily check.

James

Don't forget about the original prototype from 1981, the SA-X



More pictures of both here jlawson.co.uk/mk1-mr2-unusual-models

Thanks for clearing that up........