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

This thread is going to be such a crushing disappointment!

Chassis rails... Nah, they are almost factory believe it or not. Just dirty. I've had a look down them and they look good. I shall probably just bung a load of wax in them.
The front rails are much more of a concern as water blows right up them

And, if I take off every panel just because it has a bit of rust I'll wind up with the entire car flat packed in the loft. The rear panel doesn't need to come off, at least not yet. There is a trade off between how much harm you do disturbing things as opposed to getting to the rust. The fact is that the seam sealer on this car is generally in very good condition and I'm loath to disturb it unless there is a problem. So the rear panel can stay on, at least for the time being.

But since you ask, lets assess the situation.





Red circle - That'll need replacing. There has been rust here before and some muffin just plated over it. Add to that the fact that after the car got bent the tail light didn't seal and let water run down that bit... It needs some work. I'll do that when I get the new wing on and make it to fit.

Blue circle - the bit you were all just looking at. It's partly in the rear panel and partly in the wing. There should be a seam there. The rust was probably caused by a failed light seal allowing water into the seam. Until I get some power tools on it I won't know how far it extends but I suspect (blind optimism) that it doesn't go as far as it looks like it does.

Much more interesting is the green bit. Its a 'cooling vent' for the exhaust silencer. It's a bit crusty and will need to be replaced. But...
I don't actually like the 'vent' look. So it'd be easier and much quicker to replace it with a plain panel and I'd like it better.
Or I could go for the factory look. That would test my skills and make me think which would be fun.
Or I'm actually wondering about two oblong holes with a stainless steel mesh grill in them. Which might look great, or it might look 'Halfords Chavtastic'.

Watch this space and you'll find out what I decide to do.



In about three years time!

James

PS, the lower part of the right hand rear wing is made of layers of rust and off cuts of metal bonded together with filler. The whole area needs some lurvin'.

It is perfectly designed to fit here.





It was at about this moment that I realised I’d made a terrible error. I wanted a drain hole in this bit to let water out of the bottom of the wing.
I have ideas about how water gets in, but that doesn’t matter too much. It needs to get out. I need a drain. I was going to make one in this piece. I’d forgotten. Bumhats.

Need to start again. Unless…





Instead of welding the flange in line I set it back a little. Going to be a slightly interesting weld to fill the gap, but I’m a bright lad and I own a piece of copper pipe.





I was having problems getting this to fit properly. So rather than messing about I decided to try a different approach. Instead of cutting it to fit and then welding it in I tacked it in and then pushed, cut and welded it as I went.
It’s the first time I’ve tried that game but it came out ok.





Lastly a good coat of primer to keep it safe and sound until I’m ready to weld the wing back on.





Hmmmm. What next?

Two things...

1) I would definitely weld the arch lip, as others have already suggested.

2) For some reason this thread had slipped my attention and I’ve just had to wade through 99 pages.

Anyway, carry on.

👍

Thanks all. I'll weld the arch.
You understand that it's not because you've all recomended it, more that I'm too tight to buy a tube of glue!

ivan141 , AE86 Hmmmmm. I have 2 Toyotas on my wish list that I'll probably never own. A stock AE86 is one of them. The Celica Supra (MA67) is the other. In fact those two and the MR2 would be my perfect fleet.

Might need a bigger garage.

That's outstanding! I had to look twice before I recognised it as an MR2.
I'll be keeping mine black I think.

That said I have recently done something to mine that makes it look a bit like a baby Lotus Esprit. I'll take a photo at the weekend maybe.

Or, to continue the theme, took it to Cortina d'Ampezzo, parked it in front of the skating rink and blew it up real good with a remote detonation device?

John

So... Making a Toyota look like a Lotus…

Taking it to Italy and blowing it up...
Well it's a long way and my Italian friend might object to dumping yet another car in his home land. I watched The Italian Job the other night and the English seem to make a habit of abandoning cars over there. Italy, the scrap yard of Europe! Not a brilliant tourist slogan.

Pushing it in the sea (or driving it out of the sea), well that's a lot more plausible since the sea is just up the road. Trouble is...
Where I live the warm golden sands covered in beauties in bikinis are replaced with thick mud and bird watchers in warm jackets. The car would be stuck up to its axles and there'd be some old bloke saying...

"Have you seen it!?"
"Seen what?"
"The lesser spotted, great crested, duck billed mud dipper."
"No."
"It's over there... Look it's beautiful!"
"You mean that dull brown thing up to it's ar$e in mud?"
"Yeah, isn't nature stunning!? You're so lucky to live here!"

Actually I’m not sure I am lucky to live here at the moment. Swale apparently has, pretty much, the highest COVID rate in the country. If not the highest.
Naturally I live in the posh bit where we all follow the rules so we are blaming those scummy oiks in other parts of the region. They, in turn, are probably blaming scummy visitors from London or something.
The TV news seem to be blaming the prisoners in the local jails - of which we apparently have many. Prisoners and jails. Given we’ll all be locked up soon… I think that’s all of us.

So here at Sweetpea Towers we’ve pulled up the drawbridge and positioned the mother in law at the arrow slit in the west staircase. We aren’t expecting her to just frighten people away, although she maybe could. We’ve given her the longbow and a quiver of arrows. In case things get properly hairy she’s got the blunderbuss as well.
Anybody that tries to come here is getting dumped in the moat. Well, the postman is ok if he’s got Christmas presents for me. And the nice chap from Ocado ‘cos we need to stock up on 5 dozen mega packs of bog rolls and a years supply of tinned beans with chorizo. See how posh we are!? Normal posh people have beans and sausages. We have beans and chorizo at Sweetpea Towers!
I’m out of choccy bickies too. God, it’s a disaster. What am I going to dunk in my tea?



What were we actually talking about?

sweetpea you need chocolate hobnobs to dunk in your tea!
Milk or dark, doesn't matter for the finest biscuit for dunking

Played that game many times as a teenager - trying to remember what the biscuit of choice was back then - we certainly didn’t have hobnobs - rich tea ballooned up and gravity did the rest, digestives lasted a little longer but had the same issue, malted milk was an utter disaster, anything with a filling created issues (bourbons custard creams that type of thing - jamie dodgers were the exception) so I’m thinking it was ginger nuts!!!!!!