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Its a daunting sight  Slowly slowly catchy monkey, was what i was saying to myself most during the evening getting the car off those stands. Along with the occasional humming of “We’re going to do some sketchy sh!t, do da, do da".  I guess its one way to test the strength of the new front end. Before long i had it on the frames and tipped over.   Time to begin stripping her underside. -Insert your own joke here  I mostly use a sharp scraper and chisel and then finish up in the difficult spots with a wire wheel on the grinder I did find some rust in the rear strut tower.  Ill be honest i pretty much already knew it was there but its an  to get too so it was one of the motivating factors in stripping it while i have access. Nice to see the rust i cleaned back and painted over 4 years ago hasn't spread any further.  The first half is just about stripped  And i found a bit of rust just beginning in the floor pan strengthener so i chopped it out  Hammered out a new piece  And welded it in.  Some large boxes arrived containing goodies from the land of the rising sun   Old vs new radiator bushes  And a new knob  Amongst other things. I have started chopping out the section of the inner arch, Lower piece chopped out  Template transferred to steel  And after a bit of hammering, excuse the finger. I'm not sure why its in there.  And a few more bits cut out of the inside which still have to be remade. Thats about where all work on this one stopped except the occasional few minutes here and there continuing to scrape off undersealer.  |
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"After a bit of hammering..." Photo of perfectly formed part. It's like reading commycouper 's posts! Well done, I'm impressed. Keep at it and you may well get your car back together before I get the wing back on mine. Quick question if I may. A friend of mine has a Mk2 that's off the road due to rust in the back end of the sills. Is the structure behind the sills pretty much the same as the MK1? If it is then I can have a good guess what's going on in there. I think her car is well worth saving although I've not looked at it myself. Not sure I have time to get involved even though it's tempting. James |
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"After a bit of hammering..." Photo of perfectly formed part. It's like reading commycouper 's posts! Well done, I'm impressed. Keep at it and you may well get your car back together before I get the wing back on mine. Quick question if I may. A friend of mine has a Mk2 that's off the road due to rust in the back end of the sills. Is the structure behind the sills pretty much the same as the MK1? If it is then I can have a good guess what's going on in there. I think her car is well worth saving although I've not looked at it myself. Not sure I have time to get involved even though it's tempting. James I'm just hoping that one day i actually manage to get one project finished. The mk2 is pretty similar behind the sills, toyota clearly didnt feel the need to stray too far from the original style. You will probably find its rotting behind the rear bumper too if the sills are gone. As we all know on here most things are saveable with a bit of love and alot of welding.
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75swb
Beta Tester
Posts: 1,052
Club RR Member Number: 181
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Looks cracking martin42006. Great to see one of these getting some proper love! |
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Sept 3, 2021 12:34:13 GMT
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A long weekend and i managed to avoid any work on the horsebox and got a bit of progress on the MR2 for a change. In an effort to feel like I'm making progress on this car i got cracking with some simple but essential repairs. First is at the back end of the sill, its corroded just past where i had originally repaired it several years ago.  So with all of that chopped out i made up a new panel  Sparkly stick waved over it  Cleaned back  At the front of the sill there was a similar problem. The tinwork have been at it.  Chopped out you can see why there is rust problem Its 2 layer with a nice water holding pocket in there.  A new piece got tapped into vaguely the correct shape  And welded in  Cleaned back  This suspension mounting point plate was a bit buckled up so i tried straightening it out but still wasnt happy with it and it was rather scabby behind it so i drilled the spot welds out.  The reason it was so bent up is because thats where people prise against for testing the bushes or removing the arms. With this in mind i made up a new one from teacher metal and i added a cutout and strengthening bar to stop it bending when prised against.  Cleaned back the inside of the mounting area and covered in rust converter  And the new one welded in  Continuing backwards the rear bumper came off  There is a dodgy patch that i welded in above the exhaust hanger quite some time ago.  It was rusting a bit further up so i decided to just replace all of it.  Cleaned up inside  And a new plate made up  All welded in  And cleaned back  While doing that i also drilled out all the snapped studs from the exhaust heat shield. There was enough head on them that i decided the easiest option is to just tap them and refit the shield with bolts instead. Of course the heatshield is not reusable so i have plans underway for making a new one. I also finished stripping the front wheel arch  Gave it a coat of hydrate 80  And given a spray with the zinc primer.  This was a test to see how it sticks as I'm in 2 minds if to do everything in zinc before the epoxy goes on the underneath as an additional corrosion protection. |
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Sept 5, 2021 20:51:55 GMT
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I think a lot of epoxy primers have zinc in them anyway. The Lechler stuff I'm using says it has zinc phosphate in it. Worth checking.
Anyway, nice work. When you get finished can I post you my car to put back together?
James
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Sept 7, 2021 17:15:33 GMT
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I think a lot of epoxy primers have zinc in them anyway. The Lechler stuff I'm using says it has zinc phosphate in it. Worth checking. Anyway, nice work. When you get finished can I post you my car to put back together? James Thats a good point i hadnt checked up till now and it turns out the HB Body epoxy i have been using does apparently have anti corrosive properties. Will probably just go with that then. At this rate yours will be ready long before i am.  |
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Sept 20, 2021 7:06:38 GMT
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I got a few evenings this week to get on with the car again. Inner arch had a big ‘ole in it.  And i had all the parts pretty much already made for it. First piece went in  Cleaned back and the second one went in  Cleaned back and painted before the final on could go in the following day  And the last piece of the puzzle.  Someone “kindly” took a photo of me trying welding those bits in. as you can see its not the easiest place to access.  Even down to the point i didnt have room for my welding helmet. So i had to take the lens out of a cheap hand held mask and hold it in front of my face to help prevent any arc eye. With that all the welding on this half of the underside is complete. We know what that means. Its paint time. Following some more clean up and removal of the last few bits of undersealer, and all areas that needed it got a coat of hydrate 80 so it was nearly ready except one area.  As you can see there is a few areas the zinc primer didnt go on very well, I'm pretty sure thats due to the fact it was doing it with a rattle can and not due to poor quality paint. Either way i decided to strip it off and just use the epoxy on the bare metal.  With that done the rest of it was given a scotchbrite rub down followed by panel wipe.  And then 2 coats of epoxy, it wasnt worth leaving the dribble left in the tin so some areas got 3 coats.   Pretty happy with that, ill go around and seam seal before the raptor goes on later once the whole underside is ready. |
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Sept 20, 2021 10:28:43 GMT
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First piece went in That's some serious dedication to the restoration cause when even your tin of bear is from Bilt Hamber. I take it that is bear and you haven't taken to chugging back cans of cavity wax? |
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Sept 20, 2021 19:01:33 GMT
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That's some serious dedication to the restoration cause when even your tin of bear is from Bilt Hamber. I take it that is bear and you haven't taken to chugging back cans of cavity wax? well i did pretty much shower myself in it once so why not start chugging, with the amount of rust i must have inhaled by now it can only help. |
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Sept 23, 2021 12:10:56 GMT
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With one side in a better position its time to turn it over. I took a day off work so i had a long weekend to work on the car, then proceed to loose all of sunday re-fencing the field due to escaping sheep. Anyway monday dawned and i managed to get on with it. Suspension goes back on  And back down to the ground.  I hauled the engine out the way and got the car out of the workshop. Using the time to get the workshop tidied up and alot of the parts that came off the car boxed up and out the way. I also took the gearbox off the engine  And the engine onto the stand  Which was shoved into a gap at the front.  With that the car can be pushed back in  And rolled back over onto its other side  This side shouldnt take quite so long and i don't believe it will need as many if any repairs. With any luck and some evening work i should have it mostly stripped by the end of the week. In other news the blackthorn bushes down the field have produced a fair crop this year so get ready for plenty of sloe gin and sloe whiskey.  |
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Sept 28, 2021 12:04:06 GMT
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With time pressing on i sharpened my scraper and got to work. The idea here is to keep as much of the original e-coat as possible since its pretty well stuck and has done a reasonable job for the past 30 years. But the rubberised undersealer needs to go.  Slowly slowly we made progress  Exposed a few areas of rust hiding under the old undersealer but not gone through  But remember this is a 90’s toyota so before long i had found some that had gone through. Again in the top of the rear arch.  And at the front sill jacking point  Not to mention the plate on the suspension mount, not rotten but bent and when i made one for the other side i actually made 2 as i knew this was needed.  So it came off and I cleaned up in the cup.  Bit of paint,  Then welded on the new one.  The rest of this is update going to sound like a stuck record so bare with me. Hopefully this will be the last of the rust repairs on this car. The front jacking point was brutally attacked with various tools,both power and hand.  Area painted and a bit of steel was mutilated with a hammer to fit.  Welded in.  Now then we have this thingamabob  Chop out the lurgy  Make a new whatyamacallit  And sparkly gun it in.  I chopped off the rear valence a few weeks ago, it was starting to rust and i feel its better without it. So that got tidied up a bit.  With that all the underside repairs are done. I finished stripping back all the areas that had been missed and slathered all the spots that needed it in hydrate 80.  I'm going to do a bit more prep and then we can get some epoxy primer onto the underside followed by seam sealer and Raptor. |
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Sept 29, 2021 21:41:33 GMT
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An evenings work tonight saw the last of the prep done while scoffing down some tea and waiting for the heater to do its job.  The paint had arrived yesterday so just in time.  So on it went   Pretty chuffed with that so I'm off to bed and tomorrow evening ill get the seam sealer on.  |
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Sept 30, 2021 13:13:33 GMT
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i'm with you on the factory e-coat, its tenacious stuff. bare metalling seems like its more thorough job but i wonder if aftermarket sprayed primer would have the same longevity, effectively downgrading despite looking like a fella is doing a better job
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Sept 30, 2021 16:06:38 GMT
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i'm with you on the factory e-coat, its tenacious stuff. bare metalling seems like its more thorough job but i wonder if aftermarket sprayed primer would have the same longevity, effectively downgrading despite looking like a fella is doing a better job The epoxy I'm spraying on does seem pretty tough but i doubt its quite as good as the e-coat.
If i was baremetalling it then id have send the shell of for dipping and re-e-coating which in some ways i wish i had but that would have escalated an already escalated job so that might get done further down the line when i have nothing better to do  |
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Another evening at home means a bit more work. Todays job is seam sealer. A trick i have come across is to tape either side of the joint when applying the seam sealer. Since I'm using the brush on stuff it gets quite messy.  Applying the sealer is now nice and easy as you don't have to worry about getting it neat. Although it is very smelly stuff so a mask is suggested.  Oh and peel off the masking tape once you have finished an area because it starts to set almost as soon as you get it on the car. I continued masking, and had used a full roll by the end of it.  And got the sealer on the rest of the areas that i could access   Tonights job will be a bit less tedious i think.  |
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This is going to be so special when it's finished !!
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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This is going to be so special when it's finished !! Nigel Thanks, hopefully that day isnt so far away. |
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Since Friday night is when we finally get to see the underside in some paint i rushed home from work only stopping to grab the barest of essentials.  While enjoying that i realised ii hadnt scuffed up the surface so out came the 180 and i started scrubbing. This took considerably longer than expected.  With my cuppa going cold on me i mixed up the first batch of raptor. I had some basecoat left from the last respray i did on this car a few years ago so it only made sense to buy the tintable raptor to make use of it. The first batch gets brushed on to coat any areas that i wont be able to get to easily. And then the schutz gun splatters the rest of the chassis with it.  By coat 2 it was close but i just wasnt convinced we had coverage and i had 1L of Raptor left. It was supposed to be for the arches on the other side so ill have to buy some more. I thinned it down, promptly spilled it everywhere and shot the final coat with a big tip in the spray gun. This resulted in a much better finish and i wish i had done that from coat 2.   By this point it was now past 1am so i poured some thinners in the gun and left the mess to be future me’s problem. |
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This is for me one of the most interesting projects going on here right now.
Question about your tilting system: is the ever any concern about the side loads on the suspension to which it’s mounted, i.e., bending a rear trailing arm sideways? It’s such a neat and compact way to get to a car’s underside, less space and investment (I’m guessing) than a full-on rotisserie.
Thanks for posting, excellent stuff.
John
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