AOTB's random collection, MR2, Ignis and a Yank Metro- Now with more 2

[aotb]

Might as well make one of these to keep on top of some of the ongoing projects. The current status is:

2005 MR2 Roadster: Current daily driver and I've just got back from a 3000 mile roadtrip to Italy with no major issues.. Considering it was in pieces a couple of weeks before leaving with a major transplant occurring, that was a great success but i'll post about that later.

The only issue was a wheel arch liner that made a bid for freedom somewhere around Baden-Baden. Chopping it out got some odd looks at the services.

2004 Ignis Sport

Mostly languishing, I was using it while working on the Roadster, but it's mostly a backup or when I need something with a bit more space. I'll get a set of tyres before the winter, the current ones are pretty ropey.

2003 Corolla 190- It's bean tins now, Got the parts I wanted and ended up making a profit once selling the extras and weighing in what was left. Result!

1959 International Metro Mite

Still in the workshop and not much progress has been made. That should change over the next few months.

 

Now for the newcomer- a 1986 Mk1 MR2. As much as I wanted one I wasn't really looking for to buy one at the moment, I was mostly looking for something to use as a winter commuter. However I have @Schaefftto blame for sending me this(as seen in the ebay thread) , and who could resist a cheap Mk1? It's a 1986 so is a bit of a crossover bewteen Mk1A/B versions.  No real collection photos as I got it delivered after taking a quick look earlier in the week. Someone had already shown an interest as an engine donor, but vanished before stumping up the cash.

It photographs well, but does need a fair amount of work. It's not been on the road for 10 years, and while previous owners have done a lot of rust repair, according to the stack of recipts that came with it that was all in the late 90s so it  is coming back.  At some point it's had heavy underseal applied, I suspect after the last batch of MOT repairs in 2010. Stripping all that off will be fun*. The wheels will be going, I've had a set of these TSWs on the Ignis and they must be filled with lead for how heavy they are.

Sills look like they need attention, and have been repaired before.

. 

Hole in the inner wing by the fusebox.

Small bubbling along the top of the screen, the scuttle looks to be OK

Some perforation on the rear valance.

.

Yeah, that needs sorting out.

Y

There's leaking coolant from a perished hose and I think it's alternator bearings are making a lovely noise. Other than that it runs beautifully,

 

The upsides are that that interior is in good shape, much better than the mileage would suggest, and the outer panels are in reasonable shape (but with iffy paint) the rear arches seem good and the front wings are already Fibreglass replacements. From just punting it around the yard I can tell it's a ton of fun so hoping to put it back on the road. The Metro does take priority and there's a SIIA Land Rover taking up a lot of space that could also do with being put together, so it may be a while before that happens. 

[Schaefft]

It'll definitely be interesting to see this one coming along. I still cannot believe that nobody picked this up earlier. It'll be worth the time and money spent on it.

[Tickman]

A nice list of stuff there.

I remember seeing a MK1 having a LOT of welding done in the mid 90's

It was quite a mess to start with. Hopefully it was done well previously.

[D.E]

Ha, great!  Doesn't look too bad for an MR2 of this price, actually.

 

[dome]

Nice fleet! Is the engine from the Corolla now in the Mk3 MR2?

[aotb]

On 10/31/2021 at 9:12 AM, dome said:

Nice fleet! Is the engine from the Corolla now in the Mk3 MR2?

Yes, still got some fettling to finish it off.

[aotb]

Underseal: Just say no!

I can't say I'm that surprised. It does show how bad underseal can be, it's actually wet behind it, and has been for a long time. A lot of previous MOT patching hasn't helped as the rot has just carried on behind the plating. Unsurprisingly the passenger side is worst, with some big holes.

 

The driver's side is somewhat better, a lot of the uglyness is from the previous welding burning off the factory sound dampening. There's still some holes.

 

Other areas aren't too bad, everything forward of the front bulkead  has so far looked servicable.The passenger side rear swing arm mount area is pretty crusty so that will also need some attention.  Repairs to areas that weren't covered in black snot look to have been well done and are holding up well enough. I think I'll completely strip it and get the shell on a rotisserie to make things easier instead of trying to do everything upside down.   Floor cut sections with the sills are probably the way forward, and not overly expensive.

 

[stuboy]

tickle with sparkly stick and be as good as this ..

 

 

[TheOtherStu]

Following, if only for the MR2 😃

My first roadster had similar issues with the arch liners. They made a bid for freedom on the very first outing!

I actually have a spare set of front ones here, but the current car has minty ones already. If you're near Milton Keynes, I paid £20 for them and would happily let them move on for the same amount. You can come and look at my brown 2zz too 🤣

[aotb]

10 hours ago, TheOtherStu said:

Following, if only for the MR2 😃

My first roadster had similar issues with the arch liners. They made a bid for freedom on the very first outing!

I actually have a spare set of front ones here, but the current car has minty ones already. If you're near Milton Keynes, I paid £20 for them and would happily let them move on for the same amount. You can come and look at my brown 2zz too 🤣

This was caused by a suprise pothole on a gravel track to an abaondoned Ski jump. I only have myself to blame for that! I think I have some in storage somewhere from my first one, but if I can't find them I might take you up on that.

[Zelandeth]

The Metro has piqued my interest...Details please!

US commercial vehicles are so different to those over here... astonishing how long vans that looked almost identical to that were still in production!

[Liggle]

Nice MR2 content! My first MK1 had been plated in the drivers foot well same region. The MK3 should have come with the 2zz from the factory

[TheOtherStu]

1 hour ago, Liggle said:

Nice MR2 content! My first MK1 had been plated in the drivers foot well same region. The MK3 should have come with the 2zz from the factory

I'll be honest, it's a fantastic engine and great fun, but now having had one, there are a number of reasons why I'd actually say no (and I was previously a "why didn't they offer it?")

Firstly, it was the 2zz that caused the demise of the Celica. As I've found out this week, it's notoriously difficult to get them through emissions. The cat for the 2zz celica costs about double that of the 1zz. The 1zz is a big engine in a little engine bay, but there's just about enough room for a proper cat. I'm not sure you'd actually get the 2zz Celica cat anywhere near the MR2. It's huge!

But more importantly, the 1zz in the Roadster whilst not that powerful, was also put in the Elise. That should tell you enough. 140bhp in a mid engined, lightweight RWD is enough for those who aren't used to driving sports cars. It's not like an MX5 where if you get a little out of sorts, a quick correction or a squirt of the throttle will bring you back round. Once you're in a spin, you're in a spin (ask me how I know). The 2zz takes it up a notch - if you're not straight when lift kicks in, you're likely to spin it - think of turbo lag, but x3.  It kicks in so quickly. Now that's fine in a FWD Celica, but really, it needs 4wd to really complement it in the MR2.

 

Of course, the 300+bhp Turbo 2JZ Roadster owners will tell me I'm talking out of my arse, but quite honestly, I think for most people, the power to talent ratio of the average driver, the 1zz is perfectly adequate. Of course, if you want something bonkers, there are plenty of 3.6 and 4.3 400bhp+ TVRs floating about.

[Liggle]

Interesting! No plans to fit the compressor from a Corolla then 😂

[TheOtherStu]

14 minutes ago, Liggle said:

Interesting! No plans to fit the compressor from a Corolla then 😂

I did consider it. The torque would be useful, although issues as above ^. The actual BHP increase (around 15) is absolute nonsense for the extra £1200 it would have cost to fit. If I was going to put a supercharger on, I'd use a proper one.

[Dick Longbridge]

55 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

I'll be honest, it's a fantastic engine and great fun, but now having had one, there are a number of reasons why I'd actually say no (and I was previously a "why didn't they offer it?")

Firstly, it was the 2zz that caused the demise of the Celica. As I've found out this week, it's notoriously difficult to get them through emissions. The cat for the 2zz celica costs about double that of the 1zz. The 1zz is a big engine in a little engine bay, but there's just about enough room for a proper cat. I'm not sure you'd actually get the 2zz Celica cat anywhere near the MR2. It's huge!

But more importantly, the 1zz in the Roadster whilst not that powerful, was also put in the Elise. That should tell you enough. 140bhp in a mid engined, lightweight RWD is enough for those who aren't used to driving sports cars. It's not like an MX5 where if you get a little out of sorts, a quick correction or a squirt of the throttle will bring you back round. Once you're in a spin, you're in a spin (ask me how I know). The 2zz takes it up a notch - if you're not straight when lift kicks in, you're likely to spin it - think of turbo lag, but x3.  It kicks in so quickly. Now that's fine in a FWD Celica, but really, it needs 4wd to really complement it in the MR2.

 

Of course, the 300+bhp Turbo 2JZ Roadster owners will tell me I'm talking out of my arse, but quite honestly, I think for most people, the power to talent ratio of the average driver, the 1zz is perfectly adequate. Of course, if you want something bonkers, there are plenty of 3.6 and 4.3 400bhp+ TVRs floating about.

Interesting viewpoint. As you say, the 1ZZ in the MR2 Roadster chassis is actually a lot of fun and still quite capable. I guess the thing which always made me think 'I'd love to drop a 2ZZ in mine one day' is knowing I'd be able to upset a range of unsuspecting cars and I'd never tire of the sound of the lift kicking in and the engine doing its finest Jekyll and Hyde impression. 

 

[TheOtherStu]

8 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Interesting viewpoint. As you say, the 1ZZ in the MR2 Roadster chassis is actually a lot of fun and still quite capable. I guess the thing which always made me think 'I'd love to drop a 2ZZ in mine one day' is knowing I'd be able to upset a range of unsuspecting cars and I'd never tire of the sound of the lift kicking in and the engine doing its finest Jekyll and Hyde impression. 

 

That was exactly the reason why I did it 🤣 but I'm also very glad I learned the hard way how to deal with the 1zz before I did it. I think if I'd gone straight into 2zz ownership, I'd have probably either crashed, or scared myself stupid and sold it on.

It's more like an Elise now, but I definitely don't think the MR2 was originally aimed at someone that might buy an Elise, more as an alternative to the MX5. I'm trying not to overly generalise, but frankly, I think Toyota initially aimed the model at the female of the species.

I don't know the MX5 community that well, but know that there's a well known Turbo option. But I don't think it's overly popular.

The 124 Abarth is probably the nearest we'd get to something to the bonkersness of the 2zz. It's a couple of gee gees short, but a pal of mine who's swapped his MR2 in for one, says they have very similar qualities. So perhaps I am being a bit unfair, but I definitely think if Toyota had done a 2zz MR2, it would have been limited and marketed at petrol heads.

 

Changing the subject slightly (sorry OP, I'm taking over your thread), but the GT86 wasn't what we expected either. Prius wheels, a fairly mild engine. Although they have now finally announced the GR86, but it's a little too late. The widely anticipated Supra turned out to be a BMW in a skin.

[aotb]

No worries about taking over the thread! I'm still running the MR2 gearbox at the the moment which does take the edge off a bit as the gearing is longer, but it was either that or drive the Ignis to Italy, which I wouldn't inflict on my worst enemy. There's a converted box waiting to be fitted with a lightweight flywheel when I get a chance. I had no real issues with the power level of the 1ZZ, but it's not exactly special and needed work anyway. Getting a cheap donor car sealed the deal on that. Now it's more than quick enough but I haven't really been pushing it too hard yet. Once the gearbox is swapped it should be better at lower speeds and  bring the lift point down to a more usable speed.

I can see why it wasn't 2ZZ from the factory, it's competitors at the time were all around the same output, and it was marketed towards normal people. They did manage to shift plenty of them so that was probably a good strategy.  I have no idea why they stuck it in the Corolla which is totally unsuited to the character of the engine - I had no qualms about ripping it out.

 

The only MX5 I've driven is the Auto donor for the Metro, and that was around a field, which isn't really a good comparison! 

 

On 11/3/2021 at 12:48 AM, Zelandeth said:

The Metro has piqued my interest...Details please!

US commercial vehicles are so different to those over here... astonishing how long vans that looked almost identical to that were still in production!

Sure, it's very unusal for a US commercial as it was IH's attempt to build a small van and quite forways looking for the time. This model was built from (I believe, information is hard to come by) 1957-1962.  It was a replacement for the Raymond Lowey designed vans from the 40's which are much more of a collectors item now. The Mite was the smallest in the range, there were larger models that were more conventional but kept the same styling- I think this was the van that set the style for American step vans up to the current day. It's much small than it looks at only 4m long and 1.75m wide, about the same size as an NA MX5 as it happens.

Something very unusal is that it's not body on frame but a monocoque construction. There's a box section frame at the front but behind the gearbox there's just a couple of thin rails and it relies on the rest of the body for strength- the advantage of this is that it was easy to lower the floor to create more headroom in the rear, which we needed for what it's going to be doing (Ice Cream).  The rest is a parts bin special, the rear axle is from a Willys Jeep with a crazy low diff ratio- 6.13:1 which I can only assume was to make the most of the power put out by that famous American muscle of the BMC B series engine. Not even the 1.8, the 1.5 with 51hp and a four speed column shift manual from the Nash Metropolitan. By all regards this was incredibly underpowered and was replaced by an IH 6 cylinder for later years.

 

This one came from Minnesota, but someone else did the hard work of importing it. It was a rolling shell, the engine was siezed and it looked to have been sat for a very long time. There's minimal rust- just a couple of patches to repair but the driver's side rear panel has had bondo over dents so I need to get a new panel for that. I've got the underside cleaned up, put the lowered floor section in  and primed underneath. So far the MX5 engine is mounted and fits quite well. Why MX5? Reliable, cheap, simple and with a ton of aftermarket support available. I've got the passenger door partly changed to being a swing out instead of sliding- otherwise it interferes with the opening side. There's a new frame to go in to strengthen that wall- from the factory it's flimsy before trying to cut a section out of it. The interior is mostly mapped out, the plan is to use LiFePO4  batteries to run the refrigeration equipment. There will be a scooping cabinet as well as a storage freezer, based on my back of the envelope calculations around a 10kwh bank will be enough capacity and take up a similar space to what a generator housing would need.

 

It's a project that kind of ground to a halt as I'd lost motivation on it, which is kind of why I bought the AW11 as the van needs to be done before I can enjoy that!

 

 

[aotb]

I’ve left this a bit long for an update, so here we go:

Roadster. It’s the daily driver, with no issues up until yesterday when a coil pack gave up by splitting open. 

They probably have 100,000 miles on them, so I can’t complain too much. £65 for a replacement still stings! A quick look underneath revealed a torn engine mount, which explains some of the clonking I’ve been hearing recently. 

I think the bushing can be pressed out without buying the whole replacement mount. 

Ignis. As the roadster is out of action that means the Ignis actually gets some use. Other than a getting an MOT a month or so ago it mostly just sits gathering moss. 

The Red AW11

I’ve now dug in to it and it’s going to need a lot of work. Both floors, Passenger sills, rear quarter and inner wings. Possibly more one I get it on the spit. I did buy a new welder so I may as well get as much use out of it as I can. 

Ventilated floors!

That’s the leading edge of the passenger footwell, looking rearward. This is by far the worst area, and shows what underseal can do. Peeling it off and it was wet behind it. I have replacement floors and sills now, but this is going to be a longer term project. 

I did buy an engine, for the simple reason that it was cheap. Underestimated the weight slightly having to lift it in the back of the Ignis!

Metro. Not much to report, A little bit of progress and parts sourcing. I’ve cleared some space around it and will be diving into that as the main focus once I’ve MOT’d:

The Blue AW11.  Purchased very much on a whim, I think the eBay listing went up at 2PM, I’d messaged the seller almost as soon as it went up and had seen and bought it by 6pm. 

Obviously it’s not pristine, but it’s much more solid than my other one. 

Luxurious Accommodation. Seats/Belts/Fire system are out of date now, but still find for targas and stuff. It does need some interior parts for that. The cage is a Safety Devices one, though I’m not sure if it would pass for a logbook however that would be a long way off. 

The worst area is on the drivers side rear arch, there’s a lot of wob in there. It could be from a shunt as opposed to rust, either way it needs some attention to get through a test. The sill is solid, its the quarter panel over the top that’s the problem. For now I’ll patch it so the sill and panel are attached to each other and cover up the step in the filler with the sill covers. The front wing needs a bit of love too, but that’s a much smaller issue. 

Taking it around another farm tracks it’s a riot. The engine was rebuilt by the last but one owner, the cams look new and it’s plenty fast enough. 

MOT is booked for the 13th…