1991 MR2 Restoration Project

It was back in the fall of 1994 when my MR2 reached the100,000 mile mark. It was also about the same time that the paint began to spot and fade. Its now over 4 years later, and the paint is in sad shape, some rust is forming at the front of both doors, and some paint has been scratched off the front end from a very minor accident, and the air conditioning system has a big leak init that the mechanics were not able to find, so I haven't had A/C for two years.

The restoration project actually began a year ago when I had new Eibach springs and Tokico Illumina struts installed, along with all the hardware that needed to be replaced (strut plates, rubber boots, etc). I think I put about $1000 worth of parts and labor into it last summer. I will admit, the adjustable struts do make it handle even better.

On Saturday, May 1, 1999, it went into the shop for a period estimated to be 8 to 10 weeks. During this time, the car is going to be almost completely disassembled. The front and rear ends are coming off, the doors are coming off, the hoods and trunk are coming off, and all the windows will be removed. The body will then be stripped down back to metal, the rust damage will be repaired, and it will get a new, better than factor paint job.  And the A/C problems will be hunted down and fixed too.

The shop doing the work is Auto Body Dynamics, owned by Lee Davis. They primarily do body work on sports cars. Lee is usually working on Corvettes, Ferarris, Porsches, or other exotic cars. The quality of his work is probably higher than almost any other shop in the country. Because of this, he gets customers from all over the country, even as far away as California. If you need a restoration done, and you want it done perfect, I highly recommend you talk to Lee at 815-730-8062.  Check out their web site at  www.ExoticRestorations.com

AB Dynamics has recently moved to Lockport - updated address coming soon.

As promised, here are some photos:

This is what the front looked like before any work was done. The front end had been replaced after an accident in 1992. However, the paint job on the front end was not high quality, and began chipping away after several years. There is also some damage around the passenger side fog light and turn signals from an accident 2 years ago.

 

Here is a shot of the rear spoiler and rear trunk lid. You can see the fading on the spoiler easily in the picture (its not reflections). The engine and trunk lids are also severely faded.

 

Here is what the rear end looks like once the rear plastic bumper cover and the spoiler have been removed. The red paint that was covered for all 8.5 years was still looking almost new. Also, for being rear ended twice, amazingly there was no damage to the bumper.

 

Here is the front end with the plastic bumper cover removed, along with the headlight covers. One fog light was left on temporarily because the screws had rusted. It will be removed later and have new screws installed.

 

Here is a side shot just so you can see how unusual the car looks when its missing the front and rear ends, and the spoiler.

 

Here it is with the paint removed from a couple of the body panels.

 

Here is another shot, paint gone from the door and front fender. The hood had just been coated with the paint removing chemicals, and the paint is already starting to bubble and peel off on the upper right side. It all peeled right off about 20 minutes after this photo was taken.

July 19, 1999 - SOMEWHAT BAD NEWS - I got a call from the shop. They are doing the final sanding on my car, and they got to the doors. I knew there was some rust on both of the doors, and initially they didn't think it was too bad. However, it turned out worse than expected. The entire bottom of the passenger door was in very bad shape, and so was the front edge of it, going about half way up the door. Because of the curved shape of the door near the front, and the extensive rust, it is cheaper to purchase a replacement door skin (about $200) than it is to spend the time cutting out the rusted parts of the door, replacing with new metal, and trying to form the metal to the exact original specs. But I guess thats not too bad.

The driver side door also has a bit of rust, but not nearly as much. A part of it will need to be cutout and patched, but this is a very simple patch compared to what the passenger side needs. Fortunately, I believe everything is still on schedule to be completed by the end of July, or possibly a delay to the first week in august. However, they haven't sanded down the driver side rocker panel, which had been damaged in an accident many years ago, and was showing some signs of rust. I believe that it is just some surface rust though.

August 2, 1999 - Good News - Except for the doors, the car has a primer coat on it. Today the passenger door skin will be removed and replaced, and the rust on the bottom of the driver door will be patched. Then the doors will get a primer coat. The primer will then be sanded down. Now comes the fun part, both doors, front trunk, rear trunk, and engine lid will all be removed. The front and rear bumpers, spoiler, and headlight covers have already been removed. Everything will be painted by the end of the week!!!

I also had to make the final decision about a color today. I've been looking through the PPG color books for nearly every vehicle made in the last few years, and I finally picked out the color I like the best. It is a metallic red that was used by GM in 1998. It appears to be a little bit darker than the Crimson Red of my 91 MR2 (but the body color we compared with could have lightened up in the last 9 years). However, with the metallic flake, it should brighten it somewhat. I think I still want a pair of white stripes on it. Once the paint is done, we will put some white tape on the car to see what the stripes will look like. If they look good, then pearl white stripes will be painted on.

Anyway, the car is expected to be completed, reassembled, and cleaned up by August 12. It will be making its first public appearance at the Northern Kentucky MR2 meet.

Other bad news - the radiator may have a small leak in it. We will have this checked shortly.

August 5, 1999 - More News - We looked up the color I had chosen today using the references with the new paint mixing system the shop just got. The color I had chosen was a 3 stage color - meaning the car gets painted one color, then it gets painted another color, then it gets a clear coat. This makes it difficult to get the same color evenly over the entire car. So we went back to the color swatches, and I ended up picking a color called Rioja Red, used by Ford in Europe! Its quite spectacular. Under normal and dim lighting, the color is close to, or slightly darker than the Toyota Crimson Red (which we also found out is called Super Red 3 in other countries). However, the Rioja Red has a metallic flake or pearl to it, and as soon as it hits direct sunlight, it looks completely different.

Anyway, more pictures:

Here it is with all the paint stripped from all the body panels.

 

Here is Lee sanding down the body panels. After the paint is stripped, all the panels are completely sanded so they are smooth. Any dents are filled, and the result is a smooth body.

 

Here it is with most of the body panels sanded down. The passenger door shown here was found to have severe rust problems. The front of the door (near the wheel) was completely rusted through, and the entire bottom was rusted up several inches. A new skin had to be ordered - $200. The driver side door was not as bad, and metal from the passenger door will be used to patch the driver side door.

 

Just a shot of the front after it was sanded down. It hasn't been dusted off yet.

 

Here it is, sanded down, masked off, and ready for primer. The engine lid was not sanded down completely, but it was treated.

 

Here it is with primer on it, except for the doors. The skin on the passenger door had not been replaced yet.

More Details - We found, on a test card, that the Rioja Red paint does not cover very well. It took 5 coats of paint on the test sheet before it covered completely, and it seems to be a hair darker than I wanted. So the plan is to paint a coat of Toyota Super White on the MR2 first. Then the stripes will be masked off, and the rest of the car will then probably get 3 coats of Rioja Red. It should look quite impressive. Anyway, the paint is scheduled to go on Saturday, August 7. I will be taking pictures as it goes.

October 25, 1999 - Have you ever had one of those projects that just went on forever? My MR2 is turning out to be one of those. Due to labor problems at the auto body shop (they just cant find good help) my car has been delayed. I have even been in there personally wet sanding my car to help it along. Anyway, we changed colors one more time. Now we are going with a 99 Honda metallic red color. I'm not sure what its name is at the moment, but it should look awesome on the MR2. I also have a new Blaupunkt stereo that I will be installing, along with the Japanese import cup holder! So hopefully its going to finally get its paint in the next 3 or 4 weeks.

 November 8, 1999 - Good news!  The passenger door now has a skin on it, the front fenders have been taken off the car (it looks really strange with no fenders, no hood, no trunk, and no engine cover on it!).  The paint should finally be going on this week!!!  I also picked up the 10 CD changer to go with the Blaupunkt stereo, and 6 new Pioneer speakers to replace the existing speakers.  The CD changer is going to be mounted in the box behind the driver's seat.  If you never tried to open it, its got three plastic clips that keep it shut.  I think that if you had the premium sound system, Toyota hid an amplifier in there.  Anyway, its a great spot for the CD Changer.

December 16, 1999 - Great news!  The paint is on this week!  The final color is Honda Cassis Red, its a dark red pearl color.  I saw the car last night with the body painted and clear coated, and all I can say is that its AWESOME!  The bumpers and a few other pieces still have to be painted, but that should be done today.  Then it all needs to get buffed.  And I am also adding to it the 94 MR2 style tail lights.  Its going to be a show quality car when its all done!  I will hopefully have some pictures scanned within a week.

 January 31, 2000 – Its amazing how many small parts there were for the MR2 that had to be painted.  Even last week we discovered that the LED Brake light had some red plastic trim around it that needed to be painted.  Anyway, the paint is now on ALL of the car, and the reassembly process has begun.  Its still going to be a few weeks before its back together.  It is also getting Enkei TBS-11 17” wheels and Yokohama tires on it!  Below is a picture of the car in the shop.  The picture does not show the true color.  It is really sort of a dark maroon color, a little darker than the original Crimson red.  However, because of the pearl coat in the paint, when you photograph it with a flash, it comes out extremely red!  One of these days we will have a weekend with sun, and I can get some good pictures that show the true color.

 

March 2, 2000

Its almost done!  Here are some pictures taken of the car outdoors.  It still requires a few more days of reassembling, and the rocker panels and side trim still need to be painted.  However, it will be ready to go for the MR2 meet in Birmingham, Alabama.  Some time after that I will have the brake calipers removed, rebuilt, and powdercoated.  Then comes the task of upgrading the engine, my next major project.  I have realized something that amazes me – the color of paint that I chose for this car is outstanding – but It seems to be nearly impossible to capture it on film!!!  I took an entire roll of pictures, and the color does not show up on film like it does in person!!!  Also, the color does vary a little bit depending on the direction that the sunlight is hitting it and where you are looking from.  You will see what I mean as you look at the following pictures.

To the right is the front view.  It has the clear corner lenses on it now (but the reflectors are not on yet).  It also has the fog lights that were pretty much standard on the Turbo MR2s.
Here is the side and rear.  As you can see, the taillights and center panel have been upgraded to the 94 and new style.  Also, you can get a look at my 17” Enkei wheels and Yokohama tires.  You can also see the Aeroware spoiler on the rear.  The spoiler has been equipped with an additional LED brake light.
Here is the side profile.  You can see just how much further that Aeroware spoiler hangs back.  And another view of the Enkei TBS-11 Wheels.  Also, you can see the Japan spec side marker light on the front fender.
Here is another angled shot of the front, with the headlights up.  We painted the black plastic headlight side covers to match the body.  I think that really makes the front end look much better.
Here is a close up of the Enkei TBS-11 17” Wheels.

Recap of everything done:

Previously:

Current:

Yet to come:

I did add indiglo gauge faces:

October 2003- The transformer for my gauges died, so I ordered a new set off of Ebay.  The new ones look much better than the old ones - I should have pictures soon.