Resto going well, couple of important pending q's

[yellowmitch]

Hi people.

I am restroring my '88 Mk1 and want to make as good a job of it as I possibly can.

I have welded in the arch repair sections on all 3 places both sides and bought 2 brand new wings and valances.

I have the car rot free and with the exception of one badly dented quarter panel, filler free too!

Questions that are outstanding to the resto are however as follows :-

1. What is the size of the rear number plate depth that goes on jap cars like the mr2, lexus etc to fill the gap. 5.5" deep or 6" deep?

2. due to fitting the new rear arches, I no longer have the little lugs to mount the mudflaps and the splash guard on. Prior to painting, how best to fix this prob?

3. Finally, need to do the manual choke conversion, fit an alarm and paint the cam covers. Advice?

4. Replace radiator. Advice?

Outside of these things, I think I am ready for the road and it has current tax and MOT and brand new wheels and tyres!!

Just want it on the road and all done up properly!!

[yellowmitch]

Some photos of the car

[yellowmitch]

why do my images not work?

[Gad]

Some photos of the car

[img] tags seem to dislike ought after the pictures file name.

Looks like the sort of job I need to do on mine...
Just a shame I lack the skills required!
Should be nice when you've done

[halflife]

I have some gold powerder coated ones left over from the engine I have just taken out if you are interested. They were coated over 6 months ago but because the bottom end went they have just sat stationary in the car for 5 months.

If you want to get they back to standard, my recomendation would be to get yours blasted and powder coated (costs about £30 -£35) and then paint the letters yorself

Rob

[yellowmitch]

Made an edit and indeed you are right. Nothing after the.jpg bit!!

Thanks for posting them for me.

As for the cam covers, cheers for the offer of gold ones, but I have decided to either keep 'em original or have them polished.

Either or looks pretty neat

Just need some pointers on the other questions now!

[monkeymax]

If you want to get they back to standard, my recomendation would be to get yours blasted and powder coated (costs about £30 -£35) and then paint the letters yorself

While the end results look good, I'd be very wary of recommending people get the cam covers sand-blasted. I've got my own sandblaster, and I can tell you that no matter how well you mask stuff off, the grit still gets everywhere. And I'd rather not have sand in my engine! I know (from experience) that a professional sandblaster would probably be even more careful, I just still don't think I could trust it...

[halflife]

If you want to get they back to standard, my recomendation would be to get yours blasted and powder coated (costs about £30 -£35) and then paint the letters yorself

While the end results look good, I'd be very wary of recommending people get the cam covers sand-blasted. I've got my own sandblaster, and I can tell you that no matter how well you mask stuff off, the grit still gets everywhere. And I'd rather not have sand in my engine! I know (from experience) that a professional sandblaster would probably be even more careful, I just still don't think I could trust it...

Couldn't agree more, the cam covers dont really have any nooks and crannys though so I think so long as you inspect them throughly befor fitting should be ok. I have had quite a few things powder coated and so far have not found any sand on anything. Guess it depends on who you get to do them. A good powder coater should also pre-treat the parts prior to coating (often just a degrease wash) which should also help remove any traces of sand. Good point though, should always check the parts before fitting

[TheCraig]

That would look the dogs if you did the intake manifold as well.

[halflife]

That would look the dogs if you did the intake manifold as well.

now you have got me thinking

[Stuart Davidson]

Trust me, what you are really missing is a Jimi bracket.

[SuperRedMR2]

this will sound silly, but i cant fit my jimi bracket, because i cant file out the little semi circle on the mechanism bit the material is double skinned

[FossMan]

Good to see the progress as I'm hoping to do something very similar myself over the next couple of months. I'm just using repair panels for the bottom of the arch though as I'm hoping the rot isn't too serious further up!

Wouldn't mind finding out how to mount the splash guard/mudflaps myself.

Good luck with it.

[PJ3074]

For cam covers follow this link for a good one on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Toyota-MR2-MK1-A1 ... dZViewItem

[HT]

Good to see the progress as I'm hoping to do something very similar myself over the next couple of months. I'm just using repair panels for the bottom of the arch though as I'm hoping the rot isn't too serious further up!

Wouldn't mind finding out how to mount the splash guard/mudflaps myself.

Good luck with it.

Hi - originally the rear arch would have had threaded mounting lugs. If these aren't there now self tappers is probably the only way. HTH

[yellowmitch]

Self tappers was what I was thinking too, though I think I might have to weld a couple of little brackets on for the splash guard and flaps.

Does anybody know about the rear number plate size?

Which is the best size??

Standard width and what depth?

Thanks

Alan

[TheCraig]

Nice work on the restoration.

If it's a standard UK car it should have a normal rectangular number plate at the back. Generally square plates are only fitted to imported superchargers or American spec vehicles.

[yellowmitch]

hi craig. it is a uk car and I know it should be a standard plate, but i also know that toyota sometimes fitted a deeper plate (to fill the depth of the black panel, sometimes on lexus cars too)

This is the sort of plate I wanna fit. Standard uk width, just slightly deeper. If anyone could measure depth from bolt hole to bottom of flat area on black back panel then this would be great

[TheCraig]

hi craig. it is a uk car and I know it should be a standard plate, but i also know that toyota sometimes fitted a deeper plate (to fill the depth of the black panel, sometimes on lexus cars too)

This is the sort of plate I wanna fit. Standard uk width, just slightly deeper. If anyone could measure depth from bolt hole to bottom of flat area on black back panel then this would be great

Sorry thought you meant the square inport plates, afraid I can't help with the dimensions as my car is in storage.

[Swiss Toni]

Hi

I had these made up a couple of weeks ago - they are the correct period width characters rather than the newer font narrow characters.

Strictly it should not be possible for these to be bought as anything other than show plates (Halfords for example would not make them for you) but some private suppliers will.

The rear plate is 535mm x 150mm (21" x 6").

Cheers!