Shame It's So Rough

[acexxx]

Spotted this on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1985-TOYOTA-MR2-G ... 240%3A1318

Shame it's so rough. Milage isn't to bad and isn't that colour rare? t it the Sherwood Toning?

[waynestoyotamr2]

Thats a money pit right there!

Yeah, Sherwood is pretty rare - but in that condition I think its not worth much more than £200!

Have always wanted a spot on, mint, original Mk1a - if anyone wants to sell - I have another garage space!

[Gad]

...how the heck did that get through an MOT 6 months ago!?
He must've stored it in a Humid salt filled shed on the coast!

[System-G]

The car is being sold as "Spares or Repair" - that kinda says it all really.

My old red 1a got through 3 MOT's with as much exterior rust (if not more) on it - although I covered the rusty bits with red gaffa tape.

[Tony jinxy froude]

Why, oh Why do people do that ?, they take a picture of their car next a huge pile of xxxx & expect it to somehow make the picture look pleasing to the eye , i agree, that car looks past it, but even a car that looks past it can be made to look sooo much better if photographed correctly, for christ sake put some effort in man !! theres a credit crunch on, you wanna sell it or not ? !!!! Just got up, morning rant over

[crazylegs]

lets not get carried away on the scrap it route. what needs to be done? rear arches, well everyone needs rear arches. if you are going to get them done then all that is cut away no matter what it looks like. front valance £90 new, door card free if i have one and you pick it up. hand brake siezed/sticking . so its really only a rear arch repair. if you picked it up for a couple of hundred quid, labours cheap in that neck of the woods, you could have a cracking, low mileage and superb colour car for not a lot of money. The MOT assuming it is real would only need the sharp edges covered . i know its stretching it a bit but if the rest is sound it is only cosmetic so it could pass. some one up north must save it its not too far gone.

[eRATic]

ideal car to put the Woodsport wide arch and spoiler kit on. why buy a car for £800 that is going on the arches when you can buy one that desperately needs arches.

[Tony jinxy froude]

Yep i have to agree with Kev, i only said it looks past it , but in all fairness Kev, it's probably beyond what most people are capable of doing to keep this a financialy viable project, which is a shame as there really arnt that many MK1'a's on the road especially in this colour, more cars like this & in better condition are being scrapped every day, it was only a few weeks ago that someone on this forum was thinking of srapping a perfectly good car that had a blown head gasket !! & there just the ones we know about, how many others are needlessly being broken ?, Jinx

[WeirdNeville]

I do agree with Jinxy, we shouldn't be getting rid of viable cars.

My fears with that one are that it claims to have an MOT, and yet the extent of rust on it makes me wonder what else the MOT man has overlooked. Rusty arches aren't fatal, butrusty sills/chassis legs/bulkheads can be.

If you did pick that car up and restoe it, you'd be doing it for the love which is in itself no bad thing, but you'd never see your money back.

[crazylegs]

i`m not sure i agree. yes you would need to look at it v carefully but i have one that is cosmetically worse sitting in a garage waiting for repair. its worth it. if you want a low mileage, good colour mk1a then how much would you pay ? similar to the amount needed to make this a cracker. but then i am crazy !!

[Tony jinxy froude]

In an ideal world i would love to see the club rent a large area & buy some of these megga cheap cars up & store them for the future of the spares scene & future restoration projects, but as i say that would have been in an ideal world , Jinxy

[crazylegs]

its the same old problem storage and collection costs. i am sure there are loads of people that would lend a hand at a restoration but where would you keep it ?

[oukie]

Dont look at me Tony

I know Ive got the room but I think 4 is enough at the mo.

[Pete]

I restored one pretty much like that (maybe worse actually), just for the sake of doing the project.

Was very pleased with myself that I had saved a scrapyard bound MK1 I had the same problems with space though, so it had to go once finished.

[crazylegs]

so whos got a nice big barn they dont use ?

[SuperRedMR2]

Chris i've been in your barn, you know u've got at least room for another three

[crazylegs]

hmm, thats interesting.

[Jim-SR]

if the arches are that rusty then il guarantee there is much worse lurking beneath body trim and where the eyes cant see

ive owned 3 MR2's. one was tatty on the outside but not bad. it had bubbling on arches, but nothing too major. but when stripped apart and tapped with a hammer in the right places there was rot in the sills, floor, front ARB mount area, back of rear arches, front of rear arches, and thats just the stuff i found, there would have been much more

my spares car has rust in most of the same places, again, you wouldnt have known about most of it without taking significant amounts of stuff off of the car

and finally, my current car which i am in the process of fixing, was mint. it had a full "restoration" about 18 months before i bought it. some new panels, lots of welding, a full strip down and rebuild and an awesome respray. i bought it from a friend (so know the history of the restoration and what exactly was done), started tearing it down, found out that the company that did it were cowboys and bodged most of it together with filler and didnt treat the rust underneath properly. and i found rust in all the usual places. however on this car i have stripped it to a bare shell, something i hadnt done on the others (and something that very few people do), and there is rust in places that i never even knew were culprits for it!! front chassis legs, rear chassis legs, drain channels below front windscreen, area in front of the doors (links to drain channels), etc. the rust is everywhere! and this isnt a bad car. it had some shoddy repairs, but the rust isnt bad at all relative to most other examples of the same age, it just isnt as mint as i beleived it would be.

on cars that are visibly rotten in small photographs, there is going to be horrendous amounts of rot in the places you cant see. and you probably wont ever find out about it until its too late to ever fix it, and by then youve ploughed £1000 into the car! whilst i know this wont go down too well, mk1 MR2's arent really a classic car, they arent worth enough money to restore them. if the shell isnt in good condition to begin with (and you can pick them up for less than a grand with only minor rust) then you might as well just scrap it. there are plenty of good ones around to not bother with the bad ones. and IMO the car isnt classic enough, and never will be, to warrant the expense of fixing up the bad ones just to keep them on the road. just buy another one!

[crazylegs]

see thats why we love the mr2 for the varied opinions of people. i think a grand to fix up a sherwood would be money well spent. as for not a classic. this car was ground breaking in its day and still holds its own now. if no one saves them now what will be left to reach classic status ? what constitutes a classic? its all in the eyeand mind of the beholder.

[Mk1 Turbo Powered Steve]

I agree Kev, these cars are getting to classic status
There are too many being scraped that could be saved and being raced
I enjoy watching the cars racing but it does seem a shame that sometimes even with a slight knock, they are being disposed of
Great for spare parts but not good for keeping the dream alive