This is actually a thread I started on Twobrutal editted slightly for this site, so if you've read it before that's why!I bought my MR2 about 3 years ago for the pricey sum of
£75 from a guy who lived in the same apartment block. It had a 'problem' with the cooling system that kept causing it to overheat, 6 weeks of tax and a 2 months of MOT on it, and my plan was to drive it like I stole it until it either blew up or the tax ran out, and then try to reclaim my investment from the scrap man.As you can see, the overheating problem was kind of catastrophic but I just kept a few 5 litre bottles of water in the boot and would just fill it up and carry on.
As long as I stayed local it was fine, and anyway I had an XR3 with a Zetec engine in it so I would take that if I wanted to go further afield. The car was also covered in dents, had a wing mirror hanging off, a hole in the rear bumper and the interior had more rips and fag burns than a late night train carriage. In other words a right mess, but I figured there was £75 worth of fun to be had with it.
Anyway, eventually the tax did run out and I stuck it in one of the parking spaces at the apartments intending to get rid of it, but something about it just wouldn't let me send it to the squash.
That was when I discovered this site and first considered putting a V6 in. Grand plans and all that, it sat there for another 3-4 months whilst I 'got around to it'. I had all the facilities to do the conversion and the mechanical know how, but I just didn't have the time to commit to getting it done.Enter Paul Woods and Woodsport.
Paul's offer of a drive-in, drive-out conversion for 3-and-a-bit grand was too tempting to pass up so in April 2009 I borrowed my Dad's old Volvo estate that he uses to ferry his tools around for his gardening business, hired a trailer, and started a long and slow drive 350-odd miles North to Woodsport.
I'm sure it must be one of the tattiest cars that Paul has ever converted to V6, but he was happy to do it.
I also bought a uk-spec leather interior off a guy on mr2oc who kindly delivered it to Paul's and fitted it all for me. 6 weeks later I picked it up and couldn't have been happier. I put a set of Enkei 16" wheels on the car, but it stayed in the battered condition for a year or more - the perfect stealth car. The only real cosmetic mods were the rev3 rear lights, HID conversion and smoked front indicators. By that time the XR3 had been stored away for a rainy day so the MR2 was my daily driver. I even took it down to Le Mans in 2009 - here it is on the french autoroute somewhere outside Rouen.
Anyway, a year or so passed and I decided I was getting too old to be driving tatty cars and that I should take the plunge and buy myself a sensible daily that I could turn up to client's sites and offices in and park in the car park.
Much as I loved the MR2, especially due to the tatty looks and the worry-free attitude to parking I had at the time it just didn't create the right impression. So, £35k later and I had a nice shiney 18 month old Audi A6 Le Mans to ferry me around during the week.
Now that could be the end of the story, but in actual fact it's only the beginning as the car was now a weekend toy rather than a necessity for daily transport which meant I was a lot happier pulling it apart.
I'd also recently moved house and acquired a double garage which was even more reason to get the spanners out. The car got treated to a set of K-Sport coilovers, a HiSpec 320mm brake conversion with 4-pots on the front and spaced calipers on the rear, and a GReddy front lip. I also bought a Hayward and Scott full tubular exhaust off a guy from TB who was breaking a Ferrari replica, and bought a few small carbon bits for it - headlight covers, inspection panels, rear light centre, etc - just so those who spotted them would realise it was ratty on purpose. Well, that's how I justified it to myself anyway!
The only slight problem I had was that when I went to put my Enkei's back on they wouldn't clear the new brake kit, so some 17's were required.
Having just spent out for the brake kit I had to spend as little as possible so a quick look on the 'for sale' board and I found a set of Basel Starform wheels in gold with a fair few kerb scars that had been for sale for a while and made a silly offer on them.
I thought I'd just keep them until pay day but having put them on the car I quite liked the gold so they ended up staying.
I also managed to pick up a genuine Autopista spoiler which I'd been after for a while and that's how the car stayed for that summer, although I gave in to pressure from the other half and took the Audi to Le Mans that year!The car got put away for the Winter just a few hours before the tax ran out at the end of October.
These two pics were taken just as I was parking it up in my lockup having had a great summer of t-top down, v6 powered motoring.
I got on with my XR2 project over the Winter whilst the MR2 was stored safely away.
Being 6'3, the MR2 isn't the best car for me with the roof on so I don't tend to take it out unless the weather permits the t-bars to be off. And yes, I do mean XR2 - the XR3 will wait a couple more years before it gets it's shot at the restoration limelight!For those that are interested, here's the XR2, which is currently on a long appointment at my fabricator's workshop having 25 years worth of rot cut out and replaced!
But back to the MR2, the story starts again in the early Spring of this year when I dragged it out from it's winter hiding place.
I decided it was high time that it had the looks to match the V6 power. I also wanted to fit a turbo gearbox with LSD which meant changing the shafts and hubs too, so I figured I might as well drop the whole engine and give that a bit of a clean up too. So the strip down began:
A pair of Cusco strut braces
- front and rear - were aquired around that time too, and off it went to my mate's paint shop. Here it is in primer.
Whilst it was away I gave the engine a good clean up and fitted a Fidanza aluminium flywheel.
I also stripped the Camry engine loom right back to the bare essentials, despite being told not to by many people. Electrics are one of the bits I 'get' on cars so it didn't phase me at all!
Here's a first shot of the car with the two colours laid down.
It was waiting for lacquer at the time. My mate paints cars in a crash repair place during the day but does cash work from a lockup at night. Considering he painted it in the barn you see in the pictures the result is fantastic, certainly on a par with work that has cost me twice as much in the past.
The colour, by the way, is Roulette Green which is from a Triumph motorbike but also used as an special finish on Caterham R500's.
I originally wanted Utimate Green from the latest Focus RS, but after discussion with Ash the painter the extra work in laying down a three stage pearl just wasn't worth it when the Triumph version was so close. It's a difficult colour to photograph and always looks much lighter than it actually is, but most people do assume it's the Ford colour. Quite often I don't bother correcting them, it's that close!Here is is the first day it was back from the paint shop:
I wasted no time getting it up in the air and getting the engine and box back in, then started reassembling all the body parts that I had stripped off for the repaint.
Engine back in place.
The cam covers are purple because Paul put me on the spot to choose something when the V6 was installed. They actually look alright with the green, but I'll probably have them redone at some point to match the bodywork.
Pushed outside for the first time to bleed the cooling system.
Notice the wheels have been refinished in black powder coat - a far better match with the paint that the original gold. Who would have thought those wheels could look so good! BJV Engineering (www.wheelrefurbishing.com) did a great job on them.
Time was against me at that point because I wanted to take the car to Le Mans 2011, but a few days later following the arrival of a large shipment of carbon fibre panels, I had a finished MR2.
I managed to put 350 miles on it before leaving for France, but it made it there and back with only a couple of minor issues. Here's a couple of finished shots.
So, next steps.
.. well when Steve at Edge Interiors put his retrimmed green and black leather seats up for sale I could hardly turn him down, except I got a bit carried away and ordered a complete set of alcantara panels too, all finished in green stitching. Steve is beavering away at them as I type, I hope!As for the modifications for next year, well, I've just acquired this.
You all know what it is, so I'll say no more on that subject for now! 
So there we have it.
Comments, questions, feedback etc welcomed!Cheers, Chris
