Hi everyone! My name is Minna...But I'm sure you want to know more about my car instead
This is my N/A MK1 MR2. I picked it for $500, not running, up from a guy who had to let it sit for about 5-8 years (about 4 months outside after his shed was demolished) because he'd started a family, and opted for a SmartCar instead. You can imagine the shape she was in. And if you can't, here's a few photos!
Yes, that is rat poop. Would you believe it if I told you that the original floormats turned out fluffy after some intense vacuuming? Because they're still fluffy!
She came with 156k, "Supercharged" doors, and a nice Ferrari logo in lieu of the MR2 screaming chicken. (Not to mention a lifetime's supply of snails (dead and alive), dirt, and rat poop.)
Over the last few months, my boyfriend and I've cleaned the car, changed the sparkplugs (one was so stubborn that I have it in my room as a keepsake now--that's how bad it was), alternator, 2/4 wheels (it still has the 1985 spare donut, haha), and changed the oil and got new gas. We still have to do the timing belt and water pump, and it still has a small screech sound when you start the car.
Cleaning the car out involved removing 10lbs of weird wiring (mostly for the alarm/sound system), including two network cables wired to the ECU for reasons unknown. We took them out and the car still starts, so we're assuming it wasn't essential...
(This was not the worst of it)
Also found out why the heater wasn't working and made weird sounds when started....
I am SO glad it was not a dead mouse, as we'd initially suspected.
Kakucaekz and my boyfriend changed my shifter to a 93+ shifter+drop plate+trd shift knob. They keep blaming each other, so I'm not sure who's at fault for the "secret" colour
There's also a GIANT hole in the exhaust. Which would matter, if it were connected to the muffler (excuse me if I'm not using the correct terms, I'm still getting used to my automotive jargon!), due to the thorough rusting in the pipes. Will be replacing that with an OEM exhaust soon
I'm hating the obnoxiously loud exhaust, but when you rev it, my boyfriend says it's strangely addicting.
The brakes are also extremely sticky. We're assuming it's from sitting too long, because when we drove the car for a bit one of the brakes started smoking pretty badly. Going to be doing a brakes job in attempts to fix that.
That's all I can think of for now, but I'll update later as I remember/as we progress.
Here's some more recent photos of her...
Before cut-polish-wax
After cut-polish-wax (not completed, though. Worked mostly on the rear end, as that had the most paint damage)
Sorry about the lack of better naturally lit photos for the after cut-polish photos; the sun was always down by the time we finished polishing/waxing, lol.
So proud of how far she's come :') Can't wait for the summer!