My 91T

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My 91T

Postby entrax » Fri Jun 14, 2013 5:37 pm

Hey guys, I've been wanting to get into MR2s for a few months and I finally got one. I've had 3 ST162 Celicas so I'm familiar with 3S motors. My girlfriend (msaw11) bought her AW11 a few months ago and we've been able to pass inspections/emissions and register her car for the first time in 8 years last week. I've been hanging around kakucaekz and his white 91T and m_b who recently just posted his yellow 92 as well, so it was pretty easy for me to want one of my own.

Here's the car I sold prior to getting my deuce:
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1987 Celica GT-S with an OEM GT-Four front end, 3SGE, 5 speed.

So my car is a 1991 Turbo, 3J6 Crimson Red, 117k km's in almost stock condition. Previous owner knew about mr2s and he bought it to replace the broken steering rack. It was owned from new (20km) up until 90k km's in 2008 by a lady locally here in Vancouver. She's left a stack of receipts just shy of the original bill of sale. The closest I have is the ECP Toyota sells for a new car. Car runs great, boosts great, nothing wrong except for a clunk on the front passenger side, perhaps a bolt/bracket not tight enough from the rack replacement. Aircare went great, 0 for HC, 0 for CO and 1ppm for NOx. Hybrid MR2 anyone? It does need a good polish as it's been sitting outside, red paint doesn't like that!

Only mods are rolled rear fenders, eibach springs, and Advan Super Racing (v1) wheels. seems to be a nice fit, 16x7 in front, 16x8 in the back. The car also came with stock 14s, along with rare OEM chrome 15s.

Future plans:
-Change the springs to Tein/TRD as I still have a pretty big wheel gap. it's going to be a daily (for now) so I won't go to coilovers yet.
-94 tails, front lip, wing (can't decide between 94 or 98 wing)
-Repaint to original Crimson Red

First pic I took of the car:
Image
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Re: My 91T

Postby RePete » Fri Jun 14, 2013 7:56 pm

Nice find, sounds like a sweet one. Looking forward to the pics.

And just like I posted in m_b's yellow deuce thread, skip the coil-overs. They're a waste of time putting a cheap Chinese product on a beautiful high quality Japanese car. You will never have a shittier set of shocks (except if you went with Monroe Image). If the PO only replaced the springs, chances are your original shocks are needing replacement too. Go for Bilstein or Koni shocks if possible, they make a world of difference in your handling attitude. I keep coming back to them even after owning 4 sets (on 4 deuces).

One more thing, 3J6 polishes up really nice - same as Super White. If you're not down to bare metal anywhere, you CAN revive it with a light but firm cut-polish and some wax, it worked for me, took some time but it's worth it. 90s Toyota stage one integrated paints (with clear coat mixed in) like 3J6 have a lot of life in them so long as there's something to work with. Try it first before you spend 3 or 4 large on new paint.

I won't post a pic of my ride here because it's your thread, but if you saw how shiny I got my Crimson Red paint, you'd fall down like this guy. Image
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Re: My 91T

Postby immorality » Fri Jun 14, 2013 8:40 pm

Sounds nice, I'm looking forward to pics! Pete's right about the paint, it takes time because it's quite hard, but it's also thicker than most new cars, so with some patience and hard work it will look beautiful.
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Re: My 91T

Postby entrax » Sat Jun 15, 2013 12:45 am

thanks guys, the po has put in a new set of kyb gr2s with the eibachs, but he's tossing in a set of tein springs. i'll see how i like them with the gr2s for now.
koni yellows are definitely on the list in the future, but based on how i feel about agx's after 30k km's on them, i might just get those on for now on the cheap.

the paint is going to get quite a treatment next week, i'm banking on its low mileage that the body hasn't been polished a lot. please do post your crimson red, i want some inspiration. msaw11 and i have brought back her 3R3 red so far, but swirls haven't been dealt with.

as for the car itself, i do have some electrical issues. perhaps sticking relays as everything looks stock.
- when i start the car, it's supposed to be DRL fogs+parking lights AFTER i release the handbrake, but it's turning on those PLUS my interior illumination (dash/radio/hvac/blablabla) as soon as i start the car. basically it's as if it's permanently switching the headlight stalk into parking light mode as soon as the engine is on, but if the engine is off, ignition key on any setting, it works as normal.

- after pressing the hazard lights on say to pull over, then use my signals to merge back into traffic, sometimes the signals won't light up at all. i have to turn on and off the hazard lights again to get the signals to work.

i'll have a look at the wiring diagrams and see if i can trace it, and probably browse the forums well enough to understand where to ask for diagnoses
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Re: My 91T

Postby kakucaekz » Sat Jun 15, 2013 1:03 am

Forgot to mention that you bought it from Tony, haha.

Also:

Image
Dalton
1991 MR2 Turbo - Summer toy
1992 Acura Integra GSR - Winter/daily/passenger car
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Re: My 91T

Postby RePete » Sat Jun 15, 2013 8:06 am

entrax wrote:...please do post your crimson red, i want some inspiration...
OK, but I warned you. Image

This is an unmodified photo from last year just after a cut polish & wax (only modification was overwriting the license number). I'm one of those few who has no clue about still image manipulation (videos, that's another story). It was early evening so the sun was just at a nice angle. I managed to get that 'wet' look for most of the summer. A dedicated initial cut-polish is the most important, then waxing afterwards (off the shelf stuff, no exotic waxes needed, as long as it's Carnauba wax). It took me about a month to get it looking like this (mostly because I was working in stages and I only had so much time). Always kept indoors to avoid oxidation, even at work.
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Re: My 91T

Postby entrax » Sat Jun 15, 2013 10:23 am

oh tony was on this forum before? yeh, it was tony's for a while.

wow, that paint looks amazing!! my friend's newly acquired faded red miata has been brought back using:
turtle wax polishing compound, mother's scratch remover, followed by meguiar's ultimate compound. i'm fairly new to detailing as my previous cars all i ever got to do was dealing with rust. any thoughts on that
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Re: My 91T

Postby RePete » Sun Jun 16, 2013 12:58 am

entrax wrote:...and Advan Super Racing (v1) wheels. seems to be a nice fit, 16x7 in front, 16x8 in the back...
Small world, the local MR2 scene that is. Now I remember those wheels, they were originally on my car when I first bought it. I sold them a couple of years ago to Joe's friend (can't recall his name). If I remember, they were equipped with two relatively rare tire sizes: 215/45-16 front, 245/45-16s out back.

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Re: My 91T

Postby entrax » Fri Jun 21, 2013 12:23 pm

RePete wrote:
entrax wrote:...and Advan Super Racin (v1) wheels. seems to be a nice fit, 16x7 in front, 16x8 in the back...
Small world, the local MR2 scene that is. Now I remember those wheels, they were originally on my car when I first bought it. I sold them a couple of years ago to Joe's friend (can't recall his name). If I remember, they were equipped with two relatively rare tire sizes: 215/45-16 front, 245/45-16s out back.

Image


Right you are! And in that picture is still the same distinguishable falken azenis tread pattern that's still on this. Nice to see that it's had action!
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Re: My 91T

Postby entrax » Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:04 pm

So fast forward a couple of months, I thought to fill you guys in on what I've been up to with my car.

I've just been driving it, enjoying the heck out of it. No pictures for this, but I went over the whole car in an attempt to find any rust spots. The rear fenders have been rolled and it seems that not enough heat was used. I sanded those down and repainted it, as well as any surface spots I could find in the wheel wells. That should keep this car rust free for a long time to come. The jack stand rails were a little bent here and there and rust was starting to form, so it was treated with some sandpaper, rust converter and primered over. With my celica being a sufferer of metal cancer, I didn't want this car to suffer the same fate.

There has been a lot of polishing on this car (coming from the pic on the first post), not the best pic, but it sort of shines now
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Found that this was broken..
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Experimenting with some LEDs (fighting the hotspots)
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Got rid of the stock deck in favour of my trusty 3 year old bluetooth deck. Along with a 93 Paseo cup holder, finished with a single din cubby trimmed to a half din.
No shortcuts were taken in doing this job, the factory 14 pin harness is still there, but I've added the factory 15 pin harness to it. I can simply unplug this aftermarket deck and plug in the stock deck. Also, by doing this, I retained the use of my stock amp, speaker outputs, and stock sub.
Image

mb has the other half of this bar, but here's the other half
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morimoto projectors from my celica + lexus yellow capsules for fogs (i've retained the cutoff shield...properly) + clear corners
Image

finally picked up the rest of the items from tonyq, among them being chromed 15" wheels
Image

and won some lugnuts from Neo Motorsports from their giveaway at the Summer Revscene meet
Image
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Re: My 91T

Postby entrax » Mon Sep 30, 2013 11:58 pm

pretty excited to hear that bridgestone has released their potenza re-11 in my rear tire size! 245/45/16!

looks like i'll be keeping my wheels for a bit longer. i'll be doing some work on them this winter. i'm not a fan of the black face...i'm thinking gunmetal. any thoughts?
the bridgestone re11 also has a decent front tire size. 205/45/16 f and 245/45/16 r seems good for next summer
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Re: My 91T

Postby RePete » Wed Oct 02, 2013 12:18 pm

Gun metal is nice but silver is timeless. Good stuff about the RE-11s, that's big news. I think they're starting to listen to the heartache of owners, my rare front 225/45-16 is now made in the Dunlop ZIIs which I bought last Spring - previously there was nothing but junk in that size.

A 205/245 stagger is a bit much, in the rain especially. But I find if you have it long enough you get used to it. Still, look for your car to plow some and have less neutrality.
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Re: My 91T

Postby entrax » Wed Oct 02, 2013 2:10 pm

i like the 215/245 currently actually, i don't know what's better, a similar to stock stagger of +30 (trying to simulate the 93+ spec) by going with different brands f/r or going +40 stagger to get tires in the same brand.

how's your fitment with the 225/45s in the front? offset? when turning right full lock i already hit my right side fender liner closest towards the passenger door.

i am going for more of a timeless look...thanks for the advice!
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Re: My 91T

Postby RePete » Wed Oct 02, 2013 7:02 pm

I would not mix tire brands. I find they are fine for a DD, but as soon as you want any sort of performance then it becomes unsatisfying and unpredictable (especially if you drive a deuce with all 4 the same brand right afterwards).

If you're rubbing anywhere near the fender with 215/45-16 then your wheel offset is a bit low - it's a simple as that. I've got fatter and slightly taller tires than that and they don't rub on stock suspension. I'm sporting 16x7 +33 in front. When your wheels were on my car they didn't rub because the PO had dialed in his coil-overs (since ditched) to very firm - so the tires never got a chance to rub the fender.
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Re: My 91T

Postby entrax » Fri Oct 04, 2013 1:41 pm

i'm not rubbing on the fender, just the liner towards the back of the tire at full lock. maybe something is loose there as it's a recent thing i've noticed and it's only on one side.

i hope there's more availability in tire sizes next spring, otherwise i still have another year or two with the current fronts.
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