British Columbia MR2 Owners Group

ive got a set of 215/45r17 on the front of my 2. they rubbed the underside of the strut for a bit but wore them selves in. those tires are huge on the car.

Just a bit of an update. The biggest thing this winter is that I had the lower panels of the car color matched to the crimson red body color. front end was backed into with tow hitch so it was fixed too via insurance. i've always liked the front bumper not disturbed with the plate frame holes all the way across. changed the clear jdm corners with the euro ones. 93 lip thanks for msaw11




Here is what I've been working on recently. hopefully just one more week until these are on.

This is just a mock-up. Faces currently getting powdercoated still.

The painting of the lower rockers really updates the car! It will look great with those wheels. What colour are you powdercoating them? Pink, lime green, bright yellow for a McD's theme?

I think pink suits me.

Nah, powdercoating them silver with metallic clear. Hopefully in time for revscene spring meet.

Self-present for my birthday:

98 knob and brand new ashtray!

Oh, I thought you were referring to the geeky Domo... that other stuff is nice too I guess....

wow I suck at "build" threads.

and previous post photo didn't seem to fit well...let's try again:


along with other stuff now:
tried out the chrome oem 15s for a few weeks while my wheels got repainted:


ended up with piano white on the wheels with new thinner tires for absolutely zero rub. i don't like messing with the fenders or the camber, so I guess a tiny bit of stretch will do. 205/40 and 235/40 on 8 and 9 wide. looks no different from my 215/245 stagger before, but got rid of all the rubbing issues before.


Boyd finally fixed the bumper to a more acceptable color. It matches very well in some light, but not so much in others. For 20 year old paint, I'm satisfied this time around:


more jdm goodies and little interior bits. sub grille with the fancy writing

some fun at autocross meant extra wear and tear on my 2, and the first to go is the clutch. so with the help of miguel, russ, and minna, off came the transmission, cleaned up, parts arrived, and as of yesterday, the transmission is bolted back onto the car.

original slave cylinder vs. Aisin one. safe to say that it's the exact same part!

clean up of the trans:
before:


after:


the pile of new parts:
Southbend Stage 1, ARP bolts, Aisin slave cylinder, various Toyota OEM bits such as TO bearing, axle seals, rear main

safe to say that it was done.

got the alternator rebuilt at Edmond's (great service/guys btw) as well as it made sense to get this done at the same time. at 147k it was working just fine, but preventative maintenance goes a long way

flywheel and arp bolts in

clutch/pplate in

Of course we must do the engine bay photo.

winter mods have been quite slow but here's a few things:


berk exhaust, v3, the canisters have a bracket across them now, preventing cracking.


omori in-cluster boost gauge!

next thing will be timing belt/water pump maintenance, followed by A/C install.

Do you know if that boost gauge works with the dash fader?

Cam told me to stay away from those Omori gauges as the innards break easily.

Summer will be here shortly, so you'd better get cracking on that AC install!

Don't forget your 2 bent wheels lol!

Over the last few years, I've wanted to do a target area on the car. Something mechanically and something cosmetically. After the partial paint + clutch in 2014, this has been ongoing since.

In 2015, I put together the entire A/C system from part outs and did a complete 93 brake upgrade.
slotted cheap rotors, porterfield r4s pads, 93+ dust shields with the air duct (not in photo), and ATE fluid.


Cosmetically, I swapped to euro markers and purchased the entire hardware kit for the front lip. It only took about 2 years for the 93 lip to weigh down the bumper and start sagging so it was time. Below at the bottom, above up top.


In 2016 the mechanical project was timing belt side. OEM everything - tb, wp, oil pump gaskets, both cam seals (total bitch to do in car), crank seal, tensioner, accessory belts. I was dumb to do this AFTER installing a/c. This was okay though since I replaced the compressor due to noise to a 94+ R134a compressor. The whole job took 4 days, 3 of those days were trying to remove the crank pulley bolt. I tried every trick but in the end it was a 20gal air compressor, pumped that sucker up to 120psi + ingersollrand gun + 5lb weighted socket that did the job.




Minor repairs were done to the sway bar mounting point in the front (thanks to kakucaekz's dad @ Acutech Auto) and added a reinforcement plate



Then cosmetically, the car got a genuine 94 trunk lid and spoiler. No need to fill holes in the trunk! Temporary red paint (as it was white) just to last the summer.


2017 rolled around and mechanically, this was tough. This was the year where I experienced the never ending "well I'm in there anyway" spiral.
It was something like this for me:
- Install new downpipe
- Might as well do HFH and HFHOE
- Find that turbo has shaft play so bad that the compressor housing is scuffed. Send turbo out for rebuild
- Might as well remove exhaust manifold and replace leaky manifold gasket
- Breaks one stud in head. linger on it for weeks then decide to drill and tap head.
- with manifold off, might as well replace the coolant hoses that go under the distributor
- ends up replacing every single coolant hose all the way around the head all the way to the back of the block under the intake manifold.

I did end up with a sweet 46 trim billet wheel ct26 upgrade from Spectrum Motorsports here locally. Hits full spool nearly identical to stock, say 100-200rpm difference, but it hits harder and holds boost way farther than stock.


Cosmetically, my car got hit in a hit and run, destroyed my wheels. Car was sent in for a rear half paint job. Bumper and side vent was insurance paid, and I wanted to paint the trunk/spoiler as well, so "might as well" fill the holes in the quarters and paint the quarters+roof. Thanks to Ross Dunnet and Destination Toyota.

Nice write up to document all the hard work. I know all about the “might as well” list too