Bravo 5's 89 Supercharged Restoration Project
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2016 11:10 pm
Inspired by Don's 87 restoration project write up I thought I would do the same.
After many years of looking for a mint 1989 Supercharged I realized I wasn't going to find that gem (again). I still kick myself for passing up two super mint time capsule barn finds over the years. I passed on one because I had just bought my 85 and the other one I passed on because it was in Quebec. The one in Quebec only had 26,000km on it and last heard is that it had possibly been exported to Denmark?? I recently met a guy in Vancouver who had an 89 supercharged with only 6,000km on it. At first I thought the odometer was rolled back or disconnected but when I saw inside it looked like the seats had never been sat in... I figured it was probably legitimately at 6000k. Problem was he wanted $28,000 for it.
I picked up this white 89 Supercharged from a guy who had it stored in an airplane hangar in Pitt Meadows. He had recently taken the side skirts off to look for rust and found none whatsoever. There were a couple of small surface rust spots on the fenders but nothing more that I could find. It was all stock except the radio and wheels. This car was as close to mint as I was going to find and in the colour that I wanted so I bought it with the intention of restoring it and getting over the biggest hurdle of a true MKIB restoration... finding or custom making the pin stripe set. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm only slightly OCD when it comes my MR2s. I've been an MR2 owner since 1992 so I know what I like.
The paints looks ok in the pictures but it's a matter of "good from far, far from good".
Rust spots. Not bad at all. Before I actually bought it I text these pictures to Wing to make sure he could fix it. Later when it was stripped down Wing found no rust anywhere else. The rust spots that were on it was only on the surface and easily fixed.
There were alot of little things that needed to be addressed. Like this bezel that was originally blue but painted black. A very good paint job but it was scratching off. And the radio bezel was OEM but it was a late model bezel where Toyota changed the texture of the material used. The original bezels in the 80s were a shiny smooth faux leather. The newer ones are flat black and pebbled like this one. Even though it was an OEM part it would need to be changed for that authentic 80s Toyota look.
I bought it and the next day dropped it off at Wing's for paint (Toyota White 043). Wing only paints one way... properly with the car stripped down. The only thing that was masked off other than the interior was the side door moldings since they are long discontinued and can't be reproduced since the pin striping is embedded inside the molding. During painting I had him install a new windshield molding because once he takes it out it won't go back in nicely. I also bought a complete set of TwosRUs restoration decals and rubber gaskets... front air dam, side skirts, side vent, turn signals, rear tail lights and C pillar. All the parts from TwosRUs are top quality.
Rubber gaskets
I got these in trade from Duncan. There's no point in restoring a car if you're not going to restore the wheels.
Then of course the long discontinued pin stripes... and what I think really makes the MR2 pop. There is a pin stripe kit available from a guy here in Canada as well as a guy in the UK (I think they're selling the same kit actually) but the problem with that kit is that it's made up of 3 separate stripes instead of being screen printed onto one piece of clear tape like OEM. Those stripes are also too thick and spaced too far apart and since they're all separate they can be easily scratched or peeled off. This detail I couldn't yield on. Without the stripes MR2s look too washed out... too white, too black or too red. The stripes break up the colour and scream mid 80s. In fact, if I couldn't find someone who could make a factory OEM correct reproduction, I was going just sell the car! I couldn't live without the correct pin stripes or with the aftermarket set that I've seen. Price was no object if they were OEM correct. I could only find a print shop in Edmonton that would do it and after several months of back and forth we finally got the colour right. I used a digital caliper to measure the stripes that I had on the car currently so I could get an accurate reproduction of thickness and spacing.
First run. Looks ok for stripe thickness and spacing between stripes but it was too dark.
Second run was too light and not enough metallic in it.
Finally got it right. My bumper stripe colour was slightly different from the side stripes probably due to being replaced at some point and a different dye lot as well as age and sun exposure. So I used a side molding as the colour template as it's much less likely to deviate colour-wise from the stripes and the new stripes would match it and therefore the entire car. $700 later and this is what I got...
The chicken is still available from Toyota. I had Wing take measurements of all the stripes and their placement before sanding the car down. Gotta be OEM exact!
I paid a princely sum for a working OEM antenna mast but it was worth it.
Replaced my ripped up leather seats with these excellent condition cloth seats. Now I just have to find mint leather seats or mint cloth door cards to match.
More to come....
After many years of looking for a mint 1989 Supercharged I realized I wasn't going to find that gem (again). I still kick myself for passing up two super mint time capsule barn finds over the years. I passed on one because I had just bought my 85 and the other one I passed on because it was in Quebec. The one in Quebec only had 26,000km on it and last heard is that it had possibly been exported to Denmark?? I recently met a guy in Vancouver who had an 89 supercharged with only 6,000km on it. At first I thought the odometer was rolled back or disconnected but when I saw inside it looked like the seats had never been sat in... I figured it was probably legitimately at 6000k. Problem was he wanted $28,000 for it.
I picked up this white 89 Supercharged from a guy who had it stored in an airplane hangar in Pitt Meadows. He had recently taken the side skirts off to look for rust and found none whatsoever. There were a couple of small surface rust spots on the fenders but nothing more that I could find. It was all stock except the radio and wheels. This car was as close to mint as I was going to find and in the colour that I wanted so I bought it with the intention of restoring it and getting over the biggest hurdle of a true MKIB restoration... finding or custom making the pin stripe set. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm only slightly OCD when it comes my MR2s. I've been an MR2 owner since 1992 so I know what I like.
The paints looks ok in the pictures but it's a matter of "good from far, far from good".
Rust spots. Not bad at all. Before I actually bought it I text these pictures to Wing to make sure he could fix it. Later when it was stripped down Wing found no rust anywhere else. The rust spots that were on it was only on the surface and easily fixed.
There were alot of little things that needed to be addressed. Like this bezel that was originally blue but painted black. A very good paint job but it was scratching off. And the radio bezel was OEM but it was a late model bezel where Toyota changed the texture of the material used. The original bezels in the 80s were a shiny smooth faux leather. The newer ones are flat black and pebbled like this one. Even though it was an OEM part it would need to be changed for that authentic 80s Toyota look.
I bought it and the next day dropped it off at Wing's for paint (Toyota White 043). Wing only paints one way... properly with the car stripped down. The only thing that was masked off other than the interior was the side door moldings since they are long discontinued and can't be reproduced since the pin striping is embedded inside the molding. During painting I had him install a new windshield molding because once he takes it out it won't go back in nicely. I also bought a complete set of TwosRUs restoration decals and rubber gaskets... front air dam, side skirts, side vent, turn signals, rear tail lights and C pillar. All the parts from TwosRUs are top quality.
Rubber gaskets
I got these in trade from Duncan. There's no point in restoring a car if you're not going to restore the wheels.
Then of course the long discontinued pin stripes... and what I think really makes the MR2 pop. There is a pin stripe kit available from a guy here in Canada as well as a guy in the UK (I think they're selling the same kit actually) but the problem with that kit is that it's made up of 3 separate stripes instead of being screen printed onto one piece of clear tape like OEM. Those stripes are also too thick and spaced too far apart and since they're all separate they can be easily scratched or peeled off. This detail I couldn't yield on. Without the stripes MR2s look too washed out... too white, too black or too red. The stripes break up the colour and scream mid 80s. In fact, if I couldn't find someone who could make a factory OEM correct reproduction, I was going just sell the car! I couldn't live without the correct pin stripes or with the aftermarket set that I've seen. Price was no object if they were OEM correct. I could only find a print shop in Edmonton that would do it and after several months of back and forth we finally got the colour right. I used a digital caliper to measure the stripes that I had on the car currently so I could get an accurate reproduction of thickness and spacing.
First run. Looks ok for stripe thickness and spacing between stripes but it was too dark.
Second run was too light and not enough metallic in it.
Finally got it right. My bumper stripe colour was slightly different from the side stripes probably due to being replaced at some point and a different dye lot as well as age and sun exposure. So I used a side molding as the colour template as it's much less likely to deviate colour-wise from the stripes and the new stripes would match it and therefore the entire car. $700 later and this is what I got...
The chicken is still available from Toyota. I had Wing take measurements of all the stripes and their placement before sanding the car down. Gotta be OEM exact!
I paid a princely sum for a working OEM antenna mast but it was worth it.
Replaced my ripped up leather seats with these excellent condition cloth seats. Now I just have to find mint leather seats or mint cloth door cards to match.
More to come....